Hi all. In the course of my research for the Mk I at Gaza I found that the tanks had studs for extra armor. Can anyone tell me what the pattern for these studs were and where were they located? I would like to add them to my Airfix tank. Thanks
AFAICT, there were 5 stds on each panel, arranged so that each pair of panels on the hull top looked like a double five domino, if you follow me. See pic and a not-very-good photo of Tank.
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
Thanks James that answers my question. I did not know that all the panels had 5 studs so that is a big help. The picture is good too as I can see the patern on the tank.
Best I can do for a photo at present, John. Will try for a better one.
BTW, a few months ago there was a doco on TV about the US Space Programme. It pointed out that NASA was looking for a way to protect spacecraft from meteoroids, etc. without excessive weight. Apparently, a "genius" came up with the idea of a double skin. Honestly.
This is not a partisan point I'm making, by the way. I think it was a British doco.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
Wonder if the British picked up the double layer idea from the French - the Schneider tank was uparmoured with spaced plates - the St Chamond was designed doubled plates, at least around the front of the tank.
Where were the additional armour plates applied to the Mark I?
Regards,
Charlie
-- Edited by CharlieC on Tuesday 5th of July 2011 02:00:24 PM
Were these plates only fitted to the Middle East tanks?
If so I'd be tempted to think that the extra plates were to give some protection from the sun rather than to give impact protection.
A friend imported a VW Micro-bus from South Africa and it had an aluminium false roof spaced above the actual roof for that reason. It's a way of carrying your own shadow around with you, air passing through the gap also helps to reduce the heat.
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ChrisG
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity(Dorothy Parker)
In his book 'The Tanks at Flers', Trevor Pidgeon states that...
The top and undersurface, however, were built only of 6mm tensile steel and Swinton was concerned that the roof would not provide adequate defence against bullets fired down on the tank from, for example, windows of houses in a village. An order was therefore placed for the supply of extra sheets of steel, to be positioned as an extra 'skin' above the tanks, in sufficient quantity to equip at least some of those targeted against villages.
In the event, although twenty three set of sheets, together with the necessary templates, bolts and spacing bars, were sent out to France, they arrived to late to be used on the 15th September and were thereafter judged unnecessary.
I never did get around to adding this detail to my plans, as I couldn't be sure of there positioning, and not all the tanks seemed to have it fitted, which confused me even more than normal.
From what Trevor Pidgeon wrote in his book, the plates were a field fit, which could explains why the Bovi tank only has a few the holes/bolts on its roof, the crew possibly didn't fit them... or... the panels on the Bovi MK1 are not all from the same tank, not unusual for a tank to use parts from another to keep it going.
I will look again and do a roof plan of the plate bolt positions.... never seen a pic of the panels themselves, so that's just going to be guess work.
Thank you all for the help. As I understand the story, the Gaza tanks had the studs but not the armor plates. As has been said,not all Mk I tanks had them. I plan to load the roof up with a LOT of stowage since one of the primary missions of the tanks was to carry supplies to the forward positions and then engage the enemy. I will likely not need to show the roof bolts in the center but the last roof plates and the cab top I believe had them. My model will be far from perfect but I am striving for as much accuracy as is feasible in a small scale model. Thank you all for your help as this answers many questions.
AFAICT, there were 5 stds on each panel, arranged so that each pair of panels on the hull top looked like a double five domino, if you follow me. See pic and a not-very-good photo of Tank.
This arrangement of five points is known as a quincunx. The overall pattern would be said to be quincuncial. One of the best words in the English language.
"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
That would never have occurred to me Gwyn, but I very much doubt I will ever again look at a domino or dice set without a warm thrill - I too am much indebted
Here is a detail from a photo of 548 (D13) knocked out in High Wood showing the bolts for spaced armour (many thanks to Mark Hansen for the original high-res image).
The two Gaza MkI's whose serial numbers are known are both from late in the Metropolitan production run. I suspect that E Co. HSMGC, which formed the Egyptian detachment, probably was equipped with vehicles after the first four companys, and thus got later production tanks.
Sorry Gwyn - I should have been more clear in my post that I was referring to Metropolitan's production only. According to Richard Pullen, Metropolitan built 701 to 738 (and most, if not all, of the female MkI's). I would agree that 548 was only mid way through the production of females.
I would read the number on the sponson trolley as 736, but you may well be correct about 735.
