TWO real-life characters from the TV series Band of Brothers got their first close-up look at the Nazi tank that nearly killed them during a special trip to Bovington Tank Museum.

Forrest "Goody" Guth and Amos "Butch" Taylor served in Easy Company, 516th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in World War Two - a unit made legendary by author Stephen Ambrose whose book Band of Brothers was turned into a TV mini series.

Easy Company played several key roles in the war - parachuting into Normandy on D-Day, Operation Market Garden, The Battle of Bastogne in the freezing winter of 1944-45, finishing the war at The Eagle's Nest - Hitler's Austrian mountain retreat.

Forrest Guth, who has written his own book about his wartime experiences, said: "We have been looking closely at the Tiger and King Tiger as well as the Panzer IV - we all saw plenty of those from Normandy onwards.

"Being Airborne, all we had to take with us was bazookas, and you had to get pretty close with those to make sure you'd hit them."

Amos Taylor said: "I can't say I've seen so many tanks since the war - being here has brought back some memories. Just the sound of these things still makes me uneasy!"

Standing near the museum's feared German Tiger I Tank, he added: "It's quite overwhelming to see these monsters again. In all this time I have never been as close to a Tiger as I am now."

The pair are taking part in a Battlefield Expeditions tour of Europe, stopping briefly in the UK to visit the Tank Museum before moving on to Normandy, Holland and Belgium.

First published: Sept 24