South Dorset’s Tank Museum has submitted a bid for lottery money to fund a £15m development scheme.

The museum currently displays 160 tanks from 26 countries, but has another 150 tanks exposed to the elements because there is no room to house them.

Even those which are inside suffer from humidity and temperature changes because the museum has no environmental controls.

If funding is forthcoming, the project would see a new 5,000sq m display hall with better environmental protection for the most treasured items while also providing more internal floor space for the vehicles currently stored outside.

There are also plans to create more of an experience for guests, said museum director John Woodward.

“Few people ever experience first hand the true horrors of war and we want to recreate the reality as closely as we can without live ammunition being fired,” he said.

“The future visitor will feel what it was like to be defeated at Dunkirk and how it felt in a landing craft as tanks prepared to go ashore on D-Day, so that tank development is seen in context.

“I want people to be able to stand back and appreciate the power of tanks and understand they are beasts – but in a way there is a beauty.”

The museum recently ran a successful exhibition called Trench Experience which transported visitors to World War I as the first tanks were about to overrun a German position.

The outcome of the lottery bid is expected in 2005. Details: www.tankmuseum.co.uk