ARmy Rumour SErvice

Tankfest at Bovington today, 14.00hrs, Salute to the chieftain, 8 different marks of Chieftain to be paraded in the area simultaneously, rumour has it that Coral are offering 11/2 on all 8 treaking down during the display!

gudun

It's today???? ............... I forgot to write down the date. Horlicks.

All made it around without a hitch yesterday. Tiger ran well also



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Originally Posted by aghart

Tankfest at Bovington today, 14.00hrs, Salute to the chieftain, 8 different marks of Chieftain to be paraded in the area simultaneously, rumour has it that Coral are offering 11/2 on all 8 breaking down during the display!

Fixed for you. No charge.

A great day out, I met friends from 1 RTR at Hamworthy train station and travelled to Wool. Huge crowds there again this year, Feeling peckish I went for a burger after which I saw the Paella outlet, then the hog roast outlet both of which made my burger look rubbish. The beer tent was very efficient and not suprisingly we did spent quite a bit of time in or around this location. Actually if truth be told we spent most of our time in or around the beer tent. The beer tent was also the entertainment venue, with a fantastic (young) female trio called the D Day darlings. they were in WAAF uniform, 1940's hairstyles, and very sexy.

Homefront

See the above link. they are also on U tube. Vehicle demonstrations included Saracen and Saladin early on which brought back memories of Omagh, In the afternoon we forced ourselves away from the beer tent for the salute to Chieftain!. 8 marks of Chieftain on the arena at the same time. Slightly disappointing as we thought that eight gun tanks would be there. sadly no! it should have said 8 Chieftains and Chieftain variants. 3 gun tanks plus bridgelayer, recovery vehicle, AVRE, a turretless driver training version and one other that escapes me.

This was followed by Khalid/Shir1 and then Challenger 1. All around the re-enactment groups, dressed in German, US, British and Russian uniforms and appropriate WWII vehicles and equipment were showing off their stuff. The mock up WWI tank used in the film Warhorse was there and really did look the part. A chap was telling a bunch of civvies all about life as a WWI tank crewman, I had a smug look on my face as I had crewed the real thing in 1984 for the TV series "Soldiers".

I knew I'd had a couple of beers, as I bought both a T shirt and Polo shirt from the RTR Associaion caravan. Sadly I have had to accept that size Medium are now somewhat "smaller" than they used to be and due to this failing on other peoples part I have had to go for size "L"

The weather was very kind, dry and mostly sunny, I have got a sunburned head, due to long periods in the ouside seating area by the beer tent.

A great day out. I am very fortunate to live so near to Bovington and to get a free veterans pass to tankfest each year. It means I can pick and choose what I want to see, and still spend time with friends and former colleagues without worrying that I will miss anything. There is of course always next year.

Fear Naught