Landships II

MooreTanks · Lieutenant-Colonel

Strange Camo

Pzkpfw-e · Commander in Chief

Guns look odd. I suspect it's a model. The lights do appear to be attached to the tank.

jch_in_uk · Captain

Pzkpfw-e wrote:
Guns look odd. I suspect it's a model. The lights do appear to be attached to the tank.

I tend to agree, though a 'reverse search' suggests it's "A French postcard depicting 'Lotte', a destroyed British Army Mk.IV 'Female'Tank captured by the German Army and used against French forces at La Pompelle", though others answers are 1) a tank given to Holts/Caterpillar to test, apparently on Salisbury Plan or 2) The female in the picture above was given to Caterpillar after WW1 as a gift. Caterpillar displayed it in parades until WW2 when it was given for scrap in a war effort drive for scrap metal. The latter might explain the extra lights?

jh

-- Edited by jch_in_uk on Thursday 4th of May 2017 06:13:07 PM

-- Edited by jch_in_uk on Thursday 4th of May 2017 06:14:33 PM

-- Edited by jch_in_uk on Thursday 4th of May 2017 06:15:11 PM

ShermanPanzer · Private

The perspective also seems skewed. The "level" ground in the foreground beneath the tank does not seem to remotely line up with the walls of the buildings. I think if we were to draw out the lines on the buildings and the tank to the "vanishing points" we would find they don't totally match up.

It's possible it's on really uneven ground from a really weird vantage point, but I think Occham's Razor suggests otherwise.

Perhaps it IS a German propaganda picture cobbled together from two negatives or something to make the tank stand out more.

-- Edited by ShermanPanzer on Friday 13th of October 2017 02:25:13 AM

Peter Smith · Captain

Here's a different slant.

Could it be the Mk IV supplied to Japan? That scheme is reminiscent of their Whippet scheme. Guns could be Type 3 HMG, in service at the time. A non-identical copy of the 1914 Hotchkiss and predecessor of the better-known WW2 Type 99 version.

Type 3 HMG

CharlieC · Legend

There was a discussion of the Mark IV female at the Yasukuni shrine at: http://63528.activeboard.com/t42596286/japan-mk-iv-female/.

Unfortunately the original images in the thread have bitrotted away.

Charlie

Gwyn Evans · Legend

Well, I can tell you it is not the Japanese Mark IV. Just to make sure, I've checked images of when it was at the Yasukuni shrine and it was painted differently. Nor is it German, or a model. JCH has the right answer - it was operated by the Caterpillar Co after the war. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't Britannia after it wasn't needed anymore, but that is mere idle speculation. However if one of our American friends wishes to research it then that would help solve a mystery.

Gwyn

CharlieC · Legend

One wonders if the colours of the camouflage pattern weren't a version of the US Army WW1 camouflage colours. That is black : olive green : yellow ochre : white.

Ralph Lovett has an M1897 gun with limber painted in these colours. (http://www.lovettartillery.com/US%20M%201918%20Limber.html).

There were plenty of pieces of US Army equipment still in camouflage colours in the early 1920s - the "dip in pig shit and stir" paint scheme (olive drab) was the offical colour scheme but wasn't universal.

Regards,

Charlie

-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 2nd of March 2018 12:18:04 PM

vollketten · Lieutenant-Colonel

It's taken at the Caterpillar plant in 1925
landships.activeboard.com/t64539852/caterpillar-usa-1925/