Great photo, with a particularly clear view of the grenade roof. If I had to guess, I would say that the camo scheme and style of grenade roof seem most typical of C Coy.
The construction of the grenade roof is a bit clearer in this photo. I can now see it is made up of two triangular frames like roof trusses at the ends, the rear one having a metal bar running from the top down to the roof of the tank. The two side sections are built and then attached to the end frames. I think I will have to revisit the Sketchup drawing I did again.
They were certainly shipped and fitted in France, after the tanks had arrived at the Happy Valley railhead near Fricourt.
I have always assume they were manufactured in the Uk but I cannot be certain
According to Trevor Pidgeon in "The Tanks at Flers", 75 grenade roofs were ordered on Sept. 3, 1916, and Albert Stern had the first 20 assembled and despatched from Avonmouth on Sept. 6. They arrived at the Loop railhead on Sept. 8, and were available to be fitted to the tanks of Sections 2, 3 and 4 of C Coy, which arrived at the Loop the next day. The remaining 55 roofs (which appear to have had a somewhat different design) arrived in France with A Coy on Sept. 15.
I would agree with Helen that the early style of roof seems to be constructed from two rectangular panels, joined at the front by an "inverted T" brace, and at the rear by a delta shaped truss. I don't think that the rear truss rested on the hull roof.
Does anyone recognize the railway car with the "CWR" marking in left background of the original photo? I wonder if this photo was taken at the Loop?
Had another look and I'm pretty sure now that the rear truss has a metal bar running vertically top to bottom, where it bolts onto the roof L Beam at the point it starts to angle down to the back. This metal bar would explain why the wooden block at the bottom doesn't appear to fix/touch the tank in a lot of the photos. It might also explain why in film footage of crew walking over the roof at the back, it springs around so much.
Bronfay Farm was the main dressing station for the British XIV Corps during the Battle of the Somme. The CWG cemetery is across the road from the farm. As seen in the aerial photo, it is near to the Loop railhead where the surviving tanks were concentrated after the Battle of Morval (Sept. 25-28, 1916).
The Loop is clearly visible, it is less than 1000 yards to the Farm.
Interesting that the steering tail had been removed within 2 weeks of the first action
