Landships II

Centurion · Legend

Tank V Tank with Whippets

Roger Todd · Legend

John Vader, in 'Villers-Bretonneaux: The First Tank-to-Tank Encounter' (in 'Tanks and Weapons of World War 1'), writes that the German tank attack:

'...drew out British tanks, of which there were 20 in the area - 13 Mk IV's and seven Whippets. The 1st Section, 1st Battalion, went into action with one male, mounting two 6-pounder guns, and two females, mounting machine guns, and although the male was disabled by a shell the crew brought a gun into action and knocked out one of the German tanks. Another surrendered when the concentrated fire from the 58th Machine Gun Battalion put it out of action by the 'splash of the bullets'. More tanks of the 1st and 3rd Tank Battalions assisted the 1st Sherwood Foresters in their counterattack, and a charge by light Whippet tanks scattered the German infantry across the plateau... [a] successful mission which originated when a scout plane dropped a message that the German battalions were resting in a hollow in front of Cachy.'

David Fletcher, in 'Landships: British Tanks in the First World War', writes:

'...the leading A7V damaged two female British machines which left the field, while, in turn, the German attack was disabled by shots from a Mark IV male machine under the command of Lieutenant Frank Mitchel of 1st Battalion. The other German tanks turned away from Mitchell's fire, but he lost his own tank later in the day to enemy artillery. A short distance away from the scene of Mitchell's action, a group of seven Whippet tanks of 3rd Battalion, under Captain Tommy Price, was lying in wait in a wood. A reconnaisance aircraft, of the newly formed Royal Air Force, dropped a message to the effect that two battalions of German infantry were lurking nearby, and the small group of tanks set out to deal with them'.

It thus appears that the Whippet action was separate from and later than the initial Mark IV vs. A7V action.

Centurion · Legend

Yes I had read those accounts already however the account I'm refering to published in 1919 goes as follows:

i]Two German tanks engaged our "Whippets" on a line south of Villers-Bretonneaux, but owing to their speed and manoeuvring capabilities, none of out machines were hit, and the Germans retired whenever our Heavy Tanks hove in sight. In the meantime seven of our "Whippets" debouching from north of Cachy, went at full speed for the ridge which runs from Villers- Bretonneaux to Hanger Wood. They found the ridge strogly held by machine gun posts in shell-holes, whilst on the reverse slopes masses of Germans were forming up in the open. The seven "Whippets" at once charged into these troops.......

Which suggests two seperate Whippet actions one of which was engaged by German tanks.