Landships II

Pzkpfw-e · Commander in Chief

Where were these?

James H · Legend

My, my. That is interesting. The Whippet is the prototype, so I can't see it being APG. When did Bov have an A7V, unless it's Schnuck between Horse Guards' Parade and the scrapyard? It isn't Freikorps.

Baffled. Where did the pic com from?

CharlieC · Legend

Could it be Dollis Park in North London? It looks like a Medium C alongside the A7V which would rule out APG - the US didn't get any of these afaik.

Regards,

Charlie

James H · Legend

That's well worth the umpire's consideration, Charles.

mad zeppelin · Commander in Chief

The A7V is 504 ("Schnuck"). So, London would be a fair guess.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

I'm pretty sure pics of Dollis Hill show the prototype Whippet lived there, so that would have been my suggestion too.

PS: am I right in thinking that the tank second from the right is a Mk VII?

-- Edited by TinCanTadpole on Tuesday 6th of May 2014 11:22:41 PM

James H · Legend

TinCanTadpole wrote:
PS: am I right in thinking that the tank second from the right is a Mk VII?

Oh, my word. I think it is. Higher unditching beam rail, and something on top of the cab? Excellent spot. What a photo this is.

Paul Bonnett · Hero

Looking at this photo enlarged, it shows what looks like barbed wire wrapped around each tank ?
Paul

James H · Legend

Barbed wire presumably to keep the public off the machines.

Never paid much attention to the Mk VII, since it doesn't really figure in the history, but I now notice that the thing on top of the cab is a ventilation louvre. That necessitated raising the unditching beam rail. There were also louvres above the engine, by the look of things. I would have thought that would have been a bit risky in combat. Anyone know anything about them?

CharlieC · Legend

I think the Mark VII was intended to have the Williams-Janney hydraulic variable speed drive but the drive proved difficult and expensive to manufacture

The Wilson epicyclic gearbox in the Mark V proved to be more than satisfactory so any enthusiasm for the Mark VII quickly evaporated. I've read that it was

intended to build 75 Mark VIIs but in the event only the prototype was built.

Regards,

Charlie

James H · Legend

I think I read somewhere that three were built but only one delivered. The stuff about the Williams-Janney sounds familiar. As far as I can tell, we now know of 4 photos of the Mk VII (inc this latest one). In the one on the FSU site something can dimly be seen in the background - a cab of another rhomboid, I think.

The reason I ask about the ventilation louvres is that they must have presented an entry point for small arms fire, incendiary liquids, and other things you very much wanted to keep out. I wonder how they were constructed.

-- Edited by James H on Thursday 8th of May 2014 11:16:08 AM

TinCanTadpole · Legend

Enthusiasm for the Mk VII evaporated?? Hmmm, must look to see where I got my impressions from, because I read ("somewhere", naturally) that the Mk VII had been ordered into production (the somewhere I speak of will be online, and may well be some part of Landships), and that only three were built because of the Armistice causing orders to be cancelled. The cooling problems with the Williams-Janney in the original trial using a Mk II were presumably either sorted out or lessened.

Anyway, that much is all to be taken with reasonable scepticism, since it is a matter of memory and of online sources!

I think I can say with greater certainty that the Mk VII was to have fans mounted in the ventilators, presumably electric ones. I doubt the louvres would have presented any greater risk than the ventilation in the roof of Schneiders or A7Vs, and it could only have improved the trying conditions for the crew if the heat and fumes could be reduced to more comfortable levels.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

As a 'PS' to my last post, I suggest anyone wanting to view the Mk VII photo James linked to goes to the FSU site itself rather than using the link, as it seems to be re-routing through something called "api.viglink.com"; it does show the photo, and Norton and MacAfee claim viglink.com to be safe, but the user feedback for that site is unsavoury - caution would be wise, as one user comment said that this website uses Javascript to re-route the links of other websites for it's own purposes.

Rectalgia · Legend

I'm not seeing that redirection behaviour (SeaMonkey, Firefox and IE8 browsers). Has it gone away now?

James H · Legend

Well, that's completely over my head.

Tonys · Field Marshal

Repeat of my post under a previous article

Haven't come across anything dodgy, and adblock.plus hasn't picked up anything either on Firefox, so I looked up VigLink and found that there is an opt-out link (http://www.viglink.com/opt-out). This could either solve the problem (by opting out) or it could increase the problem when they sell your email address to others!

Tony

James H · Legend

The answer seems to be not Dollis Hill, north-west London, but Crystal Palace, Penge, south-east London.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205076551

Original Crystal Palace was in Hyde Pk. The Mk II (1854-1936) was built in South London and destroyed by fire. If I interpret the pics correctly, the vehicles have been assembled prior to installation in the hall.

And the end of the Gun Carrier: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205076646

And of Schnuck: http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/transforming-iwm-london/2012/07/a-look-back-how-iwm-has-changed-over-the-decades/

-- Edited by James H on Sunday 21st of September 2014 11:48:34 PM

CharlieC · Legend

I agree the Crystal Palace looks likely.

The whole collection of IWM images of the Crystal Palace collection is interesting

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/listing/object-205013123?items_per_page=10

I'm not sure the heavy AFVs made it inside the hall although the FT seems to have.

The Gun Carrier image in the collection is interesting - it still has the steering tail - is it the prototype Gun Carrier?

Regards,

Charlie

Gwyn Evans · Legend

James H wrote:
And the end of the Gun Carrier: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205076646
Sacrilege. Blooming vandals.
Still, a very useful picture to see the construction.
Gwyn

Great War Truck · Brigadier

CharlieC wrote:
I agree the Crystal Palace looks likely.
The whole collection of IWM images of the Crystal Palace collection is interesting
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/listing/object-205013123?items_per_page=10
I'm not sure the heavy AFVs made it inside the hall although the FT seems to have.
The Gun Carrier image in the collection is interesting - it still has the steering tail - is it the prototype Gun Carrier?
Regards,
Charlie

What on earth is that in the background of Q17277

Interesting to see that the Thornycroft J Type which makes several appearances was a workshop truck. I knew the gun lorry was there and always thought the second Thorny had been a GS version. Anyway, how interesting.

MK1 Nut · Hero

There's more of the tanks being dismantled here ... IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVE MUSEUM EVENTS COLLECTION

MK1 Nut · Hero

Great War Truck wrote:
CharlieC wrote:
I agree the Crystal Palace looks likely.
The whole collection of IWM images of the Crystal Palace collection is interesting
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/listing/object-205013123?items_per_page=10
I'm not sure the heavy AFVs made it inside the hall although the FT seems to have.
The Gun Carrier image in the collection is interesting - it still has the steering tail - is it the prototype Gun Carrier?
Regards,
Charlie
What on earth is that in the background of Q17277
Interesting to see that the Thornycroft J Type which makes several appearances was a workshop truck. I knew the gun lorry was there and always thought the second Thorny had been a GS version. Anyway, how interesting.

You mean number 35 in the background from this view? It's ummm different! confuse