Landships II

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Tank Plan or what is it?

James H · Legend

I've seen this before. Racking my brains trying to remember where. IIRC it's one of a number of sketches by German soldiers of the tanks they encountered on Sep 15th.

It's not in A New Excalibur or The Tanks at Flers or Hundleby and Strasheim 1990. It's somewhere amongst these books. I'll keep looking.

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Thank you James. Please Keep me updated.

James H · Legend

Aha. Spoke too soon.

What you need is The Tanks at Flers by Trevor Pidgeon, Chapter 16, "The German View," pages 191 - 194.

This is one of 4 drawings by Vizefeldwebel Tauscher of 9 Company, 104 Infantry Regiment, showing his recollection of a Mark I in action on October 18th. It was shown to the High Command as they collected intelligence on the tank.

I don't know what the Rehse connection is, I'm afraid.

-- Edited by James H on Wednesday 26th of February 2020 10:45:56 PM

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Thanks for the Information.

Does anyone have a scan of the pages in that book?

Rehse was a famous collector in the years 1914-1945. He died in the late 50ies. Sorry, only in German available: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Rehse

guest · Lieutenant

@elbavaro

it's an armored tractor and not a tank

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

@guest: evidence?

James H · Legend

guest wrote:
@elbavaro
it's an armored tractor and not a tank

It certainly has some aspects of an armoured tractor - tricycle layout and skid reminiscent of the Filtz. https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1-france-flitz-armored-tractor/

Yet it supposedly had sponsons and mounted machine guns. Pidgeon says that Tauscher made 4 drawings of the machine, each slightly different, and they were presented to OHL. However, there are some holes in this. Other, far more accurate sketches of the Mark I were made, showing clearly the caterpillar tracks. And, awkwardly, there were, as far as I can tell, no British tank actions on October 18th, 1916. So what did Tauscher see? It can't have been a Filtz, because none saw action, and I can't think of anything else that might have been around.

Pidgeon says, "That the German High Command should have identified 4 different models* of the tank, and was saying so as late as 17th November, is surprising, all the more since the Head of Army Intelligence later claimed that his department had obtained details of the tank's construction from the very outset."

* Tauscher's four drawings plus three others.

It is a rather mysterious business.

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Ah - I see.

Filtz was unknown to me until now.

CharlieC · Legend

There's a cardmodel of the Filtz armoured tractor on Landships II designed by Alexandr Bondar

Regards,

Charlie

Rhomboid · Field Marshal

Two tanks were detailed to assist the attack on Bayonet Trench, south of Ligny-Thilloy, by the 30th Division on Oct. 18, 1916. In the event, only one tank (D3, 728, Lt. Head) was able to advance. The tank cleared a segment of the adjacent Gird Trench, but the infantry could not occupy the trench.

Vizefeldwebel Tauscher's unit, the 104th I.R. was stationed nearby on the Le Barque road, so he would have had a reasonable view of the action, which occurred in daylight. He evidently mistook the tracked front horns of the tank for large wheels.

The photo was taken from the British reserve lines earlier in the fall of 1916, looking northwards towards Ligny-thilloy. Bayonet Trench ran across the field in the middle distance.

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Thank you all. It came a lot of light into my new item.