4. Are the dark lines on the gun shield and sponson there to camouflage where the location of the visions slots are to fool snipers?
5. why are the dark lines not on the main body of the tank?
6.What colour would the dark lines be?
7. What colour would the edging around the white letters of Ernest be?
8.Do you have more info or photos of Ernest 2345?
Last question
9. Why are these two comments different and which one is true?
A wounded man being lifted from a tank (ERNEST) into a Ford motor ambulance (No. 13) near St Julien, 27th September 1917. "G" Tank Battalion, 39th Division. IWM Q3548
From Landships List 26-Sep-17 – "E" Bttn, 14 Coy, 5 sec, E24, 2Lt Webster - In action, Rallied 95-111
20-Nov-17 - E Bttn, 14 Coy, 5 sec, E24, 2Lt Webster - Attacked. Engaged enemy. Broke down just beyond German front line. Rallied
Would it be possible to have a high resolution scan of this photo and that of 2324 too? Both tanks are Lincoln machines which I have a particular interest in. If so I could PM you with my email addrsess
Oh dear. Slight confusion here because of a century-old administrative error.
There is a document in file WO95/98 at The National Archives at Kew headed "1st Brigade Tank Corps, Operations with 5th Army 26th September 1917, E Battalion - No. 14 Company". This lists a tank 'Ernest' commanded by 2/Lt Webster, with the crew number E24 and manufacturer's number 2345. Unfortunately, this can't be, because 2345 was tank E1 'Eye Witness' on that date and we have other documents that confirm that. 'Ernest' was actually 2354.
Now Webster commanded 2354 'Ernest' on 26 Sept 1917 and he commanded a tank of that name at Cambrai on 20 November 1917. However E Battalion records for Cambrai do not give manufacturer's numbers, so I cannot tell you whether it was the same tank. My instinct is that it probably was.
So the Landships website notes are fine. The IWM caption is dodgy because I don't see where G Battalion fits in, but other than that I don't see a contradiction between them.
The colours of the pennant would be those of E Battalion, so red over light blue. I don't know what 'T' refers to. I think it likely the lines on the sponson are to camouflage the position of slits. There are no slits on the horns and the Germans knew this, but I imagine there would be similar lines on the cab front. I'll leave it to others to debate colours; these are questions that hold no interest for me.
As tanks3 has noted the tank was built by William Foster & Co in Lincoln (true for 2345 and 2354) and so it would have all the detail features common to Lincoln produced Mark IV Males (envelope radiator etc).
The tank went on to serve with 12th Battalion in 1918, under the guise of L26 'Leuwa' commanded by 2/Lt W. H. Hayward. It was lost on 22 August 1918 to four direct hits at Gomelcourt.
