Mark IV Tank

[Guest]

Mark IV Tank

British tank of the First World War.

1917, significant developments such as:

Designs being small batches used for training.

Major Improvements include:

Amour

Shorter-barrelled 6-pounder guns

Fuel tank reset

Better mobility

Ability to reduce the width of the tank for rail transportation

Rails on the roof carried an unditching beam.

– The most important tank of the war.

Battles in Messines Ridge June 1917, The Third Ypres up until August, and most notably the Battle of Cambrai which occurd in November 1917.

To this day Seven Mark IVs survive.

Mark IV Female, F4: Flirt II, which fought at the Battle of Cambrai, is at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, Lincoln, England, on permanent loan from the Bovington Tank Museum.

A Mark IV Female is preserved at Ashford in Kent. This is one of many that were presented for display to towns and cities in Britain after the war; most were scrapped in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Royal Museum of the Army in Brussels has a Male Mark IV tank, the Lodestar III, still in original colours.

A Mark IV Female,Grit, is stored at the Australian War Memorial. It was on display in ANZAC Hall at the Australian War Memorial until August 2008. It is now kept at their bulk store in Mitchell, Canberra.

In 1999, a Mark IV Female, D51: Deborah, was excavated at the village of Flesquières in France. It had been knocked out by shell-fire at the Battle of Cambrai (1917) and subsequently buried when used to fill a crater. Work is underway on its restoration.

A Mark IV Male, Excellent, is displayed at Bovington. After World War I, this tank was presented by the army to HMS Excellent, a Royal Navy shore establishment where some tank crewmen were trained. During World War II, it was made operational again for service with the Home Guard when German invasion threatened in 1940.[25] It is still maintained in working order.

Mark IV Female Liberty: displayed at United States Army Ordnance Museum, Aberdeen, Maryland. Originally named Britannia, Renamed Liberty, the tank joined the Ordnance Museum collection in 1919. After decades of exposure to the elements, it is in poor condition, but about to undergo restoration.

[NZheadshot1]

Looks cool. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a souped-up version of that damn bus.