I was watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ0QpbTZDq0 about parades in russia and they had the MK V hermaphrodite tanks on parade.
But the tanks had the canon / mg sponsons on either side. some had the canon on the starboard side, others had it on the port side. The same for the MG sponsons .
Was there a rule as to which side had what ? or is this a Russian modification of the MK V tanks. ? Any other info on them around ?
Hello Ned,
wasn't it so that you had to have one male and one female to make two hermaphrodites. Take one gunsponson from the male and attach it to the female version and then put the MG sponson on the male version. In that way you will get guns on both sides ....
Or am I thinking to simple?
Best regards,
Willem
Willem, that is usually how they get Hermies.. I remember (vaguely, from some obscure book) reading that at least 4 Male Mk Vs' were turned over to the White Russian.
If that is the case, then at least 4 females needed to be turned over as well, Or damaged tanks cannibalized to make the Hermaphrodites.
Well, I don't really have much time to explain this right now. I'll come back to it. But they did NOT make two Composites (as I prefer to call them though both terms are accurate) from one Male and one Female.
So, having given you a clue to start, I'll explain in a few days time.
OK. I have a short period of time and half-decent WiFi on a train so here goes.
When British tanks met the A7V for the first time it is generally regarded, in Britain at least, as a British victory. It was nothing of the sort. The A7Vs had seen off a number of Female tanks that couldn't compete with them. In effect the Female tank concept became obsolete overnight.
To deal with this, the Tank Corps needed more cannon armed tanks. The solution was the Composite. But simply sharing Male guns between Males and Females didn't alter anything as then the Males would be less able to deal with the A7Vs than they were before.
So, in the first instance, Central Workshops took two of the new Mark V Female tanks and one obsolescent Mark IV Male, took the sponsons off the Mark IV and gave one each to the two Females. The two Mark V Female sponsons were put on the Mark IV.
Later, when wrecked Mark V Males and Composites became available Male sponsons were removed and given to Females coming straight from the factory. Note that during the war, only Mark V Females were converted to Composites.
After the war there was a second programme to convert tanks to Composites but this also involved Male tanks.
No Composites were built as Composites by the factory. This was considered but ruled out on the grounds it would disrupt the production process. This wasn't just an idle reason, as I now understand why this would have been a serious problem, but that's another matter.
Oh, and the tanks sent to Russia were for the most part Composites. Possibly all of them were and the surviving 9303 was converted back to a Female, I don't know. So the Red Russians captured Composites and used them. They didn't invent them or build them - that idea needs to be squashed right away.
