Landships II

Ned · Brigadier

British Mk Tanks

Willem Visser · Brigadier

Hello Ned,
thanks for sharing. The Tank that comes in sight at 4 seconds has its vision slit for the gun covered with some sort of strip.
Never seen that before......

James H · Legend

Ned, do you know that a lot of that footage is from a 1930s German film called Stosstrupp 1917? The tank is a dummy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB11qQiuLM8

-- Edited by James H on Thursday 3rd of August 2017 11:21:30 AM

Ned · Brigadier

James, No I didn't know, I had that clip for some time and didn't even remember where i downloaded it from. Thanks for telling me.

p.s. not a bad job of colorization..

-- Edited by Ned on Thursday 3rd of August 2017 02:40:00 PM

Willem Visser · Brigadier

Hello James,
I have looked at the film now a few times but the first tanks that appear (the first seconds of the film) look so good and i wonder if those are the real things. Do you mean the parts of film later on in the film where a replica is used? Could you please let us know if the first tanks in the film were also replica's? Because when yhey are ......then they made a very fine job in the 1930's in Germany making those tanks.
Hope to hear from you,
best regards,
Willem

mad zeppelin · Commander in Chief

There is a short take of two (real) Mk.IVs running in parallel, the front one being a male. This is followed by a short take of a (real) Mk.V male, which, however, is mirror inverted. This is the one with the stripe. Thereafter, for the rest of the film, you get shots of the German movie replica.

-- Edited by mad zeppelin on Friday 4th of August 2017 10:35:32 AM

Willem Visser · Brigadier

Thanks! that makes it clear to me.

James H · Legend

That's correct. "Mary", the replica, appears at 7 seconds and 19 seconds. The dummy was a "hermaphrodite", finished as "Mary" on one side and "Bobby" on the other, so the film-makers got two tanks for the price of one.