BOVINGTON'S Tank Museum has been involved in a television documentary commemorating 100 years since the first ever tank battle.

This BBC show, set to air on Friday, follows firsthand accounts of the Battle of Flers-Courcellette from two best friends who fought there.

Engineer Rob Bell tells the story by using diary accounts from George Macpherson and Basil Hendriques.

The battle, fought on the Western Front during the larger Battle of the Somme, cost the lives of tens of thousands of men.

Bovington Tank Museum curator David Willey, who described the Mark I Tank - one of the first tank models - as "the stealth bomber of its day", contributes to the programme.

George and Basil originally joined the Royal East Kent Regiment, but shortly after were recruited into what became the first tank regiment.

One of the more unusual exhibits kept at The Tank Museum is a ring Basil made for his wife from glass shrapnel that hit him in the face during the battle.

After the war Basil went on to transform the lives of hundreds of Jewish children, by setting up boys clubs in London's East End. He was knighted in 1955.

The museum also boasts an interview with a Captain Harold George Head, who visited the Dorset attraction in 1986, aged 92.

Capt Head was a tank commander who took part in the battle.

Recalling his part in the action of September 1916, Capt Head said: "The site of my destination was Delville Wood; it was laid over the top with 60 ponder French mortars.

"There we tried to pull them out of the way not knowing if they were detonated or not.

"The Germans put over some tear gas shells - on came our masks. You couldn't see a thing so we had to do without.

"This would have taken all night moving these bombs, so I had a conflab with the fellah following me and we decided to g over them. We tested the ground and realised it was so soft the bombs sank in very gently and that was that.

"Dawn, I think that morning was half past six, and we made our way very slowly towards Flers. Unfortunately I got hit, the tank did, and that was the end of me for that day."

The television programme, Tank Men, will be screened on BBC1 at 7.30pm, Friday, September 9.