In the David Fletcher Osprey book on the Mark I tank, there is a photograph of the rear of a Mark I tank showing an armoured cover over the area where the (removed) hydraulics would be for the steering gear.
Does anyone know whether this was a standard fitment to Mark Is when fitted with steering gear or unique to this vehicle?
A few other photos show the shield installed on the hydraulic cylinder, mostly taken around the time of the Ancre battle in Nov. 1916. I havn't seen the shield installed in any photos of vehicles used at the Flers-Courcelette battle in September. The shield was probably a modification introduced in the fall of 1916, in response to the vulnerability of the hydraulics to shrapnel damage.
Many thanks Rhomboid, that makes a lot of sense and would explain why I couldn't make out any sign of the armoured cover in photos of tanks at Flers. Really nice picture by the way!
The model of a Mk I Male at the Imperial War Museum (I think it's one of a series built by Daimler after the war) has the armoured cover - I took a close up photo i'll upload hopefully in the next few days
