Hi, finaly found two rolls of my early photos that I took inside Mephisto in 1971.
Photo one. not that the rear of the ventilation Grill cover does not extend to the armoured top, there is a gap.
6. lucky on on top of Mephisto...
photo 8. the special buffers under the tank to stop object under the tank from hitting the gearbox parts.
photo 11 shows the remaning drivers eat twisted from the explosion that hit the tank. I recon any one there would have bee badly injured alone.
no. 14 the large radiators in the rear of the tank.
no 17. there are two humps in the crankcase that intrude above the level of the floor itself. since there actual covering flooring is missing, I dont know what sort of "hump" or protection there was over these.
no. 20 clearly the gun crew and thos ein the front part would have all been fatalities from the explosion.
21&22 show damage from the explosion to the hood intake on the engine. much of the other hooding around the engine has been removed.
no. 24. me in the side passage.. (now I am small. and in civies. I doubt anyone in any military gear or wearing a helmet could have fought in that section. indeed tall crew would have had a hard rime passing though the passage even sideways.. also not the 'rib" on the floor at the front end of the passage. no doubt for stiffening purposes, but a serious tripping hazard..
regards, Sandy Barrie.
-- Edited by nurgle on Friday 4th of October 2013 07:38:47 AM
May I use some of your images on Landships II please?
Your images are much clearer than the murky ones taken when Mephisto was at the Qld Museum at South Bank.
The unit at the rear of Mephisto is the gear box - it's a pretty sophisticated unit since there are two engine inputs. The gearbox when delivered was larger than
the manufacturers original specification so the gearbox protrudes above the original floor level and hangs down below the tank. I think all the Germans did was
lay a flat floor above the gearbox. The fins below the hull were designed to help protect the gearbox casings. Your image underneath the tank shows the complexity
of the Holt suspension very nicely.
Mephisto wasn't knocked out, it fell into a shell hole and couldn't be recovered. Sometime between being abandoned and being recovered by the Australians it
Hi, yes you can use them, provided you credit me. (i had a few other rolls, but they were lost along with most of my neg files in the 2011 floods, and all my print files...)
there is no way a flat floor could have been laid on top of that gearbox with those bumps, they must either put cut outs for them to protrude though, or pressed dents or welded something on to. I dont believe the original floor was in it when it arrived here.
I have seen a ver short film ages ago that appraed to be the A7V being driven off the wharfs at Kangaroo point, below where the Story Bridge now stands. But then I have also heard that it was eventualy hauled into place at the Museum building. (possible that it broke down on the way.?)
The fuel tank was missing when I photographed it. (i had taken the photos for a person I was corresponding with who wrote for Airfix magazine)
There were cut-outs provided for the upper gearbox casing bumps. - The fuel tanks (two of them, one for each engine) had already been removed when 506 was still in France. They are visible lying beside the vehicle on one or two photographs showing it with its new owners.
I've got an image of an old photo of Mephisto being towed up to the old museum by two council steam rollers. I think it was off loaded at the Norman Wharf
(about where the Eagle St pier is now) so it would be a fairly straight haul through Fortitude Valley to Gregory Tce.
Hi, considering the tank would have been bumping around, the bolts protruding inside the tank would not have been condusive to good safety.
I did con side at the time it was a serious design flaw.. I wonder how many bad backs, the constantly hunched over crew got... atleast the machine gunners and the drivers had seats.
there must have been a coveing for the engines sides, but not there when I was in it... other wise it could have led to many a scalding/burn injury.
but also the drivers position would have been a small contortion to get into from the side passage. Maybe there was foot holds in the engine covering.?
I am sorry I lost all my other photos, and these only survived due to the chaotic neg filing system (read lack of) that I have, as I also too colour, and many small detail shots of the suspension & Springs, but then again, those can be re taken anytime.
a small clue as to just how cramped it was inside, at the time, the camera was a Hasselblad Super wide C. 90' camera, very specialist in 1971... and even then I could not get everything in the cabin in the photos.... Today there are wider rectilinear lenses...
It I weren't in the Shit with the Queensland museum, I would ask to do a reshoot... (their fault. they one tried by subterfuge to get a heritage order on my collection, and it eventually got one of their leading curators sacked, also the Qld State Library have been pirating my copyright of my 12 books)
regards, Sandy
-- Edited by nurgle on Saturday 5th of October 2013 04:43:25 AM
That's a fine set of photos Sandy, thanks for sharing them with us; I particularly found the last photo interesting, as I've wondered for a while how much space there was at the sides, next to the engines.
Hi, considering the tank would have been bumping around, the bolts protruding inside the tank would not have been condusive to good safety.
I did con side at the time it was a serious design flaw.. I wonder how many bad backs, the constantly hunched over crew got... atleast the machine gunners and the drivers had seats.
there must have been a coveing for the engines sides, but not there when I was in it... other wise it could have led to many a scalding/burn injury.
but also the drivers position would have been a small contortion to get into from the side passage. Maybe there was foot holds in the engine covering.?
I am sorry I lost all my other photos, and these only survived due to the chaotic neg filing system (read lack of) that I have, as I also too colour, and many small detail shots of the suspension & Springs, but then again, those can be re taken anytime.
a small clue as to just how cramped it was inside, at the time, the camera was a Hasselblad Super wide C. 90' camera, very specialist in 1971... and even then I could not get everything in the cabin in the photos.... Today there are wider rectilinear lenses...
It I weren't in the Shit with the Queensland museum, I would ask to do a reshoot... (their fault. they one tried by subterfuge to get a heritage order on my collection, and it eventually got one of their leading curators sacked, also the Qld State Library have been pirating my copyright of my 12 books)
regards, Sandy
below is the reason for my trouble with the Queensland Museum... (yes its not a tank, but almost as big) it was offered to the Qld museum in 1976, who declined, and approved its destruction. (al slightly smaller one was destroyed before I could stop it), I rescued teh camera, and preserved it... then, embarrassed by their incredible lack of forsite in preserving "the largest wooden Camera in the world", they tried to get it back, sneakily, I have looked after it till with was damaged in the floods., along with 2,000 other cameras.
-- Edited by nurgle on Wednesday 9th of October 2013 06:51:54 AM
Been absent for a while and only just read your post. Sorry to hear of your flood losses. Irreplaceable mores the shame. Enjoyed scanning your images of Mephisto and in fact if you checked the sharp bits hanging down from the upper surface in images 8 & 11 there is possibly some of my DNA remaining.....joking but my head did come into contact with same around 60 years ago when the tank was at the original site. Thats my trivia item for the day and thanks again for sharing. Rod
It was very good to see your images of Mephisto. Would it be possible to obtain copies of these? You will be fully acknowledged if the museum chooses to use them. My email address is michael.westaway[at]qm.qld.gov.au
I am a senior curator at the QM and am working on the interpretation of the object for our new proposed gallery. An important thing that I am trying to do is find images of the tank taken by Queenslanders (or anyone else for that matter) over the last 95 years. Easier said than done.
Thanks very much
Michael
Liberty taken to "munge" e-mail address to minimise scraping by spambots
-- Edited by Rectalgia on Tuesday 7th of January 2014 09:52:53 AM
Any chance I can use some of these images on the Queensland Museum's website/facebook to encourage other folk in Australia to share their family photos of Mephisto? The tank has entranced Queenslanders now for 95 years, there must be generations of people who have their image with the tank. I would be keen to encourage a record of people connecting with the QM's most iconic object and a few good images such as these will hopefully flush out further shots.
Thanks very much
M
