i've just been looking through photos I have and others on this site and it struck me that the Tank in the hole looks like The one taken when Deborah was excavated What do you think ?
The story i was given when in France was that she was pushed into the hole by the Germans to 'clear the way'. Would that explain why the back splays out from the effect of dropping in backwards? And why the damaged offside track has unwound along the top towards the back?
Can anyone add any other info regarding her 'internment'?
The story came from an elderly lady who witnessed the event as a child which was the basis for the search.
No, interment, meaning burial. Internment is something completely different.
I understand the tank was buried during battlefield clearances after the war, not by the German Army during it. I'd suggest the bending of the rear horns was caused by the process of manoeuvring the wreck into the pit. I suspect this was done - I have no proof - by removing both drive sprockets and passing a chain through the holes in the horns for the sprocket's axles. This allowed the wreck to be dragged into the pit, but also caused both horns to bend as the tank was dragged this way and that.
I had the good fortune to be in Flesquieres a couple of weeks ago. Philippe Gorczynski very kindly and without notice spent a couple of hours on the Flesquieres ridge explaining that part of the battle to me and then showed me over Deborah. According to Philippe, the sprockets were removed as Gwyn suggests in order to allow the tank to be pulled into a crater. For some reason the crater in which she was buried was some 800m from where she was destroyed. Philippe found one sprocket near the front of the tank, and the other is still buried and wasn't located. Philippe said that the rear horns were bent as the vehicle was pulled into the crater. You can see the damage to the right horn's sprocket axel holes done by the chains used to drag her.
