The more I look at all the pics on my harddisk I have a slight suspicion, that the Tankograd booklet could eventually be wrong in the interpretation of the hatches. I can’t make out any single A7V with four lovres on the upper/outher side. The picture in Withmore, M. « Mephisto – A7V Sturmpanzerwagen 506 », p. 35 shows 542 „Elfriede“. Here, the four louvres that are very clearly visible as they are on some photos too, but they are always on the underside/innerside of the hatch. The opposite side had three slits as the lovres were arranged offset as shown in this sketch:
__ __ __ __upper side
__I __ __ __ I__ lower side
Even the pic of 540 in Hundleby & Strasheim « The German A7V Tank & the Captured British Mark IV Tanks of World War I », p. 145 (Nr. 503 is wrong in this book), that shows four rows could be explained. This tank is shown here in being scrapped at the train station of Iuwy. So the upper part oft he hatch must have been removed already, showing only the lower part in place.
As far as I can see, that would mean the following arrangements:
I do not want to affront all Meng modelers or all the serious researchers with this bold claim, so I hope someone can contribute to the previous knowledge...
-- Edited by Peter T on Sunday 11th of February 2018 12:47:50 PM
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"Siplicity is the ultimate sophistication" -Leonardo Da Vinci-
This issue has already been discussed on this forum shortly after the Tankograd book was published. We agreed that four louvres belonged to the inner side, while the outer side showed only three, because the turret hatch had only two layers (inner/outer), as opposed to the large front/rear louvres which had three layers. So, yes, you're right.
