many different vehicles you're looking after now. I mean I was trained on
chieftain, challenger one, challenger two, so I know those tanks. But I mean
something a breakdown or yeah I mean you've got here the comments done just
that honest. Quite nice, we've got it all prepped earlier in the year,
absolutely fine. Put it out for tanks in action and the crutch decided to seize on.
We have to delay the Soviets at the inner German border for as long as possible.
This is why Chieftain ends up looking like it does.
A massive gun, massively thick armor, and the engine is less of a priority.
It's designed to sit back in a defensive position, hit the Russian to lock range, and fall back.
Keep fighting, take it.
Well, until the Royal Armour Court no longer exists.
We're getting that formation, you have to have reconnaissance assets.
For the British in the late 1980s, that was the CVRT family.
Unfortunately it was all a bit macabre there as well.
If your recce screen came into contact with the enemy formation,
you were probably no longer in contact with your recce screen.
Aluminium armour is not holding out against the might of 3rd Guards Tank Army.
But what they are there to do is identify the main axis of advance of the onrushing Soviet forces.
Giving battle group, brigade to vision and core commanders time to react.
That information and the speed that information can get back to them is vital.
Right. Where are we positioning our defensive light? Where are we counter attacking from?
If we're at that's even possible. Where are our infantry digging in? Do we need to move them?
All of this is going through. Where's our artillery going? Do we have close air support?
From either the Army Air Corps or the Royal Air Force. All of this is happening at the same time.
You can see why fog of battle happens.
For the British this does start to change. This is a monolithic period for all sides.
size, we get set in our ways and continue to do the same thing over and over again.
It was a bit in the 70s. 60s and 70s, a standard army exercise for the British
would involve a simulated German, sorry, a simulated Soviet counter-offensive into
British lines. You'd hold them back, you'd take the losses. The enemy was usually
plate by the Germans, in fact, using their leopards and eventually their martyrs, the
British forces would hold them as long as possible until the ammunition, fuel and equipment
stocks were depleted and then a simulated nuclear warhead would go off, which would
signal NX. Problem? It's pretty morbid, really. Not great for morale. So by the early 80s,
This is starting to change. A chap called General Bagnell comes in. Initially as division,
then corps, then army group commander, and he instills a new level of get up and go with
the armed forces with the British army of the Rhine. We're not just going to sit there
and take it. We're going to fall back. We're going to meet the Soviets at the inter-German
border. We're going to take the hit of that initial thrust, fall back. That is going to
a whole division taking that hit. We have three armoured divisions and one infantry
division to play with. That is a large formation, it's not as large as the Soviets, but it is
a large formation. That first division is going to take that hit. It's going to then
fall back through the other two divisions. This may seem simple, it is not. That is a
incredibly complex maneuver to pull off. Those two divisions are then going to draw the Soviets
in. We're going to let them have ground. We're going to draw them in as long as possible,
extend their supply lines, extend their confusion. Hit them all the way though, not going to
let them have it all their own way. Artillery's going to be coming in, air power's going to
be coming in. We're going to be tritting them until that first division reforms. They will
then form that counter attack, hopefully smashing into the Soviet lines with as much force
as they can muster. If that worked, that would have been highly successful. It is an optimistic
plan, but when you've got mobility on your side, it is possible. See the scorpion nipping
around here? It would be a miracle if any of those survived that initial engagement,
but they are still going to be knocking around in a few numbers, especially with the formations
that are further back. The mobility for the British really starts to change by the mid-1980s.
I love Chieftain. I'm sure we all love Chieftain. However, its engine does let it down. Its
mobility is not up there with the latest bits of kit coming into the battlefield in the
70s and the early 80s. 432, the venerable 432. APC, the battle taxi, he's getting replaced
in front line units by this, the Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle. It's not just a battle taxi,
it is there to fight alongside the infantry. You mix that with Britain's new main battle tank,
the Challenger One with its new engine and new armour, you have a new entirely revitalised
formation that can and was planning to take the fight to the Soviets. What the Warrior allowed
to do was it didn't just directly support the infantry the knock-on effect of that was that
allowed the armor to be freed up the heavy armor to go off and do its own thing it was not tied to
the four three twos of the somewhat defenseless infantry it is an absolute step change in capability
Our colleague Stuart is going to next, in the next display, talk in a lot more detail
about Warrior, so I certainly won't steal his thunder too much in that one.
So what was the plan for the Soviets?
The Soviet plan was relatively simple.
The Soviet plan was, as I said, to smash across the inner German border and effectively keep
going.
I'm going to talk a little bit more about the Soviet vehicles when they start to move
off so you can get a better look at them.
For the moment we have Warrior, the infantry fighting vehicle which is just heading off.
And then we have Chieftain, which is the classic British heavy hitter, a real old slugger of a main battle tank.
Adding on to what James said, the whole idea with British MBTs is sit there, hold on, you've got a big gun, you've got heavy armour,
You knock out the first few enemy tanks coming in your direction and then you bug out backwards, back to the next prepared position.
When we talk about Leopard a little bit later, that is a totally different Kephard Fish, but this is a very heavily armoured and very well-armed tank.
The thing sticking out the front of it is the L11 120mm gun, very very hard hitting.
It can either fire APDS, it can fire thin rounds or favourites of the British Army.
It can fire HESH, high explosive squash head.
So Chieftain is moving round and the next vehicle to move off will be a Challenger 1.
Earlier Chris spoke about Challenger 3. This is the first generation of that armor scheme.
Chopper. You still really don't know what's in it today because it is that secret.
Chieftain is originally a big slab of metal. This is composite. This is why it takes the shape it does.
It's angular, it's slabsided, and it works fantastically.
Our Chieftain Mark X is upgraded with still group.
While that is technically a composite armour, it is metal backed with rubber.
Challenger is a whole different ball game.
Its gun is exactly the same as a Chieftain's.
its fire control system is near enough the same as a chieftain mark 11 but that mobility really
gives this tank the edge all those reforms i spoke about in the mid 80s this is what allows the army
the royal armor corps in particular to go out into desert storm what we call operation grand b in
1991 where a full armored division and perform exceptionally well in offensive maneuver warfare
It was an army prepared to fight on the northwest, on the northern plains of Germany.
It ended up doing, well, basically the opposite of that in 1991, but it achieved it.
That officer corps, that leadership corps, those senior non-commissioned officers,
they grew up in the army of the early 80s.
James was just mentioning the performance of Charlie Won in Op Granby in the first Gulf War.
Having spoken to General Sabatric accordingly about this, he was the guy who had a big hand
in the origination of the vehicle.
But up to the point where Challenger departed for the Gulf, their maintenance record was abysmal,
shorter spares, what happens is an awful lot of cannibalization to get the vehicles going,
desertization and then finally following that they did perform extremely well. They moved
for about 350 kilometers in four days and did a very good job. Now looking at the Warsaw
Pact vehicles, here you have the BRDM2 which is an amphibious scout car, amphibious that's
words that's going to occur repeatedly. BRDM-2, that's the AmpliA Scout Car. See how that
and the vehicle behind it, the 1890, they're both boat shaped. They are both designed to
cross bodies of water on the surface. The BRDM-2, it's a Scout Car, they're used as
command variants, anti-tank guided missile variants. This one, quite a jazzy camouflage
scheme there is actually a nuclear biological and chemical warfare survey
vehicle. But the whole thing about Warsaw Pact reconnaissance is it was
aggressive. They went and go forward, probe the enemy, look for weaknesses, and
suss out the routes by which the main diversions could follow. Now behind the
RDM-2 is an OT-90. Now those of you who know about tanks will be thinking well
Well, that's not what that's called at all, that's a BMP.
It's actually a Czechoslovak version of the soviet-designed BMP armoured personnel carrier.
It's got a slightly different turret. It was actually altered in the 1990s,
and originally it started off with a 75mm gromm low velocity gun in the turret.
been replaced with a 14.5mm machine gun, which is actually round for round a far more effective
weapon. The whole thing about it is an infantry fighting vehicle, so it can take part in combat.
The main thing about it, in the back there are eight, what we call, dismounts, infantrymen.
As it goes past you'll see there are rifle ports in the side, never really quite understood
what they're all about. The whole thing is that infantry and tanks work together.
Now, classic T-TAC, T-72, comes out as the one I've suggested in the early 1970s. To
start off with, it's a budget replacement for the T-64, which is too expensive and difficult
to build. But the T-72 is an absolute classic of its type. When you look at it, you think
T-Tank. It's low to the ground. It has got that walk-shaped turret. They've
deliberately made the thing lower and in order to do that they get rid of the
only crew member who needs to stand up to do his job. That's the loader. So
underneath that turret there is an auto loader of the rounds. It's
also loaded by the breach and there's a carousel underneath. The gunner presses
button and it puts the right round of the bleach. It's actually very efficient indeed.
The gun is 125mm, very powerful, but the whole tank itself is
lighter and faster than something like chieftain. The Soviet water pack wanted vehicles
and would come aground, do it quickly and get the job done.
We have a friend of ours, Dac Patrick.
He is East German.
He was actually, he served on East German T-72s.
We were talking about Chieftain and he said,
I can't, we couldn't imagine why you built a tank
so big and so heavy.
Now as that T-72 goes past, you'll notice there is a tube
attached to the side of the turret.
That is not what it looks like, something like a tow missile.
It actually contains the component parts
for a four-meter snorkel.
And that can be inserted.
I mentioned the fact that all wallpack armor
is either amphibious or submersible.
It's very difficult to make a main battle tank float.
It's too heavy.
So the T-72, you put that snorkel up
and it crosses a river like that.
That way they get around the fact that us outside NATO, we'd blow up all the bridges to stop them.
Now, moving off, one of my absolute favourites. This is a Canadian Leopard 1 tank.
Now, Leopard 1 is the first tank built by Christmassy for the post-war West German Bundeswehr.
And it is superb.
That's a Canadian one.
The other one, just by me, just up on the bun,
is actually Australian.
The third, Leopard 2, is Dutch,
because it's not only a superb tag,
it's a superb export success.
Everybody wanted to buy Leopard.
It's got 105 millimeter gun, British designed gun,
but it's built around speed rather than heavy armor.
Leopard 1 is about 15 times lighter and roughly the same number of miles an hour faster than a chief.
The fourth here was that tank guns were so effective, it didn't matter how much army you hit it with, it would not do any good.
So the idea with Leopard, speed, mobility, speed as all or if you like.
That was the idea, and they weren't going to sit there and hold out.
They were going to counterattack.
So as Warsaw Pact columns came across, they would manoeuvre to flank them and do the job that way.
See what? Two leopards once, and then James was a leopard too, isn't there?
If you can hear me over those three engines.
As I said earlier in the World War Two battle, it's absolutely fantastic to see multiple
vehicles of the same type or similar type in our arena.
Because unless you're on a battlefield or on a training area, where else are you going
to see this?
This is a tank troop.
This is the smallest formation that tanks are going to be moving around the battlefield.
And something you may or may not have noticed, they're not subtle.
on how they're stopped. This is why you need smaller quieter wrecky vehicles. These things
they're going to commit and there's basically no going back once these things get into the battle.
You can hear them coming. I'm sure you could all feel them coming as well.
That is the upside of a tank you can pass into anything else. You can stay in a position,
in an overwatch position, moving that tarry, getting your arcs properly secured. Then you can
move off if you need to or fall back or engage. That 120-millimeter smoothbore main gun on
the Leo 2 is an exceptional piece of kit. You saw a later variance of that earlier on the Challenger 3.
The Challenger 3's one is slightly longer but it will fire the same ammunition
and it is incredibly lethal ammunition. When Leppard came into service it gave the British
Army of the Rhine a bit of a shock. The combination of the Marder, Germany's infantry fighting
vehicle and the new Mobile Leo IIs when coming into contact with British Centurions and 432s,
Well, British infantry didn't really come out on top on that one, because Chieftain has lost the firepower advantage
and the infantry are totally outgunned, which is why the Charlie I warrior combo is so important for the history of the British Army.
Leo II is not only an export success, as Chris said, it's not only in service today like Leo I, it is in production today.
Leo 2A7 is being fielded, Leo 2A8 is in production and the order books are full.
If anybody tells you that tanks are obsolete, just look at who is buying tanks in how much numbers.
It is staggering. If we wanted to buy Leo 2 for our daily driver, we'd be waiting about five years for the first one.
There we are, ladies and gents. That's what's called a neutral term. If you do that on
a tarmac road, the council are going to be pretty act off because you've just handed
them a big pile of tarmac and the curb stones from both sides. It is something we do slightly
frown upon. But when you look at those three leopards, you are seeing a considerable amount
of tank development. From the early, Leopard 1, the Canadian, which has been improved in
in some ways it's got secondary armour through to the Australian, the last in the queue.
That has had quite a bit more development, it's been up armoured, it's got better fire
control system. Still the same L7 gun, but then you have got Leopard 2 and that is still
very much a current main battle tank. It is in service, that particular example, with
the Royal Netherlands Army and we are very grateful to them for bringing it here today.
So as the Leopards make their way off, don't go anywhere, you have got the British Army
display to come but we hope you have enjoyed this look at post-war NATO
Cold War armour. And did we say the Leopard 2 had great mobility?
That's the Royal Netherlands Army just show what it can really do. That's
impressive.
Victory Lap 2, bloody marvellous.
Thank you everybody and we are going to hand back to Steve Bulley.
Thank you so much James and Chris and well.
And welcome back to Tankfest Online 2026.
Unfortunately we did have some unavoidable, unforeseeable and very unfortunate technical issues.
It should be back. It doesn't affect the drops, and I hope the YouTube stream is back up and running and all smooth
Yeah, yeah, that's if it happens it's not it's like a thousand degrees out here this yeah
So I did want to announce that we do have a brand new giveaway
And it will be coming from one of our community managers called Dwight many of you will be familiar with Chris
But before then I believe you have a little bit of news to share
about the next segment. I do well I'm very excited to say that the model we're
about to see is based on our very own King Tiger V2 with a unique
pre-production turret. Yeah sorry it's very windy. Okay if we can have a quick
look at that video now hopefully it's gonna be very quick.
Hey there tankers, the museum is currently restoring this King Tiger V2 behind me, but
you, if you're lucky enough, were able to win this little one if you follow the green
link available in the chat.
Good luck and see you around.
Looks so good that model.
You've got to enter right now.
We'll look up for Nick on the entry list.
I'd love one myself.
Now, both at the Tank Museum and in World of Tanks,
it's always those weird and wonderful vehicles
that get the most attention.
Now, our next video features James Donaldson,
who has been doing some of the commentary here
this afternoon, asking what it is
that makes a tank design weird.
What makes a tank weird?
We know what makes a tank bad.
We know what makes a tank good.
And maybe even what makes a tank ugly.
What makes a tank weird? When I was first posed this question, I thought it would be an easy
answer, but the more you look into it, the more difficult it becomes to pin down. But I'm going
to give it a go anyway. First things first, being weird does not mean being bad. A weird
tank doesn't have to be bad, but a bad tank can absolutely be weird. There are plenty of weird
tanks that are terrible, like the Valiant. And there are plenty of terrible tanks that
aren't necessarily that weird at all, like the Covenanta. And there are tanks that are
weird and good, like the S tank. And there's also tanks that are weird for the sake of
being weird. But what I didn't want to do with this video was just list a bunch of weird
tanks we have in the collection. Instead, I conducted a highly scientific study. I sent
a questionnaire out to all staff members of the Tank Museum asking what their weirdest
tank is and why. The main results of this show that the Tank Museum staff know far too much
about tanks to come to any sort of consensus, but it did show that a few patterns were emerging.
Turretless tanks, not tank destroyers, actual turretless tanks. These immediately raised
Eyebrows. Multi-turreted tanks. A whole category of what were they thinking?
Normal tanks with weird bits stuck on. These aren't necessarily weird tanks, but they've had weirdness added to them.
Experimental designs. This is where true weirdness thrives. When designers are allowed to go wild, they really do.
And the French. A category of their own. French tanks are often weird not because they need to be, but because they simply are.
Take the AMX 13 for example, it may look like just a light tank,
but it was one of the main tanks of the French army.
They could have built it like a normal light tank, but no, they decided to put the engine at the front
and the ortho-loading oscillating turret at the rear, but because they could.
But if we had to pick one tank that would truly answer the question,
what makes a tank weird, it would have to be the MBT-70.
Now, I would like to make an honourable mention to this, the EBR. Yes, I know it's not a tank,
but it is really weird. Look, so we've got oscillating, also loading turret in the middle.
You've got two road wheels in the centre that drop down that are only made of steel for a bit
of extra traction. You've got a driver at the front and at the back, and they're really small
compartments anyway, and the most confusing hatch system my colleagues have ever come across.
The MBT-70 has all the hallmarks of weirdness and then some. The gun, 152
millimeters and not really a gun, it's a gun launcher, primarily for firing the
Shaleili ATGW but by this point the US Army had already worked out it was just
kind of bad. The turret, it may look normal but it has a sub turret and it's
not even for the commander like the Conqueror, it's for the driver. The idea
was to make the hull as small as possible, but that didn't really work because the engine
still had to go somewhere. The suspension is actively controlled, so while in theory a good idea,
it was very complicated and does just make the thing look really goofy. Plus the whole project
was a US-German collaboration for a new generation of main battle tanks, but by this point everyone
had kind of worked out that conventional tanks worked best, and this wasn't a single oddity
of an experiment. They ended up building 22 prototypes and the whole project cost both
nations just $3.5 billion in today's money. In the end, I do think it just comes down to vibes
and some tanks just have weird vibes. Well, weird vibes. Richard, what tank do you think has the
the weird is fire will do that's a good question and I have to say I mean you
know the oscillating turrets the French I not so long ago drove an AMX 13 and I
wouldn't say it was weird but it was just unusual obviously for me as a
British tank you to do it incredibly small I find it you know actually quite
quite difficult to get into certainly the commander's capola and I'm not a
particularly big chap yeah and you know the French have got a history of very
much doing their own thing. Think about the Schneider, the Shah B1, the ARL 44 and the
AMX 50, which also I think has an oscillating turret, doesn't it? It does. It does. Now of
course we're talking a bit about French tanks now. Now a few weeks ago I was incredibly fortunate
we traveled across to the Maizière de Blondet, the French tank museum in Samur and I caught up
with Adrien and some of the staff just to have a look at some of the refreshes that they've done
on the museum and also of course the big news is the Tiger 1 restoration.
So we're very pleased to be back here at the Musée de Blonde, the French Tank Museum
in Saint-Mure. Now I believe that since we were last year there have been some pretty
major changes to the museum so I'm very pleased to be joined by Adrian.
Thank you, thank you for coming. Glad to welcome you. Yes, there has been a lot of work. Shall
we begin?
Absolutely. This is the very beginning. This is the First World War All, with the very first
French tank, the Schneider, on the Saint-Chamo. Originally, our museum is only on the countryside.
We have the German All, the French All, etc. We changed all in January. Our museum is now
in chronological order.
So this is really, really simpler.
So it's a lot of movement of vehicles
and quite hard work, I'd imagine.
Yes, it was, because now in here we have 170 vehicles.
All of them, for about, still in running condition
or complete in mechanical parts.
This is quite something.
Here we are at the beginning of World War II.
You can see really simply the bad guys in dark gray,
and the good guys with colors.
Those are French tanks.
This is the only museum you can see them,
because, well, we have a French tank museum.
Absolutely. The camouflage, fantastic.
Yes. This is camouflage from the beginning of the war.
We were very, very colorful, but then, then we lacked of time.
So we do it simpler, only with two colors.
We are still at the beginning of the war.
This is the biggest tank, the biggest French tank, the B1 beast.
Only a few exemplaries nowadays, still in museums.
Of course, we put just at the front its enemy, the 88, the only gun which can take down the B1s at the time.
Then, of course, at the France, we'll enter USSR.
And USSR was, as you know, a very, very, very bad news for German tank,
because the T-34 and KV-1 were just tough monsters at the time.
Yeah, absolutely. Of course.
Of course, I think it's important to add as well that the museum at the moment is closed, which is great for us for filming.
Absolutely. The museum is closed. We are just before the entry of the visitors. So this is a museum just for yourself.
And I believe there's still quite a lot of work to do as far as the behind the scenes.
Yes, absolutely. There is only the vehicles ready to be discovered.
all the elements to understand the history will be put on time this year or next year.
Oh wow, okay, so a lot of work to be done. Yes, a very, very big chunk of work.
We are in the desert part. British tanks on your left, Italians and Germans on the right.
We are so happy, so lucky to have Italian tanks. This is quite rare vehicles.
Now would you say the majority of the collection here is, was it found in France?
You haven't got stuff that's been bought across from other countries or the majority of the collection was actually here?
This is a long story short. Most of them for the Second World War, where, well, just took in France.
took in France, because we were one of the major battlefields of World War II.
We French recovered a lot of tanks just for studies. We wanted to rebuild our industrial
capacities to build tanks, so we just get Germans, Americans, British tanks to study what was a good
tank, what was a good idea to get them on built bitter tanks?
Well, of course, we still have our Tiger II.
For now, only one still in running condition, which I'm sure many people
will remember, of course, from Tankfest last year.
Absolutely.
And we are really, really lucky because we do know for sure, at last,
majority office, it's a history.
It was deployed in Normandy in 1944, but its own crew had to blow it up, because of course this is not the enemy that can destroy a big vehicle like that, it's just lack of fuel, lack of mechanical parts and breakdowns.
I said that we are lucky, we are lucky also because we are friends out there, this is
a gift, this is a Sherman Firefly from our friends in Belgium, Baston-Barax, send it
to us.
We are in 1944, German's vehicle on your right, British one on the left, and maybe, maybe
this peculiar center was on the beaches on D-Day.
This is possible, Churchill, of course.
One of my favourites.
Yes.
We do not know for now its own history because sadly we got those vehicles but paper doesn't do the same thing.
We only add at the time the idea to get a vehicle, not its peculiarity.
This is a really interesting part, because everybody talk about big German tanks,
that allies were building also big vehicles.
But, those things are the biggest tanks of World War II.
Jagdpanther, of course, Panther on the Tiger II.
This very panther is unique.
It was took to the Germans by the 2nd French Armored Division, which is here in representation
Louise's, this map of France on the cross.
There are some Second World War vehicles,
but this peculiar hole is not about Second World War,
but about colonial wars.
OK, the main idea is to show all the periods
when tanks are not vehicle, obviously, where used.
And to understand those kind of vehicles,
this will be a special area to see what is an armor.
As you can see, this is a good example.
We'll talk about that.
What is power, but on the portal view of firepower.
So this is the gun from IMX-17B.
And then we enter Cold War, authentic piece of Berlin Wall and then here Soviet
vehicle on your right, on your left, a light. Yes of course, you saw that. My
favorite, the cheek. Yes of course. Makes me feel old the thing that I served on that.
No, no, don't say that.
You were asking where those tanks come from.
Yeah, yeah.
For a part now, those vehicles weren't on a battlefield entrance, of course.
Of course.
But we are here, some vehicles took by French forces around the world.
because with the United Nations giving us areas to maintain peace, we had some
fights to do and we took some vehicles from our enemies and those vehicles are
but in display here at the museum.
But while all the vehicles were in took with the United Nations,
this very vehicle here was took on Egyptian access in 1956.
And most of the vehicle from the Cold War era are gifts,
like those two vehicles from Sweden,
and we even have a Swiss tank.
This is a neutral corner.
Of course, this is the Vietnam War corner
with American tank M41 and PT-76.
Do enemies at the time?
Have you got a particular favourite in the whole collection or
in the whole collection? Yes.
I must admit I am a big fan of
the S tank. Oh, okay.
I think this is really, really interesting.
Why do a tank without a turret?
This is not a tank with a turret. It is a turret with tracks.
Exactly, yes.
This is fascinating.
And it's so specifically designed for this, you know, just hiding and waiting and sandwiching.
Yes, absolutely.
Here we are in the Gulf War.
Those two very vehicles were took on the Salam troops in 1991.
There's a IMX 10 ERC, IMX 30, those two tanks were on the French side, Americans still had
the time, the Marines had still M-60, had a fantastic vehicle there, of course, a Challenger.
This is another part of the story, this is a whole to conclude the story.
We begin here at the Gulf War, 1991, and we finish this very last war with the Leclerc.
But in between, you have Yugoslavia, this is a Yugoslavian vehicle, you have, I said
and it's NATO and the United Nations operations in white, with UN.
This vehicle was in Lebanon in 2006.
Last but not least, the Boclairek, of course,
and some other armor from France, an XLT-B2 Brenniss, just before the Leclerc took over.
A Leopold II prototype, quite unusual, and a Mercadar-Mercadar-1, a gift from Israel.
Brilliant. Adrian, thank you so much for this quick wish of Stott's all around here.
all I can say is obviously anybody that's in the area got to pop in and got to see you.
And obviously the work doesn't end there. Restorations and your fantastic workshop staff.
And we are going to have a look later at the very exciting project that you're working on at the moment.
Absolutely. I go one.
One of our greatest pride here in Somere is our mechanical workshop. Four mechanics,
and volunteers are able to make running 100 historical vehicles from the first French tank
1917 to nowadays tanks. There is two French tanks 30 years past Renault Air 35 and Inix 30 B2.
The little one on my left is a vehicle which I've fought in the 40s at the beginning of the Second World War.
This is a quite colorful vehicle, but it is the colors used at the beginning of the Air Certified production.
This is normal but quickly after some years there was only two colors used green and brown.
On my right, 30 years later, iMix 30B, which entered production in the 60s and this version
is an IMX30B2 production at the beginning of the 80s. This is a very much potent material.
It is an MBT main battle tank and this was our tank during Cold War.
You can see them on historical display running here in Somere twice a year.
While not freeing, it's an international model competition, and a second time in July the
weekend on the 14th of July.
Now, a little stick-tick.
So, Richard, come in.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to the workshop, too, as a museum de blandet of Somnir.
Thank you.
The beating heart of any museum.
Yes, of course.
Now we have four mechanicals to work on the big project to the Tiger I.
It's for many years where we work too.
We have different partners, the Panzer Form, to work with us to make this tank work again.
And I can imagine, so how many years has this been now?
Is it the second year?
No, up to three years.
It will drive again at the end of this summer.
And we mean that it's work with the four mechanikers.
We volunteer three years to make this project to end it.
Fantastic. And what would you say the work so far?
What's been the hardest thing, do you think, the most difficult part of the whole project?
We have all the parts we have put out to check everything that will be completed in the second
World War II was.
I've always thought, I mean, when you talk about parts and everything, I mean, the technology,
everybody says the technology for the Tiger was quite complicated.
The gearbox is going complicated.
The engine was complicated, all is completed, but it's a very great experience to work to this,
with the mechanicals, with the volunteers, and with the partners to give us the help.
Wow, it's fantastic and of course it will mean that your museum is
it's only the second Tiger one that will be running in the world?
Yes, of course, of course and it was a great experience to see the
bus tanks drive under perhaps next year or later on the running year of the Tankfest.
Oh brilliant, I mean for us it's fantastic and thank you and all of your team so much for
for all the hard work that goes into keeping the history alive.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Yes, thank you, Richard.
We are incredibly lucky here in the Muse de Blondie
because we do know the story of our Peculia Tiger I tank.
This vehicle, hair is in pieces.
The other gun, the famous 88 millimeter gun, fearsome.
We have here the piece, the toughest piece of its armor, 12 centimeters.
It's incredibly thick for the beginning of EV tanks.
But this Pequeria Tiger was engaged in Normandy in 1944.
It was sent to the 102nd SS AV Tank Battalion in May 1944.
It was deployed then in Normandy and it fought.
We do not know which vehicles, which troops it killed or it was battling against.
But what we do know for sure, at the end of its story, this vehicle was trying to flee
from the last pocket at the end of the Normandy fighting in late August in the night of the
80th to the 90th. It tried with two other
Tigers to break through the British lines.
It was night, black night, no headlights. The three vehicles in line tried to break through.
The first can pass through, but the second was stopped by the British.
anti-tank fire break its tracks and the second tiger is stopped right there and the third one
this one smash into the second stopped immediately and the crew was forced to abandon the vehicle.
vehicle. The vehicle is then retrieved, some time later, by three French fighters that
reused it against Germans. This is the story we want to tell. This vehicle, once an oppressive
vehicle, then be a liberation tool in France, and after a tool to occupy Germany.
Because this Peculia tank, at first named Bretagne by the Free French, was renamed
Colmar at the time it went to occupation of Germany.
to one man, which was Michel Obris, the father-founder of our museum. This tiger was retrieved
from a storage unit of the French army and in the 70s it was put for the first time on display
Asonur, in the Musée des Blindés.
Bonjour, je suis Franck, du Musée des Blindés, donc je suis mécanicien.
Donc j'ai eu la grande chance de travailler sur le titre qui est derrière moi.
Donc ma spécialité a été un peu de tout.
C'est-à-dire que j'ai fait la partie surtout avant,
c'est-à-dire tout ce qui est réducteur.
Donc toute la partie derrière le Barbotin.
So the biggest difficulties we had was that, as it did not run for about 70 years,
so a lot of grip, a lot of ballon broke.
So in the assembly, we realized that there were a lot of things that were leaking too.
So we had to redo the joints.
Then we did all the mask part, so we made it mobile because it was gripped.
After, we did the entire internal greasing system.
So we have greased all the arm parts.
So the arms have been removed,
all the arm part has been checked,
and every grease pipe has been cleaned to be able to return.
So that's all the parts we've done until today.
So here we are on new elements to redo.
Hello, I'm Alexandre,
I'm the workshop of the museum of the blind.
So here we are on the Tyron 1.
We are in the second phase of the restoration of the car.
We have put in place the whole part of the gearbox and connected the gearbox.
Yesterday, we put the engine in place.
We are connecting this one and checking that there is no more leak.
And then we will go back to a second phase, which is the deceleration of the vehicle.
And once the vehicle is validated, we will be able to put the turret,
to make the cannon and to make its way to China.
A massive thank you of course to the staff at the Misére de Blonday in Saint-Mer, France.
I'm absolutely incredible to catch up with them.
them. The restoration project as well is going incredibly well. I feel absolutely
honoured because when we were visiting was the first startup as you saw in the
video there, the very first start of the engine. So amazing and of course we will
keep you updated on how that restoration is going and ultimately it looks like
there could be another Tiger I. Absolutely and we wish them the very best of luck.
You know the Musee de Blonde is easily the second best Tank Museum in the
entire world and hopefully you know one day we'd love to see that tiger perhaps over here at a
future tank first but now speaking of restorations we're of course working on the King Tiger V2 of
course at the moment but we've also decided to put the band back together and work on another
big British beast. The Tank Museum and Mr Hughes are partnering once again this time
to bring the Conqueror Heavy tank back to life.
I just abused and but I'm here with a giant piece of metal which is in fact a Conqueror tank.
We're going to try and restore it with the tank museum.
You might remember us from a few years ago, we had a small party in helping them restore
one of the biggest tanks ever made, the FE's Order of the World 5,
and brought it back tonight and displayed it at Tankfest.
we plan to do a very similar thing with this. Now for those of you who don't know there aren't actually
any running concrete gun tanks left in the world. So our plan will be to bring this toy back alive
now we're not going to shoot it but it will be toyed around as a working display to be seen at the tanker.
The vehicle chosen for the project Conqueror 40 BAA1 has recently returned to the tank museum
from IWM Duxford, where it's been on loan since the 1990s.
Having been built near Glasgow, it entered service in March 1955, and was sent to serve
with the British Army of the Rhine as a troop trial vehicle.
It's thought it may have been the second production vehicle off the line, but its service life
was short.
By 1966, the Conqueror was effectively obsolete, and it was sent back to the British Army Storage
facility at Luggishaw, where its original tire was removed. By 1975 it was being used
as a tug at an M.O.D. establishment and ten years later it was donated to the Tank Museum.
This is its current state now, no idea what that is. That seat doesn't look like the
most comfortable thing to sit on, but the dashboard and all the controls are present,
The war is present.
One thing you might be wondering is, what is this?
This is a Windsor turret.
It's a relic of the Conqueror Development Programme.
They have been designed to match the weight
of the then unfinished Conqueror gun turrets,
so trials of the new chassis could proceed.
This will be coming up,
and we will be putting a proper genuine turret for it.
And that's gonna be very handy.
Researchers at the town museum have identified
an original 120mm gun turret on an MOD range
and are in negotiations to recover it
to complete the vehicle.
So there is, I think there's too much going to be done.
But on all these pretty things,
quite common, the boxes are a little bit rotten.
But let's take a look inside.
Oh, yes it's mingling there, that's what people don't probably realise is there.
Just how hot it is today and the smell of old stale peckle coming out of there is really
nice.
Shall we show them a little bit, a bit of a closer look inside.
Now it may look terrible, don't get me wrong, it is terrible, but it isn't that bad that
we can fix them.
This is it's current state. No one's touched it. This is how it came.
There's the back of the nuclear engine. Everything is in place.
There's a lot of room in here. A lot of room for parking.
Well, I've been a threat since very smelly.
Well, I say you might be wondering what is probably going to be the biggest challenge with this project.
And, of course, I've never worked on a conqueror before.
So I'm going to go with many things, will be, but my main concern is actually Watson-Deneke here.
here and that is a M120 and for those that don't know, essentially it's a meter engine
out of the Centurion tank, you know, someone has took the carburetors off, thrown them
in the bin and put a fuel injection system on, bringing in what was a 600 horsepower engine,
all the way up to an 810 horsepower engine, which in fairness is quite impressive, but
they weren't very reliable when they were new, so that worries me.
If you would like to help support this project, please visit our website and help us raise
the £50,000 we need to finish the job.
Donating is easy and we're able to accept donations from around the world.
And I want to say, huge thanks to the Tech Museum for trusting us with this project and
the 4.05.
We can't wait to see the Amazon.
The Tech Museum, Mr Hughes.
We came, we restored, we conqueror, good.
Thank you for your time Mr. Hughes, another exciting project and fantastic from him and
of course the Tate Museum for getting off the ground.
I have to say the video that made me laugh the most was we conquer a road.
That's what I believe your idea is.
So well done for that Nick of course as well.
Don't forget to check out Mr Hughes YouTube channel of course and we went with Baited
Breath to get updates about the restoration of the conqueror.
fest 2028 that's when we're expecting to have that vehicle here so make your travel plans now book
your hotels and get your spending money ready because the Tank Museum is a registered charity and
it's supported by people like you enthusiast like you at home and we really appreciate every penny
of that support there are many ways you can support the Tank Museum supporting us in our
Conqueror project is just one of those ways. Now for a little bit brand new news from us and
Wargaming has released a new title called World of Tanks Heat.
Here's a short video where our co-hosts spent a little bit of time there, touring, playing, enjoying.
We're now in the Vehicle Conservation Centre where I've bumped into Luke.
It's the coolest place in the Tank Museum and I'm not just talking about the temperature.
Luke, tell us what's going on in here today.
Well, nice to meet you all. I am Luke. I'm Head of Community for World of Tanks Heat,
which is our brand new game, newest entry into the World of Tanks franchise.
And it's actually marked, well, for you guys, two days extra,
but it's marked exactly one month today since we launched the game.
Fantastic. So tell us a little bit about this game.
It's part of the World of Tanks family,
but it's slightly different to the World of Tanks game.
Yes. Well, World of Tanks is quite a historical game, right?
It's very focused on historical accuracy.
We are living in an alternate history in World of Tanks seed.
So we follow like a 70-30 principle.
70% reality, basing our tanks on real prototypes and real tanks,
and then we add 30% of extra heat magic on top.
And the vehicles are a little bit more modern than they do in the World of Tanks.
Absolutely. We're settled in kind of what would be the Cold War era, right?
But as opposed to traditional World of Tanks, we have hero shooter elements in our game.
So for us, the agents that control the tanks are big focus.
You know, they come with ultimate abilities, the tanks have abilities,
and it makes for a very aggressive and dynamic gameplay.
How is it different from World of Tanks apart from the vehicles themselves?
Well, we lean a little bit more into some of the traditional kind of shooter game modes, for example.
Right, we have things like Conquest and Kill Confirm.
We have Respawns, we have, like I said, we have the Hero abilities and the Tanks have abilities.
So, it's very fast, based on dynamic, and it's a lot less punishing than World of Tanks.
Well, you know, you make a little mistake, you're back in the garage.
And that's something I can tell you a lot about, it has to be said.
Yeah, same.
So, I can see it's very busy, it's clearly being well received.
And what formats is it available on right now?
So we're actually launched fully cross-platform both on Xbox Series X and S,
PlayStation 5, as well as Steam and of course our Wargaming Game Center on PC.
And it's fully cross-platform and cross-progression.
You can play on one device, keep playing on the other device,
play with your friends, wherever they are.
So that's really been great to see and people have been receiving it very well.
Well, I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'm looking forward to doing it.
Just one more thing, are there any vehicles in the game which are based on vehicles that you can see in the museum?
Yeah, we've got quite a few. I think the coolest example is because we are launching our season one next week,
which is going to be coming with two new tanks and both of them are variants of the Leopard 2,
which I've been looking at in the vehicle park this morning, which are amazing.
But there's quite a few examples that are around the museum.
Fantastic. Well, Luke, thank you very much for joining us.
If we want to play Heats right now, what do we need to do?
Well, just head to our website, it's whatheat.com, so wotheat.com,
and you can play for free on whatever platform you want.
Luke, thank you very much.
You're very welcome.
I know Nick, you have been spending every spare second this weekend playing the Tanksheed.
I hope you've been making some time for PC still.
Do you know what?
I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
And as for my skills in World of Tanks, well you can probably imagine, it's resulted in
many smashed keyboards.
said I know it's something that my son Edison and his mate Kit who are here
today enjoying their very first Tankfest will enjoy so I hope you've had a great
day lads. I think I'll have to say a moment then too I did promise my girls at
home can I give a shout out please. Why the heck not? Yeah my twins Lauren and Amber,
hi girls. Anyone you want to say? I just promised all these years you've been doing it.
Hello Marquette and Marquette's mum. I hope you're enjoying the show. So what's your
highlights of Tankfest been so far. So far all I think about is the heat it has
been so swelteringly hot this Tankfest it has been unreal you. Well you know I
think you've got a good point there about the heat we always managed to
have a mini heatwave over Tankfest. Come on guys challenge a three we've seen
challenge a three year. It was our first time ever in public. Highlights you're absolutely right.
Challenge a three was incredible meeting Johnson Bahari and seeing him open the
show on Friday was a really interesting moment for me.
Sherman Jumbo.
Fantastic guests, the challenge, sorry,
the Leopard 2 from the Netherlands.
Fantastic.
You know, the Stug 3, the Sherman Jumbo.
The Nasshorn.
I know you've been very excited about that, Richard,
just dying to see it because it's been a long time coming.
It has been a long time coming.
Long time.
I think it's a good opportune moment, really,
to thank all of the huge amount of people, of course,
that take the time out to get a tank first,
bring these vehicles and their passion is apparent when they come here. As David said,
as all of you know, it's been very hot over the last few days. A lot of them are camping
out as well. They are. Yep. And looking around, there's lots of happy people in the audience,
albeit slightly sunburned. But you know, here we are at the Tang Museum in rural England,
but occasionally with the same temperature as Arizona. Always during Tangfest, anyway.
I know we're waiting for the British tanks to get roaring so before then I think now's a good time for
me to remind everybody about Twitch drops which are going on right now. It is still a valid and
happening on Twitch where after 60 minutes you would have had a chance of crew books,
beaks, I don't know where a beaker is, tier 10 Badger, 3D Star called the moderate,
the tier 8 premium tank, the ST66. After 120 minutes you have the two tank fest token store
tokens where you can get yourself a Richard commander and put him in charge of all your
tanks and you will win every battle. After 180 minutes you will have a chance of credit
personal reserves, the tier 10 IS-4 Granite 3D style, or the tier 9 French premium tank,
the Char MLE. Now for those that haven't tuned in since last year, we had some big changes
in World of Tanks PC. We launched 2.0 where we introduced a lot of tier 11 tanks which was
pretty big. We had a lot of in-game updates, mechanics, matchmaking changes and everything else.
So I'm hoping, Nick, you will be able to check all of those out soon.
Let's see if I've improved any. Now we are about to enjoy the last live display of Tankfest 2026,
which will be the modern display from the British Army. And the vehicles we're going to see among
them will be something quite interesting, the Boxer, which is one of the new British Army vehicles.
And I don't know if it's something you're all that familiar with.
No, I'm afraid it's a bit new for me, but of course it is the first time it's been here.
It is the first time we've seen it here at Tank First in British Army service.
In British Army service, of course, yes, absolutely.
So I think judging by the crowd at the moment, we are...
Big round of applause.
I think we are...
We don't see any movement from here.
Almost ready to go across, back, live to the arena, to catch up with the British Army.
Explain what my actual job role is.
Seeing everybody here, of their own volition, supporting everything that we do is probably
the highlight of the year.
I think it's fair to say there's quite a lot of noise about our armed forces at the
minute.
Not all of it is always positive.
So when we get the chance to come to an event like this where people have paid government
in to come and see us, the conversation we have, the questions we have, the debates
we have at the ammo stand and the support that you could perpetually show us, it really
means a lot for all of us.
So once again, thank you.
As been touched on, today's, we've got the chance
to have a lot of the families of the soldiers
that you're gonna see coming around here.
So today, where I can, I'm gonna drop the names
of the crews of the vehicles that we're gonna see.
The family members out there,
I do expect that you're gonna make some noise,
but if you could support that,
recognize the fact that they're out there doing this for you.
It's gonna make our day,
well, it's gonna make our day fantastic.
It's gonna be a highlight to the end of our weekend.
So, tell us then, thanks so much for that, Corporal Wright. Tell us then, what's your
job here up the road at what I used to call the Armoured Trials Development Unit, it's
now Armoured Trials Unit. I always jokingly say they're there to try and break the kit.
Absolutely, we call it checking for ruggedisation, squaddy proofing it. Ideas come to us whilst
yes we've dropped the armoured from our title, we are still very much the home of Mounted
close combat at bovington so whatever it may be it could be some form of drone
detection it could be some form of new cabinet new headset helmets anything
like that once the boffins have created it for us we're going to take it we're
going to run it through the field and we're going to check to see if it works
it's a fantastic job okay the army is a big organization and I'm very happy and
very lucky to have the chance to work down there because we're seeing future
kit before it gets to us before it gets to our soldiers and our input as the
experts on that, is truly appreciated. I've spent a slightly nostalgic story for you.
The last Christmas card I got from my grandfather before he passed away had a very good line
on it. It says something along the lines of, find a job that you love and you never work
it down your life. I get to do that whilst working over here. It's not always great but
I definitely love it.
And it's a really interesting time for you guys as well at the moment isn't it for the
Army because there's new kit coming in, old kit going out, you've got to work out
what works together and we're going to see some of that lovely kit as well aren't we?
Yeah we are, it's an excited time. We've talked about the new stuff that we've got,
we're talking about re-rolling the old stuff, how do we make it work,
fresh change constantly, we all see that and what we do at Army Charles unit is to take ideas,
make plans with them and make them work. I think we're probably about time to see some vehicles.
Let's give them a wave and see if anyone was paying attention over there, we'll wave again,
go on there and say there you go. We'll wake them up so it's been a whole day. So let's see what's
that first vehicle we're going to bring on because again I imagine a lot of people here think it's
got to be a tank or something. Hang on what's this one? Really important though. So this is the
MAN SVR okay so part of the MAN SV or support vehicle range this is the recovery variant.
This is what we use to drag things out of trouble okay anything up to including about the size of
of a warrior. You'll see the large crane on the back there. That is a recovery crane.
That's able to lift things. You're looking at about a 15-ton limit on there. At the rear,
once it drives around, you'll be able to see winching mechanism, pulleys. That's able to
drag stuff up to 35 or 50 tons, depending on how it's done. This vehicle is crewed by
the Rini, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Okay, most specifically, you're
always going to have a wrecky mech on there. Today, we've got Corporal Glasgow and Lance
Corporal Metcalf at Midford. Excuse me. There we go. I've got his name wrong and we still cheered.
On-camp, Recce-Mex are responsible for checking our lifting equipment,
ensuring it's all in date, making sure we can do things safely. When we get out of camp,
these are some of the busiest guys and girls you know, because we don't get many vehicles
caught in ditches on the tank park, but it happens when we're out there. So if you want a job where
you're quiet for 20% of the time and busy 80% of the time, this isn't for you. If you want to be
quiet 80% of the time and very busy 20% of the time, take this job.
A few points on the SVR itself, it is a big vehicle.
In that configuration it can weigh up to 38 tonnes and it needs to be that way because
it needs to be able to pull the vehicles.
Interestingly it can be used as a multi-purpose tool so it's not just limited to recovery.
The crane on the top, if used in conjunction with another vehicle, and I've seen this happen,
it is a pretty impressive sight, two of those put together, are able to lift the turret
off of a Challenger 2.
We said before, how many roughly we've got, you know, because again, scale, we're seeing
one of everything here, but of course, for the military, we're actually talking lots
most of the time.
The MAN SV range, you've got about 6,000 vehicles, but that includes all what we generally term
as army trucks.
SVRs, you look at in the hundreds.
Most of them are going to be attached to regiments that you've got the warriors, the vehicles
that require that kind of recovery.
As an armoured soldier, I'm probably going to see one per squadron for me because it's
not there to pull challenges out of trouble.
We're going to see a vehicle like that coming up shortly.
And again, in the background, so obviously, serving army, trialling it here, but you've
seen the stands out here.
We've got things like the Yeomanry, the people in the background as well, because part-time
soldiering as well.
I imagine there's people here in the audience with the skills, recovery, roadstuff, they'd
be perfect for this, wouldn't they?
And of course that's the thing, we often talk about the armour giving you transferable skills.
Remy is very definitely one of those, it's a technical trade.
Being a technical trade, some of their skills are on a higher pay band, especially if you
enjoy electronics, join as a technician, you start off as a Lance Corporal, more money
and you've got that ability to then go and work elsewhere.
So obviously it's come on, something big and noisy behind, hiding behind the mound there.
Now another one of these classic vehicles that is essential for an armoured force, wherever
it's going, but sometimes we don't look at so much down here.
We only like the real big battle tanks and here we're talking about something that recovers
them.
Absolutely.
So we've got the craft here, Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle.
the name suggests it's armored it's there to repair and recover challenges. In its OES
configuration we've got the extra armor on she's a real brute about 68 tons you're looking
well over 70 with that she needs to be heavy because she needs to recover the extra tanks.
Again crew today by the Remy we've got Corporal Wood driving today big shout out to her and
his girlfriend who's present here and then at the top we've got Corporal Tucker. Hi Ali
you're out there in the crowd I know somewhere and Bob who we mentioned yesterday let's give
him a round of applause again for being ginger in this heat.
Now that we've got the personalities out of the way, I should probably tell you what it actually does.
The crane that you see on the top of there, okay, that is not a recovery crane.
Unlike the SVR, that's not used for getting vehicles out of trouble.
That's there primarily to take the pack, the engine, out of challenges.
It is theoretically possible to take its own pack out as well, although in practice highly difficult.
At the back there, that's where you see the draw bars.
Once they've got us out of trouble with a winch that you see on the front,
the draw bars are then attached to form an A-frame.
That can pull a fully uploaded Challenger 2 tank out of most situations.
And this phrase may sometimes use it wrongly, but theatre entry standard, it's got the extra armour on the outside,
bar armour at the back and some of the electronic gadgetry that if it's going off on combat situations.
Yeah, high threat environment. As ever, vehicles like this are combat support, they're not supposed to be frontline fighting vehicles,
but they go where the front line fighting is, so it needs to have that additional armour.
It brings to the memory the famous incident in Iraq, we've got Staff Sergeant Lindhurst of the
Remy, Recky Meck, he received the military cross for successfully recovering challengers.
Over the course of the day his crew recovered a stricken challenger.
This is the famous one with a challenge you got hit by so many RPGs. The numbers
are inflated regardless of that staff linters and the constant small arms RPG
and mortified recovered it. So whilst not frontline fighting soldiers they've
definitely got the courage to get in there and help receive those assets.
And you have to say if you like your vehicles that's it looks perfect for
its role doesn't it. Dozer blade on the front, big and butch, perfect, so perfect
tonkatoi. Now another one that's pretty obvious I imagine most of us could work
this one out it's a bridge layer. We've got it the bridge layer today Titan so
Challenger 2 Titan armored vehicle launch bridge as its full name we just
refer to it as Titan. Those with any form of insignia identification will see
this is crewed by the Royal Engineers okay today driven by Sergeant Smith and
commanded by Staff Sergeant Ansel. The engineers, okay, very very specialized in
what they do, and the Titan personifies that. Whilst we've had the SVR and the
craft that carry out multiple purposes well, the Titan is there to do one thing.
It's to bridge gaps for us, whether that be a river, whether that be some form of
small ravine, this is highly specialized and as such is vital to our ability to
fight manoeuvre warfare.
Now it's an obvious thing to say but we have to remember this, you imagine all your tanks
going forward, you've got an armoured force, you come to as the military would call it
gap crossing, you come to a river, something like that, if you're all held up, it's a
real problem, you absolutely need these assets if you're going to continue in advance.
So for the army they're really precious assets aren't they?
Key. And the same goes vice versa. If we see an enemy one of these it is instantly a high
value target because we can deny that same ability for them. Most modern war fighters
based upon combined arms manoeuvre. The key element of that is manoeuvre warfare. You
want every element moving together in unison with one element can't move. If you can't
advance it comes to a halt and you become an easy target.
So we're going to see the vehicle if he finds an appropriate spot, see if he's going to
actually try and drop that bridge for us.
But seeing him move around there, one of the issues of course, is now you've got new kit
coming in, of course you've got to make sure the older kit is still going to be compatible
and we saw this morning, Challenger 3, is still going to be able to use this bridge?
Challenger 3 I believe so, don't quote me because we haven't got these prototypes.
I can talk to Challenger 3 Recovery, we've been out on Crab recovery trials, Challenger
3 can be recovered by Crab so that's a tick in the box.
Similarly, SBR has been tested with Boxer, that's a current one that they're trying to
work out if it is feasible.
So back to that key role of the trials unit is making sure the compatibility between the vehicles.
No one wants to go on a campaign or service anywhere and find that something's not working with something else.
And again, and you're doing that at the moment, not just with the vehicles, but kit, aren't you?
Like new crew clothing helmets?
New helmets, new body armour, rocket boys to death.
I've been deeply involved in looking at new army boots, but talking and working together,
We'll draw attention a little bit and we're going to explain what's going to be going
on in the background whilst this bridge is being laid.
Today we're laying the number 10 bridge, 24.5 metres, quite an impressive length that we
can cover with that there.
Before any of this has happened, with reconnaissance the suitable spot, that could have been done
by our own reconnaissance, so a light cavalry regiment.
More than likely we're going to have ID'd where we think we can go and an armoured wrecky.
have their special reconnaissance, all kinds of measuring sticks, gauges, they're
going to tell if it's correct or not. Traditionally they would have been on a
CVRT platform, a Spartan perhaps, now more than likely to be one of the Ajax
variants or indeed a warrior. As we've touched on and we've gone on about this
as a high-value target, we are not going to let that go to any form of crossing by
itself. Before it's moved we're going to have a trooper tanks if we were an armoured
battle group watching this spot, looking out in depth to make sure there's no
enemy over there. Move into the crossing, it's going to be protected. It could be
four warriors, it could be two tanks, it depends what we've got on hand. Reinforce
in the fact that this is vital. We would rather lose another armoured asset than
lose one of these because we don't have that many of them. And again we always
and again part of the history, the museum still teaches that idea of what
can we learn from the past. The classic situation is always with we never think
we've got enough tanks but we certainly never have enough armored engineering
variants do we sort of think so over time this is something that we have to
learn again we saw the crave it's over there with a dozer blade you know if
you're going in an urban setting you're going to be needing that dozer blade for
so many different reasons now so the factor challenger we can fit a dozer
blade on the front all this sort of engineering assets and can be vital or
will be vital wherever we're going to find. I'm very glad you mentioned the
those a blade because I was actually part of a wasn't really a trial because we
successfully did it this was whilst we're out in Estonia for the first time
since I believe chieftain we actually fit a track width mine plow onto a
Challenger 2 so normally you'd see that on the Trojan the other T2 variant the
big angry one that clashes up we managed to put that on a Challenger 2 and have
the similar effect your point on urban war fighting most of the world is going
to be living in urban environment soon whether we like it or not we have to be
able to fight in that environment and the craft can do that with its blade.
Spying over there with my recce eyes, we can see a recce vehicle coming to the fore.
This is very much something that's not really used for the urban environment.
What we've got here is Jackal 3.
Jackal 3, this is the latest incarnation of the Jackal and I believe it's the first time it's appeared
with the British Army here at Tankfest.
Crewed by the light cavalry regiments, what is it?
It's a deep reconnaissance and fire support vehicle.
Today on there, we have, up the top there,
we've got Lance Corporal Watson from the Scots DG.
Driving it today, we've got Lance Corporal Ron
from the Queen's Diderune Guards.
And the biggest round of applause I want
is for Mr. Wayne Dennis,
the Army's most important civil servant, commanding it.
He has been with ATU for over 20 years.
I can guarantee you that man has put more kit
and equipment into the hands of our soldiers than any other.
He deserves his recognition there.
Anyway, what does the vehicle do?
It travels at road speeds when it's on the road, 100 kilometers an hour.
It can go 50, 60 cross country if you're brave enough.
The key things that you notice in with the Jackal 3 there,
it's got a windscreen.
It's got a windscreen and it's got the enhanced roll over protection,
or ROPS as we call it on the top, which allows it to actually have a roof.
It's slightly boxier, slightly heavier than the Jackal 2,
therefore the engine's been upgraded, gives it better protection as well and it's still
got that classic V-shaped hole underneath. Designed to operate at length, its last being
used was Opmucum in Mali, where a troop of these were able to go out for a week at a
time being resupplied by the supply variant, which we call the Coyote, the six wheel varicant,
that the troop sergeant would drive.
I mentioned this before but it's interesting to note we are now not always painting them
in this what we would consider a Middle Eastern sand sort of colour isn't it?
Because we've now got urban ops, so we've got urban camouflage and of course
you mentioned we're out in Estonia so very different camouflage schemes now
coming back on vehicles.
Having enjoyed some of your videos on personal camouflage patterns I think it's a
really interesting time for armored vehicles as well because there is work
being done. What is the new camouflage pattern going to be? We all remember
Berlin Camo. Is it going to be digital? Are we going to be going for some kind of
disruptive camouflage pattern. It's quite exciting in that time. Yeah, that is a vehicle
that is more than likely being used in a sandy condition, so we've still got that colour.
But watch this space, because who knows what we're going to be doing. We do a lot on work
of disruption, trying to break up the outlines of vehicles. That can be achieved with add-on
camouflage, it can be achieved with simple paint.
And one thing that perhaps many people hear, you can obviously see that vehicle. We're
looking through our eyes, it might be that you're going to be looking through binoculars
if it's again out there on campaign. Don't forget a lot of systems now are looking at
vehicles through thermal so you're trying to protect against that so you see a thermal
image of the vehicle and of course the other thing is this word electronic signature. It's
pumping out another set of signals isn't it that you want to detect if it's the enemy
or hide if it's yours. The biggest thing for that is radio transmission and being part
of an armored regiment if anybody's got any experience in tanks you know we like to waffle
nonsense over the net. So that is a real training thing. We need to really minimise that when
we're moving into position. We need to be able to do that without transmitting, because
when we're transmitting we're given our location away.
And when you see these vehicles, by the way, it's not just out in the middle of light as
we were used to before with the earlier versions, Iraq, Afghanistan, but the idea of those,
they did the exercise where they send them across Poland to the Baltic and they are very
speedy and impressive. You've got a fair old lump there with a 50 calibre that can turn
up and do some damage. Yeah, five, six hundred kilometres, road mileage you're able to do,
the whole purpose of the wheel vehicle that we'll touch on, it doesn't have that massive
logistic chain, we are able to move it by the road, not dependent on rail systems.
And here's another one of these vehicles. So what we've got here, the Foxarm today,
crewed by Sergeant Duncan driving it, excuse me, Sergeant Jackson driving it and W02 Duncan
of the King's Rule Hazards. This is a light protected patrol vehicle, okay, designed to
operate at length. Unlike a protected mobility vehicle, which tend to be a little bit larger,
this isn't going to go into high-threat environments. This was paired with jackals on Op Newcombe.
A direct replacement for the snatch land drivers. We learned our lesson on the Herics that they
weren't suitable. Classic giveaways, the V-shape hole that lets the blast kind of go up either
side of it you've only got one door you can't see it but the inside the driver
side doesn't have a door that's auto-maintain rigidity and another word
that we're going to touch on recent soon modular okay the modular elements of it
mean that you can add bits and pieces on the wheels for example are all
individual drive meaning it does sound nice as well
this vehicle is capable of driving on three wheels I've not seen it tested but
But in theory, that's what it can do.
And that idea is also about, there's another word,
sacrificial.
Sometimes you'll see vehicles with that classic V shape.
It doesn't matter if it loses a wheel.
It doesn't matter if it loses a bin on the side,
as long as that central proportion that's in the middle
there is actually keeping the crew safe.
And also, amazingly, they're able to repair some of these
quite quickly, aren't they?
Things like mastiff and everything.
Bolt on another wheel station.
And this is the classic thing.
Again, I've talked at length with people who visit us
over there. The NATO, yes it is more of a tank thing, the survivability mobility. NATO
and all that allies, we always price survivability over manoeuvrability, which is why some of
our vehicles might be a little bit bigger, but when they do get hit we want to make sure
our men and women are getting out of it and we can repair it afterwards.
And that in turn gives soldiers confidence who are in those vehicles because they know,
and I always thought here when we were handing, we were helping with the Ukrainians getting
stuff. I was amazed at how the Ukrainian soldiers when they got in British kit they all said oh my
goodness someone's actually thought about us having been used to old Soviet kit before you know so
that idea of someone is trying to protect you as a primary asset not just a vehicle.
And you can see there that speed of those vehicles I'm always fascinated they're
torsion bars down the side aren't they so you can actually see the springing mechanism
are those funny rods going down the side of the hull there and they're being twisted every time
a vehicle goes over a bump. That's how a torsion bar works. Normally they're across the hull of
a tank, there they are on the outside laterally along the side of the vehicle.
They're talking about modular, future-proofing, wheeled vehicles. What we've got here is Boxer,
OK, MIV, Mechanized Infantry Vehicle.
We'll get the good stuff out of the way first.
Crew today, we have got Lance Corporal Smith driving it,
and we've got Staff Sergeant Smith at the Royal Regiment
of Fusiliers commanding it.
Unfortunately, a big friend of mine, Sergeant Major Latham,
refused to go on in here because he didn't want to be mentioned,
but I've done it anyway.
What is Boxer?
OK, Boxer is the future, the backbone
of our heavy mechanized infantry brigades, OK,
and indeed some of the armoured ones.
What is Boxer Knot?
Some people think this is given as a replacement to Warrior.
It's not going to be that.
It's not designed to be that.
Multiple variants have already been in use.
This vehicle has been in use in Germany, in the Netherlands,
in Lithuania, in Australia.
It is a successful vehicle.
We know it's good.
We're going to be getting about 600 of these.
The initial tranche is going to be built in Germany.
The remaining going to be brought over here to the UK,
providing around 1,000 British jobs.
Now, one of the first things you see about this is scale, isn't it?
It is a big looking vehicle, but it's very mobile and very fast.
And we also say in the past, you know, tracks would go places, wheels can't.
Wheels have caught up in many areas, haven't they?
There's still actually speed, cheaper, mobile, faster.
So obviously for the military, any easier to maintain.
So obviously, militaries like wheel vehicles, don't they?
I'll recoil at the term cheaper.
It's a cost-effective version of it.
The logistical chain is much smaller,
but you're absolutely right.
The box is a big vehicle.
32 to 38 tons.
The variants we're going to be getting.
This is actually the engineer variant.
It's very hard to tell from the outside,
but inside you sacrifice half of the seats
that you would have a section of infantry in
to be replaced, in effect, with a box
that you can put, deck cord, charges, all of that in there.
Medical one is going to be slightly higher,
and having been in the medical variant,
the equipment in there is second to none.
Currently going around in the old battlefield ambulances,
we've got very much of that time.
This along with other vehicles, such as Ajax,
is the cornerstone of us moving forward.
And when you look at this, so we said that word modular.
For most people here, if you remember,
go back, I'm a Thunderbirds generation person.
So the pod on the back can be lifted off.
So if you look at that vehicle, from almost about what is it,
halfway down, that rear section can be lifted off
and a different pod put on for a different role
should you need it.
And there's going to be a range of those sort
of different roles we know they're
going to be used for, so different pods.
And they're developing it further on there.
It may well be that the new 155 artillery system
goes basically on the back of a boxer.
And that looks like a very exciting prospect.
Having read a little bit about that,
The thing with Modular as well, not only does it allow it to change its battlefield role
but we can keep it current and competent. We can swap it out, we can upgrade it. Something
that possibly British armoured fighting vehicles have been guilty of not doing in the past.
It future-proofs it and it allows it room to develop, to keep up to pace with developing
threats.
All the time we'll be talking about this is first generation, second generation, newer
things coming along the lines as well and especially now all these, I don't even talk
about digital stuff, infrastructure, all this way that new things can be plugged in.
So what else have we got coming around here? So another old favourite, we've seen it
already this afternoon but still in service, there's a tendency to already say it's gone,
it isn't, it's still around. No it's not gone and whilst the Regiments
traditionally using this are moving on to Boxer, Warrior has found a new lease of life.
Now before we get technical we've got very very important people on this vehicle today.
all important but we've got Sergeant with a J because he's a rifleman Sergeant
Coalville gunning we've got Colour Sergeant Gifford commanding and the
round of applause that I want to hear today driving we've got warrant officer
to Mikey Dutton this is his last thing he's been doing he's going to be leaving
the Army in three months or so after 25 years of service originally starting
with the PWRR he joined the fuselage because he loved the warrior that much
I was going to say, pretty much everyone who's served in a warrior, they do like it.
They think it's a great bit of care, don't they?
It is. Movement, relative reliability, the ability to stop on its nose.
It really can stop on a six-pence.
What we've started using them for now is reconnaissance.
I know you may think reconnaissance is a big noisy vehicle,
but we can change the way we do reconnaissance with drones.
It allows you to increase recce standoff.
What would have had a crew of three if we got here, and seven in the back?
Well we used to use CVRTs, now we're using Warrior, you've got all that room in the back.
And even though it's getting an older weapon, that's 30mm rather than count, it's still
a pretty punchy piece to take with you.
When you look at what it was used for originally, laying fire down as infantry with dismounting,
closing in and destroying his Majesty's enemies, 30mm rather than cannon, rapid fire, high
explosive going overhead, it was perfect for what it was there for.
Still massively in use, what you see here is the 510, the infantry carrying version.
We've still got the 511s, the 512s, the 513s, the Recky, the engineer, and then going on
to your 14s, 15s, the artillery variants.
So whilst our doctrine may be changing in terms of armored infantry, it's not with the
other things.
specialist vehicles and they're still very much in use and very much in demand.
And behind of course any fleet of vehicles, there's the training remit, there's spares,
there's all those things and again as we were saying these staying in service for that much
longer again you've still got to keep an eye on them because if there's a new little bit
they had what was it a few years ago new cameras put over the rear doors, things like that.
Again you're still having to have these in the stable up the road because if they're
in service there might well be something that this is you're going to have to look at a new add-on
whatever's the next generation. I'm glad you mentioned the camera because that is actually
something that we did over the road at ATU, came down added it and simple fixes like that that
have gone missing so long it's a massive difference maker all the vehicles now are getting not 360
cameras but with that high prep that possibly dare I say drones are creating you want to be able to
to have full visibility 360 degrees without having to be exposed above the turret.
We've mentioned it yesterday that one of the great defensive mechanisms on its own is speed.
fact it is so fast you're hoping basically the enemy gunners aren't going to get charged
to actually lay their guns on you before you've even got there dropped off the infantry and
your bag for tea and biscuits. You know it's that quick isn't it?
As the adage goes speed is the best armour. And bear in mind when that's being used properly
it's going to be used in conjunction with this. Challenger 2, as we see here, up armoured,
think we can do, this is the infamous Megatron, our favourite tank from over the road at ATU.
This is pretty much what we can do with a Challenger 2, top end, a combination of OES
and TES, if you want to get into a technical debate about what the difference is, Staff
Sergeant Anthony Charity of the KRH is your guy to do that, he told me he'd love to do
that. We've got the remote weapons system, we've got the ECM suite at the top, we've
got the add-on armour. This is the pinnacle. If we're going to go into a high-threat environment,
this is what we're doing it in. Third-generation main battle tank. We've got composite armour.
We've got the fully automated electronic far control system, meaning irrespective of what
speed we're travelling, we can use that weapon system from a fully stabilised position.
A quick shout-out to those on board and the ones that you can't see. Driving today, we've
We've got Trooper Thompson from the RTR, we've got Lars Korparima from the RTR and commanding
we have our Canadian Tuy C from ATU Major Ben Mitchell.
So in many ways Megatron's become a bit of a star hasn't it because it's always the
one that comes down here gets photographed is always the one with the extras on and this
is a plea because of course when Challenger 3 comes into service we want you to leave
Megatron here so it can become a collection piece. I'm sure you can sign that off you've
got the right pay grade haven't you? I mean above my pay grade but I'm all for it. Okay
so it is that and I keep coming back to that's the point you look at all those other bits
of kit there just the idea someone's got a great idea we added to the vehicle it may
may be very positive, but what if it interferes with something else? You can see it physically
there with things like bar armour, why it needs to be mobile, why it can rock at the
back as you've got all those things, but also other bits of electronics if they're interfering
with each other, we've done no one any favours.
That's why we trial it, that's why we test it, you're absolutely right. I can think of
only a couple of trials where some really good piece of kit has been on it, but integration
being the drama and unfortunately with the older platforms that's something that you learn to live
with. Thankfully for most lessons learned we try and stop those issues becoming apparent on the
newer vehicles. And this idea that there's so many modern plug-in systems that idea we've got an
infrastructure now that again in the past electronics almost separate for everything
and we can take one thing out plug something in all that's the idea one hopes isn't it.
Modularity as we've said buzzword but it's all about that future proofing and modularity.
So one other thing when the Challenger 2's, obviously some of those Challenger 2 hulls being used in Challenger 3's, they're being upgraded of course.
What we're looking at here as well, the Hunter Killer system, and he's going to use his smoke, so be warned as we go around,
he's doing that just by putting diesel on the hot exhaust and it's a way of creating and it's also actually again thermal as well to a degree doesn't it?
It does, so we're fortunate because at the front you'll see we do have the normal multi-barrel smoke grenade discharges.
Much more of a defensive thing, we really need to get out of trouble, let's pop it.
But the ability to blast smoke by simply delt and the diesel on
can create confusion and it can mask our movement.
But what you've got to remember with smoke is it works both ways.
We can't magically see through our own smoke, so it needs to be used liberally.
and again it's a simple thing but the fact you're hiding your bridge layer
etc if that's all going on the fact that smoke is confusing the enemy maybe
we're there maybe whatever and again as an army we've got to get better at that
all the time isn't it the Russians are very very good at deception you don't
just dig one tank hide and put a challenger in it you do five and hope
they waste all their ammunition on the empty one sort of thing that way now
it's backing off in there. What we're going to do in just a moment, few ladies and gentlemen,
we're going to bring those vehicles back out, they're going to parade around so you've got a
chance taking a photograph. They'll stop briefly so with any luck you'd be able to give a wave and
if the families are here they'll be able to see their hubbies or partners there in a bit more of
a close-up for a photo moment and before they all, and then they're going to be heading off from the
but before they all do go, I repeat what I was saying earlier, they are your army,
if you're British here, they're the people that can defend you, we do need to own them more
and we do need to care and make sure we do the right thing by them, so please give them a round
of applause so we can show our support to them and their families who've come here with them today.
Thank you so much.
David Willey and also to Corporal Lucas Wright for talking us through these amazing armored
vehicles that are currently part of the Army fleets.
They're not going to be staying around for long, they've all got to get off, I think
they're on a promise of fish and chips tonight, so if you want to get any pictures now's the
time to do it while their parts are up.
And once again, please give them a great big round of applause.
As David said, these are our army and really important, of course, on Forces Week.
As I mentioned earlier, not that anyone ever listens to anything I say, don't dash off.
The Tank Museum sites open until six o'clock this evening, so you've got plenty of time
to go into the Tank Museum if you've not been in it, go into the Vehicle Conservation Center
if you've not been in there, or popped down to see the Tank Park or even the Babcock
Activity Zone. Of course they're proud partners of Tankfest this year, which leaves me only
to say thank you very much indeed to you for coming. Don't forget your 2027 tickets at
2026 prices at tankfest.org when you get home. And for myself, a big thank you for all of
the staff, all of the volunteers, the directors, the speakers today and of course as well,
big thanks to everyone who's done the audio visual. Hopefully you've enjoyed Tankfest.
Make sure you put in the feedback form and have a very safe journey home.
Another fantastic display from the British Army, of course, and no better way to round
off the live arena show at Tankfest 2026, but please stay with us because we've got a few
more things to show you before we wrap it up.
That's all right.
It's been absolutely fantastic.
Plenty of noise, plenty of dust and plenty of sunshine.
Tickets are available for Tankfest 2027 right now, so please go to our website, tankmuseum.org,
have a look at your travel plans. And travel plans. Travel plans. Sorry, Nick, go on.
Oh, sorry, yes, I was not done yet. So there are many ways you can support the Town Museum,
and I've said before, the Town Museum is a registered charity, and we couldn't exist
if it wasn't for your support. People out there, people who are enthusiastic about the
story of Armored Warfare. So if you've appreciated what we've done today, and if you'd like to
support us please go to our website there are many different ways that you can support us we've
got our king tiger v2 appeal we've got our brand new conqueror appeal and of course you can go
along to our online shop and find something as a souvenir for tank first that you never knew you
need it now i'm done i have something richard oh yeah yeah yeah so i need to read the names
properly you do have the winners of the RC Tank giveaway so for the top two the
winner is my laptop, love the name, eat my laptop, that's the name they chose and then
for the King Tiger which unfortunately we have to send for some minor repairs
before we ship it out, is going to grigo underscore gr so congratulations to
those two people thank you very much, were you playing with it is that what
happen? Yes, we tried to drive it in the arena and then that didn't go so well.
Oh, I'm actually congratulating you on a great prize this one.
I'm sorry, we had to cross your name out.
Somebody might say something that's like, Richard on this?
Now, keeping on the theme of the modern British Army,
FAM was extremely fortunate to be invited to the B&M Driver and Maintenance School
in Bovington Camp recently.
And this is what he got up to.
I can guarantee you you've never seen a classroom quite as amazing as what we're about to show
you.
I'm down here at the DNM School, the Driving and Maintenance School on Bovington Camp.
And this is where the guys learn everything all the way leading up to them driving Challenger
2.
Everything from learning about different bits on the vehicle to getting in the simulator
and then driving the real deal on the roads.
So let's get in there and have a look at the kit that's behind me.
I'm joined here by Lance Corporal Scott Eustace, who is part of the Royal Tank Regiment and is
here in what has to be regarded as one of the coolest classrooms I've ever been in.
Scott, when you finished your Phase 1 training and you started Phase 2 and walked through those
doors for the first time, can you tell us a little bit about how you felt? I imagine it was
probably quite overwhelming. Yeah, I was a little bit overwhelmed, scared as well I think, because
as this is big, killing machine's actually in front of me. Yeah, there's just so much on the
on the vehicle, like I guess sort of the common eye,
there's like all these different, you know, lids
and certain things and bolts and stuff.
And it's very confusing.
And it's like, you're curious as well.
You can like, exactly,
it's just a wild and fresh spot and sort of thing.
Yeah, it's definitely quite a bit scary at first.
Obviously now, you know, I'm really trained on it.
So it's not as terrifying to look at,
but yeah, I was definitely confused,
but also quite curious as well.
What's the first step in actually becoming a driver
for a challenge or two because I highly doubt they would just let you hop straight in and
get driving around the camp.
So you start off doing the theory work, you'll learn the maintenance, everything works, ins
and outs, that sort of stuff. Then you go with the simulation bit, you let you hop into
more or less a one-on-one remake, or actually isn't the vehicle, minus the armor, turret
and engine as well of course. And you'll learn literally from, again, moving a few
meters to go around a certain corner to reversing, doing bridge crossings, that sort of stuff.
Everything you do in real life,
you do in the simulations first.
Okay.
Because, have a safety.
Yeah.
And yes, you'll start off with that,
and eventually you'll progress.
You'll have to go on with the vehicle itself
and do it in real life.
Which is whatever I look forward to the moment.
Shall we have a look at it then?
Yes, let's go.
Let's do it.
So you'll put your feet first on the seat.
Yeah.
And then kind of like, wiggle yourself in.
It's a bit uncomfortable,
but it's a bit confusing,
but if you just give it a go to anyone.
Give it a go, yeah.
But, just don't hit anything else, of course.
do my best. Yeah, so you can then try and get your head up into this little, this round
my crumb as well. Yeah, again, it's very confusing at first. It's supposed to be smaller.
Yeah, yeah, and all the better end tools. Cool, yeah. So, what you work for is your
celerator and then brake power is that first. When you brake and you want to put two feet
on because it's a big vehicle and you get more pressure out of it as well yeah
it's kind of richly arranged you want to see you've got your gear selector to
right as well essentially it's not like a normal manual where you put into gear
you kind of put into like a selection it'll go to one to two or one to six or
whatnot I've got a pre-selector yeah essentially yeah and you've got your
handbrake there you've got a crank it it's on a chain so it's not just like yeah
I've got a crank a few times so and then it'll see your tillers as well where you
left and right. In reverse, so it's the opposite way around. Yeah, then you should be able to start driving.
Oh wow, that's so weird. It's got feedback as well.
Wow, well, that's an experience. I've never been in a simulator quite like this. Incredibly
detailed. I mean, I've got the entire cluster to my left. It's just, yeah, it's very, it
feels very surreal. I'm not sure I'd be able to fit one of these in my room at home, but
absolutely brilliant experience. This has been really, really cool. And thank you so
So much, it's absolutely fantastic. Thank you.
Well, finally, that is the end of our live stream for Tankfest 2026.
Have you all had a great time this weekend?
I made it.
Marvelous.
Will you come back again next year?
Absolutely.
Hopefully.
Fantastic.
As I said earlier, tickets are available now at tankmuseum.org.
But I've got a few thank yous I'd like to say.
First of all, thank you to all of you for watching and for your continued support.
It really is so important to us and we really, really appreciate it.
Want to thank all of our visitors, all of our staff and our volunteers who make this
incredible event happen.
There are months and months of work going on behind the scenes here to bring you such
a special event.
And also, I'd like to thank our partners and friends at World of Tanks for all of their
support for the Tank Museum.
now and over the years and all the team behind the cameras as well.
So thank you all very much.
And of course all it really needs for us is again to thank Nick, our co-host here.
It's a fair few years now and also everybody of course, all of you at home, all of the
community, all of the world, the tanks players and everybody else.
So thank you once again for joining us.
And thank you.
I want to reiterate again, thank you Nick and to the museum for great hospitality, the
amazing ice cream in this heat.
It's been a pleasure.
to all of you viewers at home. I hope you enjoyed the show and claiming all your goodies.
Congratulations to the winners. Check out the Tank Museum and worldoftanks.eu
websites for the latest news and information and we'll see you next time. See you next year.
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I