Alan Mitchell and a team of friends have successfully made a faithful replica of an ingenious World War Twoera British Army piece of equipment, the ‘Cover, Tank and Bivouac’, as Craig Moore reports
At last summer’s We Have Ways Fest, I saw armoured cars covered with camouflage netting and two canvas tents attached to their sides. It was very hot, so I went to sit in the shade with my friend Oliver Boyle, telling him I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t take photographs of the vehicles as they were covered in camo nets and tarpaulins.
Oliver looked at me and said: “Craig you are missing the point. It is the canvas awnings that are important.” He explained that the 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment reenactors who own those vehicles had achieved a first in researching the exact
dimensions of the tent covers used in World War Two and then replicating them. Oliver showed me a photograph of the official War Office instruction manual that included the tank cover, and I felt rather foolish.
