Landships II

Mark Hansen · Legend

De Mole's model

James H · Legend

Mark - can you post a link to that? I can't work out how to find it.

There are some pics here:

http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives//006310.html

If you haven't seen this letter before, it's astounding. Dated September 1914, it puts the case for de Mole's machine, and describes its capabilities�in terms the Landships Committee didn't come up with until 6 months later, even specifying quick-firers and Maxims:

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/saatwar/collection/PRG1319_1_1.htm

Incidentally,�a George�de Mole was killed serving with the Light Horse at Gallipoli in 1915. Any relation?

Mark Hansen · Legend

Here's the photo itself. There isn't a date given but as the Sydney Morning Herald article states that De Mole donated the model to the AWM in 1950 I would assume it was taken around then.
That letter is great. I'll have to give it a closer look.

P.S.: On rereading the article, De Mole donated the model sometime before he died in 1950. However, I am fairly certain that the photo was taken at the AWM.

-- Edited by Mark Hansen at 13:31, 2007-04-11

Roger Todd · Legend

The URL is over 200 characters long! So I've TinyURLed it:

http://tinyurl.com/2pxfll

Enter 'J00300' in the Search Terms and click on 'Search'.

There are some scans of letters in support of De Mole on the AWM site. Just enter his name in the search.

Roger Todd · Legend

Mark Hansen wrote:

Here's the photo itself. There isn't a date given but as the Sydney Morning Herald article states that De Mole donated the model to the AWM in 1950 I would assume it was taken around then.

The photo is much older, as it appears in a 1937 (or 1936, I can't remember) issue�of the RAC Journal (or some such - I'd have to check at home).

Mark Hansen · Legend

Roger Todd wrote:

Mark Hansen wrote: Here's the photo itself. There isn't a date given but as the Sydney Morning Herald article states that De Mole donated the model to the AWM in 1950 I would assume it was taken around then.The photo is much older, as it appears in a 1937 (or 1936, I can't remember) issue�of the RAC Journal (or some such - I'd have to check at home).

Yes, I noticed that after I'd posted (isn't it always the way?). I blame early morning shiftwork smile

.

Roger Todd · Legend

Early morning anything is to be avoided whenever possible...

It wasn't the RAC Journal, BTW, but the Royal Tank Corps Journal (Jan 1937) - there was a discussion about it here:

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=7238693

Rectalgia · Legend

A further story about de Mole's tank published - The West Australian Mon March 29, 2010.� I can't seem to locate it online - but no loss, nothing additional to anything here or in the earlier topic referenced from this.

While looking for an online copy I did come across http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/comment/DeMole/designnotpassedon.htm which does seem to expand the coverage - and includes a picture of the man himself and some drawings - "a post-war artist's impression" FWIW.� The actual drawings are available:

- NAA series accession AWM27 barcode 1367383 (AWM Canberra) "[Munitions Generally:] Inventions - Tanks, Mr de Mole. Includes: 1) Report of Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, "Inventions of Tanks"; 2) Copy of Evidence of Mr de Mole before Commisssion [photostat and typed copies]; 3) Copy of Complete Specification (copy) of application for patent, dated 18 Jan 1918"

and probably

-NAA series accession MP742/1 barcode 3245930 (Department of Defence [III], Central Office Melbourne) "War Tank: Invention by Mr L E de Mole [88 pages]"

Open status, copy requests accepted.

Ref http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch/index.aspx (Guest searches permitted).

And while there - Geoge de Mole, KIA at the Nek, Gallipoli - not confirmed but very likely a relative - as also Clive de Mole, wounded in that campaign.� All have links to Adelaide and, given the population of that city of not much more than 150,000 at the time, the probability is high (the US whitepages with over 200 million listings has just 13 de Mole/Demoles).