Landships II

The Beutepanzer mark IV acquisition and use is detailed in Hundleby & Strasheim's book - "The German A7V Tank" (1990). Unfortunately this is out of print and second hand copies sell for stupid amounts (>$200) these days. Hopefully Tankograd might do a volume on the Beutepanzers in WW1.

The earliest German examination of a Mark I was at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 but this was fairly cursory. Although various tanks were examined (usually knocked out) during 1917 it wasn't until after Cambrai in Nov 1917 that the Germans captured running Mark IVs. Out of 50 captured at Cambrai the Germans managed to get about 30 running. they were first used at St Quentin, 21 March 1918. The Germans found the Mark IV too slow to be able to support infantry attacks so they never were very useful to the German army. The Beute Mark IVs were not recovered after they broke down or hit so the British may have recaptured some.

However, the British were re-equiping with the Mark V so the Mark IVs were considered obsolete and there's no record of the reuse of Beute Mark IVs. The Germans rearmed many of Beute Mark IVs - I'd guess the British didn't think it worthwhile to change them back to British armament.

Regards,

Charlie

I had a feeling that I'd read somewhere of some Tanks changing hands more than once, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

By the time Beute Mk IVs were being knocked out or abandoned they were obsolete as far as the Allies were concerned. The German modifications (to the gun mounts in particular) would have had to be reversed and I suspect it wasn't worth the time and effort, even to use them for Supply Tanks. I could, of course, be wrong.

As far as I can see, all Beutepanzer recaptured by the British were broken up. But the French captured at least two (Liesel and Lotte ) and put them on display at the Fort de la Pompelle, near Reims, where they remained until 1942, when the Germans took them away and melted them down.