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Post Info TOPIC: Contemporary Photo and Writeup on the Capture of A7V 542 Elfriede


Sergeant

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Contemporary Photo and Writeup on the Capture of A7V 542 Elfriede
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This picture and caption was published apparently late in the summer of 1918, after the second Battle of the Marne.  The article as shown is contained in a National Archives file titled [Report on Captured German A7V Tank, "Nixen"].  It should be Nixe II, of course, more to come on that topic.  Other corrections include that the tank was captured earlier by the French in late April of 1918 near Villlers Bretonneux and it was never sent back into combat.

IMG_7061b.jpg



-- Edited by Neal on Wednesday 7th of July 2021 08:30:46 PM

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Neal


Legend

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The comment in the caption that the armour on Nixie II was comparatively soft might be the origin of the myth that the

A7Vs used mild steel rather than armour plate which persisted for years. In fact the tests the French Army did on the armour

on Elfriede showed it was made of a similar steel to French armour plate (4% Nickel face hardening steel) and, if anything, was

harder than the French armour.

Charlie

The French armour plate testing results are on this forum (somewhere) - I found the 15mm plate results in a French training manual and 

Marc Romanych found the 30mm plate results in a report at NARA.  

 



-- Edited by CharlieC on Wednesday 7th of July 2021 11:15:26 PM



-- Edited by CharlieC on Thursday 8th of July 2021 03:35:46 AM

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Field Marshal

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Bonjour

French military photo done in Saleux : 18  May 1918

Team from SRR 101 in charge of Elfriede

 

AboutA7V Elfriede :

https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=52662

https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=52559

https://forum.pages14-18.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=52822

 

Bonne lecture - Michel



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Sergeant

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The July 1918 Ord. Office Tank Div. AEF dimensioned side might the earliest source of the finding that the A7V 30mm front armor "soft".  It lists the 16mm side armor as treated and the 30mm front armor as untreated.



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Neal


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There was a thread on A7V armour plate at:

https://landships.activeboard.com/t63367459/a7v-armour-plate-properties/

in that I translated the results for the 15mm plate and compared it to modern EN36 case hardening steel.

Both the side and front plates had similar Brinell hardness suggesting similar depth of case hardening.

I think the myth of soft armour on the A7V comes from a misunderstanding of how armour works - face hardened

armour is not supposed to be totally rigid, and therefore brittle, it's supposed have a hard surface to defeat the penetrating

nose cap of an armour piercing shell but be resilient enough to withstand the explosion of the explosive charge of an AP round.

There was at least one A7V (possibly #527 Lotti) that took multiple hits from French 75mm shells without penetration but the side armour plates

were badly dented.

Charlie  



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Corporal

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Greetings all. May I ask a question regarding Nixe II and Elfriede.

'Elfriede' carried a single cross on its side and overturned at Villers-Bretonneux, April 24th, 1918, later being transported to Paris.

'Nixe II' carried '+ v +' and was captured on the 29th. May 1918 near Rheims and abandoned after unsuccessful salvage attempts.

I'm missing the obvious here but what is the connection?

 

Thanking you in advance, 'time for my hot co-co', Graham.

 

 



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