Year 5 take a Trip to the Tank Museum

‘They were very cumbersome things at first, with terrific caterpillar wheels, you know. What they were very good at, of course, was that they were able to get across trenches, and they’d crush the wires. They did work that the artillery couldn’t do. As soon as these vehicles came along they simply crushed the wires and machine-guns have little impact on them. They could prove useful...these tanks’.

Over a hundred years ago the face of modern warfare changed forever when tanks were used for the first time. It was this story and the wider events of the First World War that the Year 5s immersed themselves in during a fascinating outing to the Tank Museum in Bovington. Through various workshops and general exploration of the museum, the children gained a greater understanding of what it must have been like for soldiers fighting on the Western Front during the Great War. The day started with the children being able to ‘walk in the footsteps of a World War One solider’. Starting in the recruiting office and ending in the front-line trenches, each child could better understand the different thoughts and feelings experienced by the soldiers. Afterwards, they were luck enough to climb into a real Mark IV tank from the war, better appreciating why the tank was invented and what life was like for the tank crew.

During the afternoon session, each group explored the museum contrasting tanks from across eras from the First World War to the modern day. Each were asked to consider questions such as, why did they design tanks in a certain way and what are the main changes in design over the years? It was an incredibly interesting day and the guides were enormously impressed with the knowledge and understanding on show from all children.

"My favourite tank was the land tank; it went 58mph and it was really fun as the trench experience was really realistic and going inside an actual tank was incredible!" – William

"I really enjoyed the trench experience because we got to find out things we didn’t know before.  We also got to hold artefacts like grenades and guns." – Jemima

"My favourite tank was the Challenger 2 because it had thick metal armour and it was incredible to hear how it worked from the inside." – Joe

Mr Capozzoli

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