Tanks and Armour through the Century. Part 2.

After yet another visit to the Bovington Tank Museum, my second home according to my wife, I wanted to share some photos of the tanks they have on display. I will look at tanks and armour from just before the start of WWI up until present day. I am not a tank expert, so if you spot something that is incorrect, please let me know and I can edit and update.

 

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The most enduring image of Lord kitchener urging young men to sign up to fight in the trenches. The poster was actually never used as a recruitment poster during the conflict and was only widely used after the event.

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The recruitment Sergeant all us ex soldiers love dearly….

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British WW1 Tank – Mark I. Born out of the need to breach the German Trenches which were heavily fortified with barbed wire, this was the first vehicle to be called a ‘Tank’.

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The British WW1 Mark II. With a few minor differences from the Mark I, and still not ready for use in a war setting, only a few were built. It was mainly used for training. Only a few Mark III’s were ever built, and was again used as a training tank. The last two were melted down during WWII.

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The Mk IV tank, HMS Excellent.

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An order was placed for over 1,000 of these tanks in 1916. Over 1,200 were built, and it became the mainstay for the rest of the Great War.

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One of the 57mm guns visible in a turret. It weighed 28 tonnes and had a top speed of 6kph. The armour was 12mm thick and carried a crew of 8.

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 Its full weapons compliment was two, 57mm guns and three, .303 machine guns. It was manufactured by William Foster & Co. Ltd. of Lincoln.

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The Mark IVs, were mechanically identical to the Mark I and IIs. But, the armour was thicker and there was now a proper exhaust and silencer for the engine. The fuel tank was placed outside the tank at the back.

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 The Mark IV was built in such numbers it became the key armoured vehicle for the Tank Corps.

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Although very similar in appearance to the earlier models, the Mark V was a much better tank. It was more powerful and easier to drive.

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The markings shown are of the 8th (H) Battalion, Tank Corps.

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It also had 12mm of armour and weighed a slightly heavier 29 tonnes.

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It had a top speed of 7.4kph.

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Equipped with the Ricardo six-cylinder engineered the Wilson epicyclic steering, meant that one man could handle all the controls. In the Mark IV, it required 4 crew members to do the same job.

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It was armed with two, 57mm guns and two, machine guns.

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An uditching beam can just be seen carried on the top.

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The ditching beam would be chained to the tracks and drawn under the tank when stuck in the mud. The beam gave the tracks something solid to grip.

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The tank saw action the time of the Battle of Amiens.

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Service date from 1918 to 1923 and with the Red Army, 1920 to 1928.

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It had a rear cab for the commander and a rear machine-gun position.

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Mark V

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I do plan on writing a WWI trilogy in 2016, but in the meantime please read either my Cold War trilogy or my WWII books on the famous Fallschirmjager.

The first novel in my ‘Cold War’ trilogy, The Red Effect, published by SilverWood Books, is now available. Thoroughly enjoyed writing it, as i do with all my novels. There are three books in total, covering the hypothetical invasion of West Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, by the Warsaw Pact in the mid 1980′s. Book 1, ‘The Red Effect’, encompasses part of the intelligence build up leading to the initial Warsaw Pact strike against the NATO forces lined up against them. The purpose of the posts is to give the reader some additional background information to enhance their reading experience..

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‘The Red Effect’ by Harvey Black – Available now. The Cold War that became a Hot War.

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The Blog and photographs are copyrighted to Harvey Black.

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‘The Red Effect’ by Harvey Black – Kindle and Paperback version out now! The Cold War that became a Hot War.

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