War And Peace 2002

From 17th July to 21st July members of the UK Tank Club went along to Beltring and The War And Peace Show in support of Mark Spencer of Mark-1-Tank. We stayed over the whole time having two caravans, two barbeques, and large quantities of beer! We had a large display of 1/16th Tamiya models and the 1/6th and 1/8th models of Mark Spencer's most of which were running at one time or another. There was an enormous collection of military vehicles of all shapes, sizes and nationalities together with the various re-enactment society's. Myself and Mark were invited to speak on the local Radio Station and I drew the short straw having to give the commentary on the Arena PA! Below are a few pictures from that wonderful week with hopefully some more as and when I prise them out of the guys.


Oh look, Howard and Humpy stuffing their faces!	Here is a view of the models on the UK Tank half of the stand showing my Anti-Aircraft Panther!	And here is a view of the Mark-1-Tank half of the stand.	My Panther amused the attending children by giving rides on the 'BergePanther' trolley.	On the Sunday afternoon three Tigers wound their way into the arena for an impromptu display!

Here we see the three leaving the arena in line astern looking very impressive.	And here they are in front of the 18Ton Famo Half Track. This monster has to be seen to be believed, ITS HUGE!	This is a Centurion Armoured Recovery Vehicle. This was 'restored' on TV's salvage squad.	One of Britain's finest, a smoky Chieftain.	And here tearing around the arena.

Here's a couple of Bren Gun Carriers or to give them their proper name Universal Carriers.	This Chaffee was seen hurtling around the arena one evening and nearly left the ground over one of the bumps!	This M60 broke down on the Sunday and wasn't recovered until late Sunday night after a lot of hammering and swearing!	The T-72 starts laying smoke.	Here we see a tiny Stuart light tank. This is just like the website editor being small and of light weight!!!

And for the Finale on most days a couple of the unsuspecting audience's cars (not really) were towed into the arena and crushed by various heavy metal!	These next two pictures show the combined Mark-1-Tank/UK Tank Club stall to good effect.	As you can see we were on the end of a row, the shady end fortunately. Thanks go to Johnny for the pics.	This funny looking thing was a conversion of the faithfull Sherman designed to recover Sherman tanks from the Normandy beaches including from the sea hence the cornice around the top. This is probably the only Sherman derivative to include a diver in it's crew!	A friendly crew in this APC.

Here's a couple of young lads who'd like to grow up driving model tanks! How about it Mark?	The look on Vincent's face is a picture!	Whereas the look on my face is one of sheer concentration. My other half has rebuked me for looking serious when I drive my models but it is a serious matter!	Who is that cool dude or is it the prat in the hat? Yes that is a standard RC transmitter in my hands not a newfangled Japanese miniature!	Here's the group picture for Beltring this year. Theirs some serious looking faces in amongst that lot!

In close-up we can see the scratch built infra-red night scope as fitted to some late war Panthers as built by Chris Leech.	Another view of the Centurion ARV. Apparently the team that restored it didn't do half what the TV program had inferred that they had. No real surprise there then!	And of a Centurion MBT.	Looking down the business end of an M60 main gun.	The T-72 running through it's own smoke.

And a close up of the T-72 turret with a frightening character stuck out the top!	Another view of the tiny Stuart loaded down with all it's crewmembers!	Is this a Hellcat? I'm not sure! I'll find out and confirm. Good name though!	Not sure about this one either. Is it a Spartan based weapon system?	Another couple of views of the Famo. Just look at the size of the towing hitch and the rear chassis.

This side view shows to good effect the sheer size of this monster. In the cab the Famo's owner who is a big guy but you wouldn't think so seeing him against the vehicle. This enormous half track went over the knife edge in the arena and balanced half way. If I can find some pics I'll post them.	These last four pics are just sheer indulgance so I apologise. This was only a very small part of the fun we had while at Beltring this year. As I said before if you've never experienced The War And Peace Show you can't understand what a fantastic experience it is. Everybody I know who's been to Beltring wants to go again! Here's me playing the fool.	Our illustrious leader Mark Spencer having fun.	Humpy's step son Trevor in complete control (he's a biker).	Marks better half Sarah looking a bit worried about to be the only person to pull a wheelie on a Monkey Bike!