Landships II

Vilkata wrote:

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In the book "Tanks In The Great War" by Fuller, it is noted that the Turks captured a British tank in the Second Battle of Gaza. And, the Turks actually faced more than one assault by tanks. I was wondering, is there any evidence indicating the Turks actually fixed up the captured Mk.I (or II) and re-employed it? Or any other tanks for that matter? While the Germans seemed to press into service any AFV that was still serviceable after battles, the Turks seemed to be much more Cavalry oriented, they did not seem to view Armor of any kind as a truly viable weapon for their purposes. Just curious! I have an old long Mauser that was possibly in service in the Ottoman army before being rebarreled to 8mm Mauser in the 30s in Germany and shipped back to Turkey. Plus the Turkish military actions were quite interesting... But of course, one of my true interests is WWI Armor, so I was just curious. ---Vil.

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Tanks were used in both the Second and Third Battles of Gaza. In both battles eight tanks were deployed. It had originally been intended to send twelve Mk IV tanks to the Middle East but due to errors the first batch contained only eight tanks probably all MK Is but there may have been some Mk II in the number. It was this eight that went into action during 2nd Gaza in ‘penny packets’ pairs being assigned to support particular units.  In a six hour engagement one tank expended 27,000 rounds of ammunition and had to withdraw with every member of the crew wounded. The heavy concentrated Turkish machine gun fire was a crucial factor in forcing back the tanks (and if some were unarmoured MkIIs then this would have been a serious problem). One tank was central in taking the great redoubt by Kirbat El Sihan but a Turkish artillery shell blew off one of its tracks and a Turkish counter attack retook the redoubt and captured the tank. Although by the end of 2nd Gaza most tanks were out off action (two having suffered direct hits from artillery) it was only the tank at Kirbat El Sihan that was captured.

Five of the tanks that took part in 2nd Gaza were recovered and repaired. These were joined by three MK IVs newly arrived from Britain and these eight were available for the Third Battle of Gaza. although only six actually took an active part. One assumes that these would have included the three better armoured Mk IVs and that the remaining three would be Mk Is  with armour (albeit thinner). The remaining two tanks were held in reserve. They played no effective part in the action as, being loaded with engineering stores, they caught fire when sent to support the infantry. It appears that in both cases inflammable material hade been loaded on the hull top too close to the exhaust. The six tanks that saw action played a material part in the success of the British forces.