Landships II

Indeed.

You might be interested in/ amused by this discussion on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mark_V_tank#Dates_of_Service.

Strange arguing by one of the participants, who seems quite unable to take in some very straightforward information. You can chip in if you wish - it's the encyclopaedia anyone can edit . . .

I can however tell you a tale about the conclusion to the Osprey on the Mark V, since that forms part of the pointless debate. I was visiting the Tank Museum Archives one day when David Fletcher was pondering over the unwelcome problem that he had to find something to say about the Mark V by way of conclusion for his new Osprey, as after the layout was done it was found there was about half a page to spare. I suggested he say something about one Mark V Composite that had a particularly long "life". I had in mind 9146, which I knew had been knocked out in October 1918 but still managed to find its way to Berlin by 1945 by way of the South Russia Detachment, the Red Army and as a memorial in Smolensk. I ignored the Mark V Female that stood alongside it in Smolensk and again in Berlin, because I couldn't (and still can't) identify it and so I don't know its history. David followed my suggestion focusing on just that one tank. Now whether he got the wording slightly wrong or whether a nuisance editor was involved I don't know, but the final published text looks like David is saying there was only one Mark V in Berlin, when clearly there were two. Anyway, that's why I'm mentioned in the acknowledgements to the book.

Gwyn

OK
G

More on the Smolensk angle: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=497914020274926&id=178514075548257

"A one more detail that helps identify Mk.V #9146 in Berlin as former Smolensk monument - the tactical sign: number "1" and 1/1 in a colored circle next to it.
Top - Berlin, 1945; bottom - Smolensk, 1941."

Pzkpfw-e wrote:

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Looks like a 21cm Morser next to it. Was that a museum piece or did the Germans actually still use them in WW2?

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 The story, I now learn, is this: The Zeughaus was the former arsenal in Berlin, converted to a military museum. In March 1943 there was an exhibition of captured Russian war trophies. Hitler visited it on March 21st (which is/was Heldengedenktag, a day of remembrance for the German dead of WWI). Incidentally, there was a plot to assassinate him during that visit, but he unexpectedly cut the tour short, and the plot failed. It would appear that exhibits too big to get into the museum were put outside, in the Lustgarten, just across the river, in front of the cathedral and Altes Museum. It seems only logical that the Mk Vs would be amongst such items. In fact, Hitler had visited Smolensk a week earlier, so we can't rule out the possibility that he saw the Mk Vs and ordered that they be moved to Berlin.

The 21cm seems also unlikely to have been accommodated in the Zeughaus. Maybe it had been on display in Russia, too. I don't think that model was used in WWII.

Although it is not utterly impossible, it pretty much defies all logic that the Mk Vs could have been serviceable in April 1945. We know they came from Smolensk, and I doubt they were maintained during what was probably 10 years outside the cathedral there. As to whether they would have been any use even as pillboxes during the Battle of Berlin - someone might have hidden behind them, but would anyone encase themselves in a 10-foot high heap of 25-year-old, wafer-thin armour plate when the streets were full of T-34s? You'd be better off in a cellar or behind some rubble.