Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps

[johntaylor]

I'm sure there were all kind of variations in practice, but I was interested to explore this because everything I've read about Mark IVs indicates the normal crew was eight. The letter about Scrivener says he was "at his post beside his gun" which does suggest he was a gunner, though we don't know at this stage whether he was manning a Lewis gun or a 6-pounder.

 

All the best, John

 

 

[delta]

I have been looking at the Tank Corps Book of Honour to see if I could identify a pattern in 1917.

There is certainly evidence that NCOs both operated guns and controlled the crew but no evidence that they were gearsmen. There is also lots of cases where NCOs were drivers.

Perhaps it would be reasonable to surmise that the NCO, if not the driver, both manned and  controlled the other gunners.

[johntaylor]

That makes sense - one would certainly expect an NCO to have greater responsibility.

 

John

[Sidearm]

Tank 2682 was Female.  You don't need to search through records to tell you this - the number is all you need, though the proof is in my article "Decoding Mark IV Serial Numbers" published in Tankette. 

 

After the battle all B Battalion tank commanders were ordered to sketch the damage to their tanks. The sketch of 2682 has survived. It is annotated "Passed direct through aperture" to indicate a red dot, indexed "Denotes revolver loop hole shattered".  Given the additional information others have found, I think we can be certain this was the loophole through which Scrivener was shot, although I suspect that although the shot entered from the right hand side, he may have been standing on the left so it hit him in the back.   

 

Gwyn

[delta]

Thank you

[johntaylor]

That's a fantastic find Gwyn, and I've never seen anything like it before. Could you tell me the source of the document please?

 

All the best, John

[Sidearm]

It's with the War Diary in WO95/101, John.

 

Gwyn

[johntaylor]

Thanks Gwyn, and I just wish they had something like this in the War Diaries for D and E Battalions. It's a tragedy that so much material was lost or discarded, notably Battle History Sheets and crew lists. On the other hand, it could be a whole lot worse - in the case of most Gernan units, their entire War Diaries with masses of supporting documentation were destroyed in the Second World War.

 

All the best, John

[Sidearm]

These sketches are unique. I know of nothing like them for any other unit or any other battle.

I do very occasionally come across pages that look like nothing, just some odd notes, but then you realise they've been written on the back of a page torn from a tank logbook and you have a record of every time that tank moved anywhere. Doesn't happen often, but it makes my day when it does.

 

Gwyn

 

[johntaylor]

That explains why I've never seen them before. Well done for spotting their relevance here, and for identifying the logbook pages which sound fascinating.

 

John

[delta]

It is  of course, possible that D Bn did maintain more detailed records in 1917 but they were lost or  destroyed when 4th Bn HQ was destroyed in March 1918