Where is this?

[Paul Treclyn]

I can't pick up the image to copy it into here, but if you zoom in on the area immediately to the left of the tank there are two things of interest.

Alongside the tank there is something bulky neatly covered over with a tarpaulin or some sort of cover. Above that, hanging on the back of the tin sheds, is a bundle of items that are not easy to interpret, but may be bridles or fittings associated with horses. Anyone got any theories about what they are?

These objects suggest that this place may not have been deserted but was being used for some purpose.

[centurion]

When I first stumbled on this site "save picture as" was working - now it doesn't - possible I triggerd off some security feature.

Yes I spotted those items. The things on the shed appear to be ropes, straps, hoses or cables (or even a combination of some or all of these. My first interpretation of the covered mound was that the tank was being stripped of useful/valuable items (gun sights etc etc). However looking at the way the grass has grown around the bits of track and the way some of these have slipped down into the space around the wheels makes me think that the dismantling process might have been abandoned for some reason. One possibility was that after the post Somme German fall back to the Hindenberg line the sheds had been set up for a team stripping down the tank to provide spares for the Mk I refurbishment program at Bermicourt leading up to Arras but for some reason this was not completed.

[delta]

I found another mark I on the Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen - a mark I male but where was it taken

Here is the link; https://www2.landesarchiv-bw.de/ofs21/bild_...screenhoehe=738

[centurion]

The method of removing the tracks hasn't changed and the problems are still the same. The track pin gets worn into an irregular shape, looks rather like the camshaft in a modern engine and it takes brute force and ignorance to beat it through. Very often a "track punch" would be employed. Which is basically a six inch pin with a wire handle long enough to keep the holders hands away from the head of the pin. The hammer man then wallops the track punch to force the track pin through. If that doesn't prove long enough at least there is room to fit a straight track pin into the socket and whack that until the mis-shapen one comes out the far side.

You're right too - it is much easier if the track is broken and the tension taken out of the links.

To this day it's not work for those with a shyness for hard labour.

Yes I'd picked that up some time ago when I did some work for REME, the point I've been trying to make that evidence sugests that on the MK I the materials used were such that this distortion was more extreme and the problems of splitting up the track even greater than on more modern AFVs so that if the track could be removed in one piece it would be. It would only be split up if it were being scrapped (easier transoportation) or going to be recycled on other tanks (same reason). Given that these were the first tanks and many lessons were yet to be learned its not surprising. I have a feeling also that ease of maintenance was not uttermost in Wilson and Tritton's minds when they designed them.

[Gerald Moore]

Stephen, can you download and save a blow-up of the port front horn? (I don't seem to be able to save images from this site.) I think the company number starts with "A", which may locate this wreck in the area of St.Pierre-Divion.

[delta]

here it is

[Gerald Moore]

Thanks for posting that photo Stephen - the company number does appear to start with an "A". One of the struts which supported the grenade roof can be seen, as can the shield around the hydraulic cylinder, which was fitted to the tanks after 15/9/16. The war diary of the 1st Tank Bn. contains very little info about the activities of A Co. in 1916. The only mention of the tanks of A Co. in action which I have found involves the attack of 3 tanks on St. Pierre-Divion on 13/11/16. The start point for the attack was Thiepval, but one tank was ditched prior to starting. Another tank developed mechanical problems after starting, but the third tank (544) crossed the German front line, fighting off small groups of infantry. It proceeded to the support line where it fell through the roof of a dugout, coming to rest with a pronounced list. The machine guns in the lower sponson could not be used, but it was able to defend itself against further infantry attacks until the arrival of British troops. I suspect that 544 is A13 HMLS "We're All In It", seen in the photo below. There is a strong possibility that the photo of the wreck which you have posted is one of the other two tanks.

[delta]

Thanx Gerald = more info to the mill