Landships II

velotrain · Lieutenant

Tank-carrier wagon wood-crib loading ramp design question

rue_d_etropal · Captain

I thought they loaded from the side. Certainly seen some photos showing the process.

velotrain · Lieutenant

You're thinking of the RECtank wagons, which I believe were designed specifically for the MK IV.

velotrain · Lieutenant

Make that Mk V, although they could also take the Mk IV.

They might not have been available until 2018?

I've seen a short description of the "charge" and design somewhere.

Paul Bonnett · Hero

Maybe the spacing is to allow greater grip for the tanks whilst climbing ?
Paul

velotrain · Lieutenant

I'm quite certain that the decking is continuous - and would need to be to support the weight, but every X board is of a greater length - extending well beyond the ramp that the tanks actually use.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

There are plenty of men standing around watching/directing the proceedings: perhaps the longer boards are simply there to give them something to stand on beside the tank as they keep an eye on whether or not it's on the right line, or at risk of slipping off.

Alternatively, perhaps they are there as a precaution, to stop the tank slipping off if it runs off line.

velotrain · Lieutenant

That had seemed most likely to me as well - unrestrained from contemporary "workplace" safety regulations. �I'm not aware of an image showing the ramp close enough to say for certain if the figures are standing on the extended planks. �It does appear that the figure on the left is (behind the fellow in the turban).�

There is an edge beam, so hopefully the tank crew would be conscious of running up on that, before driving over it. �

Can anyone confirm those are two heads peering over the fascine on the second tank? �They appear to be when I enlarge the image - thereby losing sharpness.

�

This just appeared in the thread at RMweb: � �

�

Major Watson's memoir has a lot of information on this. You can read it free at this link:

https://archive.org/stream/companyoftanks00watsrich/companyoftanks00watsrich_djvu.txt

�The section around page 167 has the battle of Cambrai. He also discusses rail loading for other battles.

�It is an interesting read. Two points that I found useful regarding tank loading.

1. They would drop the fascines on to the deck of the wagon during rail movement and lift them back on the top of the tank when the train arrived.

2. The normal time to unload 12 MkIV tanks at a ramp was 30 minutes if all went well. �It sometimes took much longer.

�

�(I suspect loading takes far longer than unloading)

TinCanTadpole · Legend

Yikes! The fascines are lowered for travel, then raised again for unloading? Not something that has ever crossed my mind, but since you mention it, it would be necessary for clearance under bridges and through tunnels. Can't have been an easy task, since the fascines are said to have weighed around a ton (or at least three quarters) each.

As for the two heads, yes, I see two, and as far as I can tell they are both heads with caps on.