I noticed the Matilda I had eyes painted on the turret in Bovingdon.
The new Amusing Hobby Centurion also features eyes... so it must be something other than the case of "hey, a cute little tank, you know what it would make it look cuter?"

So why were eyes added to tanks, and which ones had eyes added to?

It is a tradition left over from WW1. If memory serves a Chinese businessman paid for a tank. A Chinese tradition was to place eyes on vehicles and ships so they can see their way. I believe it was one of the Royal Tank regiments which continued the tradition. They call it Chinese eyes.

Gee...is that racist now?

Thomas is right, it's RTR tanks that have the eye on. I never knew about the Chinese bit, but we live and learn..

Some of the Guards Armoured Div/Bde regiments tanks / vehicles had a Gladeye (single red/white/ blue eye) painted on them during WW2. I think ok have an image of it somewhere.

And Gladeye is the name of the Household Division adventure training yacht and that has a massive Gladeye badge on the rear, which can be googled. I think that eye stems from something to do with the Grenadier Gds.

Hi András,

Google 'Chinese Eyes on British Tanks: Historical Verification of a War Heritage' by Lee Yo Hin. Might answer your question.

Cheers,
Israel

Specifically 4RTR, recently merged with 1RTR as I recall.

Just in the interests of historical accuracy, there has only ever been one Royal Tank Regiment. all the 'RTRs' you see referred to are Battalions of the RTR

In the case of the Chinese Eyes, it was 4 RTR (the fourth Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment) that traditonally carried the eye motif.

These days there is only a single RTR Battalion and it has inherited the tradition.



John

Thank you guys, you have really been very informative.

I've learned something really cool...