Tanks In HDR

Today we visited the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon.

I love visiting these quirky little museums off the beaten track. It was a fascinating insight on our rush to find new and quicker ways to kill each other basically.

There were some fascinating exhibits of armour with dents from musket balls in them, right up to current military hardware.

Two of the most interesting displays were of one of the original uniforms worn by one of the SAS soldiers during the storming of the Iranian Embassy in 1980, and a whole section of real life MI6 equipment. They were donated by the person said to be whom James Bond was based on. There were loads of mini pellet guns concealed in pipes, razor blades and pens.

There was also the umbrella used to kill Georgi Markov in 1978. For those who don't know your history, the point of the umbrella was able to fire a tiny capsule, smaller than a pin head, which was laced with ricin, into his leg. He was targeted on Westminster Bridge and died a few days later in hospital. It's scary to think, that these kind of political assassinations probably, nay, definitely still go on today.

When I get home to Wales I am going to have and go visit the Zulu museum up in Brecon again, today's visit has inspired me.

Part two of this holiday starts tonight. I will blip about that when I get back!