Obviously our primary role is the restoration and maintenance of the vehicles in our and the museum’s care. Many of the vehicles in the Land Warfare Hall and the gate guards are MV wing restorations. Major projects such as the current restoration of the Centurion Mark III (as featured in the 2008 Tank Overhaul series on TV) can take years and thousands of man-hours. Other projects such as a repaint can be shorter in duration but the same level of care is taken. Then of course there is the day to day maintenance that all running vehicles require; not as easy as it seems when spare parts are all but nonexistent and the manuals few and far between or in many cases would be in Russian even if we had them! Most volunteers work on Sundays but for some this isn’t possible and we also have teams that work on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Several times a year, in the warmer months we have run days where we display wheeled and tracked vehicles in the running area with an accompanying commentary by one of our members. At these events and on other occasions we give tank rides to the public in our fleet of 432 Armoured Personnel Carriers. As well as being very popular with the public this collects much needed funds for DAS coffers as does the “Tanks and Tigers” days run in conjunction with Classic Wings plus other corporate events. We also provide tank rides for serving members, veterans and their families during the Royal Anglian Regiment’s annual event at Duxford. GMC undergoing restoration in the workshop. In the background is the Centurion Mk III featured in TV's Tank Overhaul - Photo by Gary Beach
Vehicles are often taken off site to represent The IWM Duxford and DAS at local (and not so local) events such as the Essex Show, War and Peace etc. We man vehicles during the Friends of Duxford Open Turret evenings and during the annual schools event that the museum runs. Given the nature of the vehicles and facilities we have we are able to provide assistance to other DAS groups in areas such as heavy lifting using the AEC Militant as well as trucks and vehicles for recruiting events. On the more glamorous (?) side our vehicles, members and running area have been used in television programs such as Tank Overhaul and James May’s series on iconic machines of the 20th century as well as various commercials. For us as a group the high point of the year is the Military Vehicle Show which the wing runs each summer in conjunction with the museum and other groups. Planning for next year starts not long after the event itself. Volunteers then work to get vehicles ready and in the final couple of weeks the pace becomes frenetic. Working areas are cleaned, signs prepared and areas roped off, traffic lanes coned, traders pitches marked, the workshop areas spruced up and vehicles tested. One of the last jobs is to extract those tanks the museum allows to be exhibited in the arena from the Land Warfare Hall and along with the vehicles already outside, moved into position. For a MVW volunteer show day starts around 7.30am with a final briefing before everyone moves to their pre-assigned jobs. You may be a parking attendant, gate attendant or giving tanks rides in the morning and driving a truck or tank or marshalling in the arena in the afternoon. Everyone who has had the correct training gets something to do. We are mixed bunch of both sexes and all ages and still manage to raise a few eyebrows. It’s not many children who see grandma drive down the runway in a ten tonne truck, or mum putting a tank through its paces in a cloud of dust on the running area. At 8 am we open the exhibitors’ gate and there is soon a steady stream of vehicles to be parked up. By early afternoon we have in excess of 200 military vehicles on site the majority of which take part in the annual cavalcade. For this the museum closes the airfield to air traffic for one hour and allows all the non-tracked vehicles air side where they run several circuits in front of the crowd passing up the taxiway and back down the runway. The day culminates in the vehicle display on the running area where the MVW demonstrate the agility and manoeuvrability (or lack of it!) of a collection of tanks and self propelled guns, as well as various military trucks and ancillary vehicles. With the end of the arena display the show draws to an end and exhibitors and public alike begin to stream home. For us it’s time to do the jobs we are all familiar with; washing down, sweeping up, clearing up and putting away – until next year.
