Landships II

Incidentally - this reference, http://xbradtc.com/2011/12/17/18-pdr-and-m1917/ appears to answer the question of the rope cladding of the recuperator tube seen in some examples.  "Often a crews wrapped a rope around the outside spring housing for additional protection of the tube (mostly against dents that would block the motion of the springs)."  If correct, this applied to the hydraulic-spring buffer-recuperator system of the Mk I, those problematic springs (breaking and weakening mentioned in numerous references) being replaced by a drop-in replacement hydraulic-pneumatic system in British service (Mk I*, Mk 2/2*?).

Not sure that point has been resolved in earlier discussions here - there was a suggestion the rope was for heat management (when dampened) but can't find anything else offhand.