Heid the Ba Posted 9 December , 2009 Share Posted 9 December , 2009 One for the tankies. I was on a WW2 forum and someone mentioned this with a wiki ref. and a link to http://www.flickr.com/photos/7700258@N05/9...57601074581465/ No-one seems to know much but the assumption is that it (or they) were non-runners and either used as pillboxes or shelters. The tanks are claimed to have arrived by way of Estonia. Rather than fill the thread with links to some of the wackier reaches of teh interwebs, particularly since it is largely supposition, guesswork or fantasy, I'll simply ask if anyone knows anything about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 9 December , 2009 Share Posted 9 December , 2009 The Germans took trophy Mk V tanks from France, Estonia and The Soviet Union. Despite various assertions there is no proof that they were used as anything other than museum displays. The only Mk V that can currently be identified as having seen action in WW2 is one that was incorporated in the defences at Riga armed with Vickers or Maxim Mgs in place of the Hotchkiss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heid the Ba Posted 10 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 10 December , 2009 Thanks centurion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil@basildon Posted 10 December , 2009 Share Posted 10 December , 2009 This was mentioned in 'Britain at war' magazine recently in an article on the MK V. It appears it may have been a museum piece that was used as a pillbox. It is on record that many such items in occupied country's had been taken for scrap ealier during WW2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 10 December , 2009 Share Posted 10 December , 2009 This was mentioned in 'Britain at war' magazine recently in an article on the MK V. It appears it may have been a museum piece that was used as a pillbox. It is on record that many such items in occupied country's had been taken for scrap ealier during WW2. Obviously not all scrap as at least two show up in Berlin and the Germans captured no intact Mk Vs in WW1, all beute panzers being MkIV. This subject has been flogged to death over on Landships. There is no evidence that the tanks in Berlin were used as pill boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidearm Posted 12 December , 2009 Share Posted 12 December , 2009 I have a photo of a Mark V in a park with various civilians strolling past it. There were no Mark V presentation tanks in Britain and the photo has a European "feel" so I don't think it's taken in the US. I strongly suspect the picture was taken in Berlin and supports what Centurion has said that these were brought back as trophies. I don't believe the stories about them being used as pillboxes either. By 1945 they would have provided as much protection as a paper bag. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 12 December , 2009 Share Posted 12 December , 2009 Possibly this one, the tower in the background is in a building in Berlin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 12 December , 2009 Share Posted 12 December , 2009 This 1945 shot shows the same building with the same tank (the domes have been blown off the towers and the trees have taken a pasting). The square building in the shot in the link in the header is off to the left of the picture. The one in this shot was once a museum and the tanks were on display outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 12 December , 2009 Share Posted 12 December , 2009 Here is a different Mk V in WW2 German hands. Unusual in being camouflaged and is that a non standard (for the Mk V) Lewis in one sponson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heid the Ba Posted 14 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 14 December , 2009 Great photos centurion. The building is the Berliner Dom, I don't think it was ever a museum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 14 December , 2009 Share Posted 14 December , 2009 Great photos centurion. The building is the Berliner Dom, I don't think it was ever a museum. Yes I got tangled - I should have said the one in the original shots that you can't see in the ones I posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidearm Posted 14 December , 2009 Share Posted 14 December , 2009 No, none of those. The first appears to be during wartime, as the park looks undamaged, and the second's after the fall of Berlin (park's damaged and there's a jeep). The third I suspect is in France as it's the only place I've seen Mark Vs painted like this. I was thinking of this one, which I believe to be Berlin during the war - though a second (third, or fourth) opinion would be welcome! Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 14 December , 2009 Share Posted 14 December , 2009 I may be imagining it but isn't that a white 4 in a black square on the side of the tank? If so then its one of the American 301st's and probably one of the ones shipped back to the US in early 1919 displayed alongside captured guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Moore Posted 15 December , 2009 Share Posted 15 December , 2009 Gwyn, the railing seen to the rear of the tank in your photo looks similar to the railing atop the retaining wall seen in the foreground of Centurion's photo of the Berliner Dom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Bennitt Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 Just found this picture while browsing on the Peronne memorial archives site, which implies that British tanks were used in anger during the street fighting in Berlin after the war cheers Martin B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 Various Freicorps used Beute Panzer Mk IVs in Berlin in 1919. A Whippet was also used as well as two A7V look alikes built on A7V chassis. More when I get home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 Another couple of views Mk IV not My V as in the 1945 shots - the Germans captured no Mk Vs in WW1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 Some more - a whippet and an A7V copy (in boilerplate) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Bennitt Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 tanks Centurion knew you would flesh out the picture so it was an A7V chassis, complete with tracks etc, but unarmoured bit like a Mk II then? cheers Martin B tanks Centurion knew you would flesh out the picture so it was an A7V chassis, complete with tracks etc, but unarmoured bit like a Mk II then? cheers Martin B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil@basildon Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 There was an unarmoured load carrying version of the A7V, perhaps it was based on one of those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 There were two built (possibly in railway workshops) either on Uberlandwagens (which shared the chassis with the A7V) or simply on spare A7V chassis). The body whilst obviously modelled on the A7V was not just an A7V in boiler plate rather than armour plate as there were a number of differences (shape of roof, driver's cab, machine gun turrets etc). Some improvised armoured cars were also built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 28 January , 2010 Share Posted 28 January , 2010 And another view (this one appears on a number of sites so apologies if seen before) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 29 January , 2010 Share Posted 29 January , 2010 Gwyn, the railing seen to the rear of the tank in your photo looks similar to the railing atop the retaining wall seen in the foreground of Centurion's photo of the Berliner Dom. Having done some enhancing and sharpening using GIMP this tank does have a white 4 on a black background - the marking of the American 301st. Whilst this unit did have some tanks knocked out none were lost to the enemy (all ending up in Allied held ground at the end of the battle). The 301st shipped its surviving tanks back to the US at the end of the war. Looking at the costume of the lady in the trouser suit on the left hand edge of the photo I'd put the date as sometime in the 1920s. So probably a display in the USA. A railing is a railing is a railing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid_Ian Posted 29 January , 2010 Share Posted 29 January , 2010 Gwyn, the railing seen to the rear of the tank in your photo looks similar to the railing atop the retaining wall seen in the foreground of Centurion's photo of the Berliner Dom. I agree if you look at the artillery piece? to the left of the foremost tank it also appears in the colour photo centurian posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 29 January , 2010 Share Posted 29 January , 2010 I agree if you look at the artillery piece? to the left of the foremost tank it also appears in the colour photo centurian posted Show me Still doesn't answer the fact that the tank has a 301st ID marking and none were captured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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