Guest Simon Bull Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 I am interested in these tanks too. My grandfather was in C Battalion Tank Corps at Third Ypres. At some time in the years immediately after the War he returned to the battlefields and took a series of photographs which I will post. First photograph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 Second photograph taken by my grandfather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 My grandfather's third photograph, showing the front and what he wrote on the reverse. The Company referred to is the one he was in. Sadly, I can find no record of C Battalion tanks ever going along this road. However, he was a very precise and careful man and I regard it as unlikely that he would have been wrong. The truth of this matter I have never been able to resolve. Anyone who can shed any light upon it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 Awesome pictures... If you don't mind the comparison, it is somehow like watching a display of dinosaur's bones in a science Museum, or some mesopotamic city door-bolts in the British Museum. Just impressive (and not that long ago!). Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 Quite interesting Simon, was he an OR man? From where? Length of service? I hope IWM or tank museum has good copies of these, I presume originals will stay in the family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 14 September , 2005 Share Posted 14 September , 2005 Quite interesting Simon, was he an OR man? From where? Length of service? I hope IWM or tank museum has good copies of these, I presume originals will stay in the family. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He was a Gunner, promoted to Lance Corporal and then when taken prisoner forged his pay book to suggest he was a Corporal for reasons I have not yet fully understood to do with working for the Germans. Correspondence suggests he was about to be commissioned (probably not surprisingly as he was privately educated and middle class) at the time he was taken prisoner. In fact I have not thought to pass on copies of the photographs to the IWM or similar. I really should do so. My Uncle has the originals and is storing them in poor conditions, but cannot be persuaded to part with them, so I am glad I have scanned a decent copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 15 September , 2005 Share Posted 15 September , 2005 85 tanks 'from several locations' around Ypres were sold off somewhere in the 1920's. I found a newspaper article to back that up. Anyone could come in and buy them. The auction was done at the spot, and the highest bidder got the tank (just imagine that now). Detailed maps with locations were at the service of the destroyed regions in Brugge at the time, so maybe they still exist. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I would be very interested to know if any other Pals know anything about this and whether any Pal knows if In Flanders Fields archives have any mention of this in them. Useless my searching myself as I do not speak Flemish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVB Posted 17 September , 2005 Share Posted 17 September , 2005 These postcards are from "the Druid". Unfortunally no one ever could give more info on this one... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> According to my info the Druid D1 a female Mark IV was in action on 4th october 1917 near Poelcapelle and when going back to the rallying point ditched and was subsequently hit on the road between Poelcapelle and Keerselaere. JVB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVB Posted 17 September , 2005 Share Posted 17 September , 2005 I am interested in these tanks too. My grandfather was in C Battalion Tank Corps at Third Ypres. At some time in the years immediately after the War he returned to the battlefields and took a series of photographs which I will post. First photograph <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is "the" tank I'm interested in most. It's Damon II, D29 who got ditched and hit on the crossroad of Poelkapelle on 9th october 1917. It's this one that has been moved to the marketplace in 1924 and in 1941 taken away by the Germans. It's because of this one we will try to build a replica and place it on the marketplace again. Very original photograph, thanks very much. Here in Poelkapelle a lot more photo's did appear as postcards. Vanbeselaere Johan Poelkapelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVB Posted 17 September , 2005 Share Posted 17 September , 2005 Second photograph taken by my grandfather <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Same tank on same place but from the other side : D29 Damon II There are some very indentical pictures of it. Thanks for sharing it. Vanbeselaere Johan Poelkapelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVB Posted 17 September , 2005 Share Posted 17 September , 2005 My grandfather's third photograph, showing the front and what he wrote on the reverse. The Company referred to is the one he was in. Sadly, I can find no record of C Battalion tanks ever going along this road. However, he was a very precise and careful man and I regard it as unlikely that he would have been wrong. The truth of this matter I have never been able to resolve. Anyone who can shed any light upon it? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> These are indeed tanks between Poelkapelle and St.-Julien, but very close to Poelkapelle. There are similar pictures of them where one can see the numbers D24 and D32. All are from D-battalion. As far as I could find out up to now : C-battalion was not in action near Poelkapelle. Once again thanks for sharing this photo's. Vanbeselaere Johan Poelkapelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 20 September , 2005 Share Posted 20 September , 2005 Thanks gents. It would appear he was wrong. I find it really surprising - he had a mind like a razor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 21 March , 2007 Share Posted 21 March , 2007 Tank Cemetery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 21 March , 2007 Share Posted 21 March , 2007 Zillebeke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marnik Posted 23 March , 2007 Share Posted 23 March , 2007 Thanks for sharing these photo's ,Cnock. Does somebody knows how thick the armour-plating was? It seems some tanks where riddled with bullets. Marnik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malte Znaniecki Posted 23 March , 2007 Share Posted 23 March , 2007 Very good pictures Cnock, as usual. Thank you very much ! By the way: I am actually buzy scanning photographs and postcards from the album of a member of German Feld-Artillerie-Regiment 9. Some of them I already have posted in the past. They all will be to be seen completely next right here in this Subforum. With the very best wishes to you and to your family Malte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cnock Posted 23 March , 2007 Share Posted 23 March , 2007 Hello Malte, I am looking forward to see the new pics, Best wishes, Cnock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrislock Posted 23 March , 2007 Share Posted 23 March , 2007 Thanks for sharing these photo's ,Cnock. Does somebody knows how thick the armour-plating was? It seems some tanks where riddled with bullets. Marnik Close range small arms fire in quantity, was sometimes able to find a weak spot and penetrate the armour! Most cause splash inside the crew compartment, hence the chain mail visors the crews wore! Simon, as a matter of interest, are you aware "C" batt became the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment? Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob lembke Posted 23 March , 2007 Share Posted 23 March , 2007 Speaking of a "tank cemetery", I have seen a photo of a yard where the Germans had collected dozens of captured Mark IVs, prior to being refurbished by a Bavarian motor pool unit and released to the forming "booty panzer" units. I will poke about and see if I find it. Bob Lembke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JVB Posted 18 July , 2008 Share Posted 18 July , 2008 This is "the" tank I'm interested in most. It's Damon II, D29 who got ditched and hit on the crossroad of Poelkapelle on 9th october 1917. It's this one that has been moved to the marketplace in 1924 and in 1941 taken away by the Germans. It's because of this one we will try to build a replica and place it on the marketplace again. Very original photograph, thanks very much. Here in Poelkapelle a lot more photo's did appear as postcards. Vanbeselaere Johan Poelkapelle In the meanwhile we started constructing our tank for Poelkapelle : have a look at our weblog if you're interested. Don't ask when it will be ready : the more help we get and the more money we get the faster it can go ;-) www.p1917a.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevem49 Posted 18 July , 2008 Share Posted 18 July , 2008 Keep up the good work Johan. The students also did an excellent job on the model. steve m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jainvince Posted 18 July , 2008 Share Posted 18 July , 2008 Thanks for the link - interesting project. Of course, here in the UK many towns had their tanks which remianed for many years. My home town council even planned to put there's on top of the Pennines but how that was to be achived isn't clear bearing in mind their reliability issues. I don't know what happened to all of the UK displayed tanks but most if not all have now gone. BernardP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidearm Posted 18 July , 2008 Share Posted 18 July , 2008 Only one left is in Ashford, Kent. Unless you count the Mk IV Male that was presented to Whale Island, Portsmouth but is now at the Tank Museum, Bovington. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanks3 Posted 22 July , 2008 Share Posted 22 July , 2008 Bernard, Where is "your home town tank"? Do you have any details of it - when it was presented, scrapped etc? Any photos of it you could share with us? Tanks3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Morley Posted 30 December , 2019 Share Posted 30 December , 2019 (edited) I realise that this is a very, very old thread but I found it whilst looking for info on a tank cemetery at Bellewaerde, and the reason i was doing that was because of this aerial view in the IWM collections, so I thought it well worth adding to the conversation ... Zoomable image (how many tanks can you spot?) - http://zoom.iwm.org.uk/view/365470?cat=photographs&oid=object-205022560 Original IWM collection record (where it is described as 'Plotting: 28J 13b Key Feature: South of Jargon Cross Roads Tanks in Action' - https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205022560 A simple overlay of the image on a modern day map - https://jsfiddle.net/jamesinealing/bu9tygad/embedded/result/ Edited 30 December , 2019 by James Morley Added images Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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