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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> References -> Tankfest 2012 WW1 photographs
Post Info TOPIC: Tankfest 2012 WW1 photographs
Rob


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Tankfest 2012 WW1 photographs
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I spent the past weekend at the Bovington Tank Museum's 'Tankfest' event. As a living historian with the Great War Society, I was one of several members doing 1917 Tank crew during most of the day, then a quick change into 1917 infantry to match the rest of the group for the battle arena display in the late afternoon. Due to the large volume of public I didn't get a chance to look at much of the other displays, so my photos are confined to our WW1 display and a quick look around the museum. A superb event and I will definitely be back either in uniform or just as a paying member of public next year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwK4_lD6g-8&feature=context-cha - replica Mk IV Male Tank on the move

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96x53GPU5Ag&feature=plcp - 1917 Matchless Motorcycle and Vickers machine gun armed sidecar on the move


As part of our display we had the replica Mk IV 'Male' Tank built for Stephen Spielburg's 'War Horse' film. The exterior is extremely accurate, and after inspecting it I could only find about two highly minor and nit-picking inaccuracies. It runs as well, and has been built so it even moves like the real thing when you watch archive footage of them

Captured Maxim MG08/15 and anti-tank rifle

Lewis Gun Cart (man-hauled cart for two Lewis light machine guns, ammunition and accessories)

Matchless 8hp, 1000cc Motorcycle and Vickers machine gun armed sidecar. Ordered in 1916 by the Russian Government, built in 1917 and were never shipped owing to the revolution, so taken up by the Motor Machine Gun Corps of the British Army instead. It's the only Matchless Motorcycle + Vickers combo left (there are two others - both Clyno's, one at the National Motorcycle Museum and one in storage owned by the Imperial War Museum), and of the three motorcycle machine gun combos left, it's the only one running

1917 Lewis gun team

Tank crew in a real WW1 Tank in the museum's collection, illustrating the cramped space between the sides and the engine

Myself as 1917 Tank Corps

1917 Tankies

Interior of the running replica (as mentioned, it was built for a five minute segment of a film and was only meant to be accurate for the exterior)

1924 Rolls Royce armoured-car, developed from the WW1 version

Medium Mark A 'Whippet' Tank

Mark II Heavy Tank 'Flying Scotsman', which served at the Battle of Arras in 1917 and still sports damage received

 

 



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Tank


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Thanks for posting pics and videos very good, I wish I went but going down next wk end with my son ,smile



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TinCanTadpole


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Thanks indeed, Rob. Looks like the weather was good (our one day of summer this year ? ). Having looked at the vid, I'd say they were actually conservative on the speed of the tank - it's doing maybe a couple of mph, rather than almost 4mph. If you actually figure out how fast these things moved (full speed - not the low gear driving normally seen in footage from France/Belgium), they weren't quite such snails as most people think (or the figures suggest).

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BC312


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Great pictures, something i would like to re-enact rather than WW2. Is the MkIV replica a metal fabricated tank or is it made out of plywood?

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Rob


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It's metal - I think the roof may be some sort of hard wood, but everything 'toucable' was certainly metal. Fully agree with TCT about the speed of them, 4mph is actually quite a decent speed, and double that for the Whippet! Whenever someone criticises the early Tanks, which is fairly easy to do, the best reply is 'compared to what?' - whatever you complain about the early Tanks for, slow, thin armour, not very manouvreable etc, they were a lot better than the other option available - unprotected infantry - and for the British Tanks, nothing available during WW1 beat them for what they were meant to do

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CharlieC


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I should be saving my $s to get to Tankfest.....

A point, I think, is lost about the low speed of early tanks is that without a suspension the accelerations on the driver mean that the tank would be undriveable at any modest speed. I remember reading (somewhere) that the max. vertical accelerations a driver can tolerate and still be in control of the vehicle is about 1G. There were engines/transmissions around at the time which could have driven the Mark I+ tanks at higher speeds it seems likely that the tanks would have been uncontrollable on any surface which wasn't dead flat and smooth.

I note the experimental Whippet fitted with a Rolls-Royce Eagle engine which could achieve quite high speeds (25mph?) - pity the poor driver. The German A7V could achieve higher speeds (about 15 kph) but that had a suspension.

Regards,

Charlie 



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Rob


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A good point - talked to the driver on Sunday morning and, as can be seen in the photos, there is a sports car style seat with full harness straps - and he mentioned it is definitely needed in there whilst driving it!

I hope my group will be back there next year - if so it should mean the Matchless motorcycle will be there too. I'll be able to expand the Tank Corps display between now and then too, at the least I'll have my replica .303 Hotchkiss and hopefully a few more 6 pounder rounds

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TinCanTadpole


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Just to add my tuppence worth, it's said that the fast Whippet was fitted with leaf springs (though whether springs or R-R Eagle were fitted first is beyond my ken), and the photo of it (in the LS article, I think) bears this out, with some sort of guide slots for the rollers in the modified track frames. Mind you, it looks like there would have been very little suspension travel, so doing 30mph would be a rough ride.

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Paul Bonnett


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Do you have any sort of idea of the weight of the replica tank ,Rob ? Found it interesting watching the damage to the ground as the tank passed in the film clip.
Excellent reference for future dioramas !!!

Paul

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Rob


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About 8 tons I was told

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Paul Bonnett


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Many Thanks

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