The Tank Museum

If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone…

…but there would be signs.

9 hours ago | [YT] | 1,967

The Tank Museum

This M3 Grant was recovered by Colonel John Gillman and Carl Brown, and restored by C&C Military. It’s the world’s oldest running American Medium tank, and was the first Grant to be acquired by the British.

During WWII, it was used extensively for gunnery, stowage, and automotive trails, particularly against German anti-tank weapons, on the Pirbright ranges. It has 494 holes.

In the 1970s, it was repurposed to aid development of Chobham armour with ATDU, making it the first and last Grant in British service.

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13 hours ago | [YT] | 2,848

The Tank Museum

Caption this!

17 hours ago | [YT] | 4,528

The Tank Museum

It’s one thing to read that the M4 Sherman was developed from the M3 Lee, but quite another to see the similarities so clearly.

This early M4A1 and M3 share essentially the same running gear and tracks, transmission, engine and 75mm gun. The commander’s cupola makes the M3 15 inches taller than the Sherman – the British Grant variant, which removed it and had a different turret, was just 4 inches taller at 9 foot 4.

1 day ago | [YT] | 4,949

The Tank Museum

The Royal Tank Regiment Memorial in Whitehall Court, London (shown in the first photograph) is a sculpture by Vivien Mallock.

The sculpture depicts the five-man crew of a WWII-era Comet tank at 1½ times life size.


General Sir Antony Walker, who was in charge of fundraising for the memorial, described it as “a memorial to the men of The Regiment, rather than the machines”.


It is an enlarged version of a 1953 Maquette by George Henry Paulin, which is part of our collection (seen in the second photograph) – and a resin cast of Mallock’s group also stands outside The Tank Museum (shown in the third photograph).


The London memorial was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II, then Colonel-in-Chief of the RTR, on 13 June 2000. Her Majesty was escorted to the ceremony by our Rolls-Royce Armoured Car.

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1 day ago | [YT] | 3,089

The Tank Museum

The BT-2 was the first in a series of very fast Soviet light tanks that used J. Walter Christie’s suspension design.

It weighed 11 tonnes, and could manage 30mph on roads. The tracks could also be removed, in which case it could reach 45mph on its wheels.

620 were built between 1931 and 1933, and many were still in service in 1941 when the Germans invaded. The BT series would later evolve into the T-34.

2 days ago | [YT] | 4,518

The Tank Museum

The Churchill tank started in May 1940 when the Prime Minister demanded quicker development of the Infantry Tank Mark IV. Production ran out in October 1945 after 5,640 tanks, of which 3,091 had been reworked with the automotive parts, guns, or armour of later marks.

In addition, from 1943 to 1944, 79th Armoured Division converted about 750 Mark III and IV tanks to AVREs (Armoured Vehicles, Royal Engineers). The first 180 of them equipped 1st Assault Brigade (79th Armoured Division), which landed in Normandy in June 1944.

Our vehicle is a Churchill Mark III, delivered in 1942 with a 57mm six-pounder gun. In 1943 or 1944, it was converted by 79th Armoured Division to an AVRE with a 290mm mortar. At some point, it was dumped on a range as a target. The Tracked Armour Group (Bob Grundy) of Wigan restored the vehicle to running condition, as of August 1988, when it entered the Tank Museum’s collection.

2 days ago | [YT] | 3,645

The Tank Museum

The Tank Museum's Panzer IV was built as a Panzer IV Ausf. D, and was originally armed with the short 7.5cm KwK 37 gun.

Compared to the preceding Ausf. C the Ausf. D had thicker armour on the hull sides and rear and a modified main gun mounting. The hull was constructed by welding flat plates together. A Maybach petrol engine drove a six speed synchromesh gearbox. Steering was via a Krupp-Wilson ‘clutch and brake system’. The tank’s suspension consists of four bogies on each side. Each bogie has two pairs of small wheels, carried on elliptical springs.

The Museum’s vehicle was further upgraded by the addition of more armour plates to the hull front and turret, before it had left the factory. Further improvements were fitted in 1943 - the short 7.5cm KwK 37 (muzzle velocity 450 metres/sec, range 6,500 metres) was replaced by a high velocity long gun, the 7.5cm KwK 40 L/43 (muzzle velocity 920 metres/sec, range 8,100 metres) and even more armour added to the hull.

The tank was further improved by the installation of spaced armour (or schurzen) around the sides and back of the turret. Some late model Panzer IVs carried additional schurzen on the hull sides to protect the hull and running gear.


After all these changes the Museum’s Panzer IV more closely resembles an Ausf. G rather than the Ausf. D that it really is! Numerous upgrades were added to many early Panzer IVs in varying combinations, a process that can make it difficult to identify the precise Ausfuhrung of a particular tank.

The Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps, (NSKK or National Socialist Motor Vehicle Training Corps) used the Tank Museum’s Panzer IV Ausf. D as a driver-training tank; nothing is known of its earlier military career.

A total of 229 Panzer IV Ausf. D were built between October 1939 and May 1941. They had disappeared from combat units by the middle of 1944.

2 days ago | [YT] | 4,125

The Tank Museum

This year’s Christmas Day game is sorted! Introducing the NEW Tank Museum Monopoly.

Pick your token, buy your favourite tanks, and battle for victory around the board. With 6 exclusive pieces to choose from, it's the perfect Christmas gift for tank fans and families alike.

tankmuseumshop.org/products/exclusive-tank-museum-…

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3 days ago | [YT] | 1,463

The Tank Museum

Developed by Vickers during WWII, the Alecto was based on the Light Tank Mk VIII Harry Hopkins as an experimental air portable support vehicle. The turret was removed and replaced with a gun mount in an open fighting compartment.

The Alecto Mk I, the only version to be built and tested, mounted a 95mm howitzer, with a Mk II version mounting a 6 Pdr. anti-tank gun in the development stage. Further versions carrying 25 Pdr. and 32 Pdr. guns had been proposed but not continued with.

The Alecto, had it seen combat, would have offered a relatively powerful gun on a lightweight air portable platform but the war ended before it could be deployed. Unfortunately, no examples survive.

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3 days ago | [YT] | 5,632