First
World War Trench Exhibition
"Tanks on the Somme"
This dramatic exhibition was
opened in November 1998 and allows the visitor to walk through
British and German trenches to experience the conditions
of trench warfare and understand how the tank came to break
the stalemate.
The Main Features
"Tanks
on the Somme" features a series of life-size tableaux through
which the visitor passes while learning what it was like to
be recruited and fight in the First World War.
From the local Recruiting Hall where the Sergeant may be prepared
to accept under- age candidates, you move to a railhead on
the Somme where wounded are returning to "Blighty".
Next you enter the desolate landscape of battle with first
the British trenches, under attack and populated by large
rats, then on through Nomansland to the better constructed,
more comfortable German bunkers.
Emerging
from the German under ground system, visitors find themselves
under the tracks of the earliest tank just as it must have
appeared on 15th September 1916 when the terrified German
troops first encountered these iron monsters.
