In March’s Despatches we mentioned that Dorset would be awash with green machines over the 23-24 June 2012 weekend. One reason why is the running of the second Armour & Embarkation event, which centres around a road run from the village of Maiden Newton (which just so happens to be holding its biennial Maiden Newton at War event over the same weekend) into Dorchester on Saturday 23 June.

Regular readers may recall we reported on the very first A&E in the September 2010 issue of CMV. Back then, five tanks plus assorted wheeled and half-track armour and soft-skin support vehicles participated, but this year A&E organiser and founder of the Historic Military-Vehicle Forum (HMVF), Jack Beckett, is hoping that considerably more tracked armour will be taking part.

A welcome new aspect to the event is that on the Friday preceding the road run, a number of vehicles and re-enactors will go into Dorchester for what Jack is calling an ‘education day’. ‘We have invited the schools in the area to bring their students into town to learn more about their past and the key role that Dorset and Dorchester played in the build up to D-Day,’ he explains.

‘A&E is a not-for-profit event with the objectives of bringing our history and hobby to the public’s attention in a high-impact way, putting Dorset’s relatively unknown WW2 history on the map, showing our hobby that it isn't always about sitting in a field… and for all of the attendees to have one hell of an experience with their vehicles.’

The participant’s campsite near Maiden Newton won’t be open to the public, but keep an eye on the A&E website (www.armourandembarkation.com) and postings on the HMVF forum (www.hmvf.co.uk) for information about the event, its timings and routing.