Are your louvres on the right way round ?

[Chris Hall]

I spent a happy day at Bovington yesterday, trawling through the Archives and taking numerous photos of their unparalleled collection on WW1 tanks (which I've often done before, but never with such a specific project in mind). Although I was particularly interested in anything relating to 'my' tank (4571), I found the following which may be of interest / assistance to you all.

Regretfully, Bovington's historical data concerning actual tanks is extremely limited. Actual tanks are hardly ever mentioned, and crew details are largely limited to Officers rather than other ranks (unless they won a bravery award). I'm hoping that a trip to the National Archives at Kew might be more productive. But there were two documents I found of particular interest, which were recent papers (2008 and 2011). A summary of the key points is as follows:

Gwyn Evans - The Mark IV: The tank's production, development and manufacturers numbers

Mr. Evans has, as the title implies, done a lot of research into the various companies that built the tanks, drawing together the findings of others as well as adding his own efforts. He admits that the data is not 100% reliable, as historical records do not exist. His main supposition is that manufacturers would have been awarded a block of numbers to build, to provide some consistency to the War Office procurement process. Also, awarding numbers in blocks, to different manufacturers at different times, would help to confuse the Germans as to the actual number of tanks in existence.

The summation of his research, which I found most interesting, is detailed in a table which works for me - it states that 4571 was a Female, built by the Coventry Ordnance Works, which fits with my research. Most usefully to me, it shows that the surviving Mk. IV Female ('Grit') at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is from the same production run, which gives me a model to follow (fortunately there are loads of pictures of 'Grit' available, as my research budget / wife's tolerance doesn't stretch to a trip to Australia !).

There's also some interesting thoughts on the likelihood of Mk. IV 'composites' (Hermaphrodites), which he considers to be unlikely, and probably derived from some post-war Tank Memorials being former Males retro-fitted with Female sponsons as they were less likely to be used in possible Communist revolutions !

Dick Harley - The design and development of the Tank, Mark IV, 1917-1918

Mr. Harley has concentrated on the differences in construction between different manufacturers, and changes in the light of field operations, using original photographs and surviving examples. In summary, these cover:

- towing lugs on the rear horns;
- the radiator on the rear panel;
- sponsons (especially Male);
- the position of the unditching beam and rails;
- fascine release gear;
- Beute (captured) amendments by the Germans (my particular interest !).

Many of these changes are also affected by time. Very broadly, they can be split over 3 periods: original issue to pre-Cambrai; Cambrai to early 1918; and March 1918 to the introduction of the Mk. V. Most of the changes he identifies relate to particular manufacturers and periods. How much of this is of interest to you will really depend on which actual tank you're modelling, cross-referenced to Mr. Evans table above. But, for me, the key findings were:

a) the louvres on the rear radiator (Armortek's part no. EK0632) generally pointed downward. However, 'Lodestar III' (Male 4093) in Brussels and the Female tank at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the USA have them pointing upwards. There is a suggestion that the 50 Females built by Mirrlees, Watson and Co. (nos. 4651 to 4700) could also have them pointing upwards. Fortunately (whether by accident or design !) the Armortek louvres seem to fit at either angle - hence the enigmatic title to this posting.

b) Up to October 1917, Mk. IV's seemed to have their unditching beams above the rope box. By early 1918, though, the unditching beam was slung much further back, over the fuel tank. This enabled it to be released from the rear door, which was obviously far safer for the crew than clambering on top. This was made even easier by raising the unditching rails a few inches, although that probably wouldn't show up in our scale.

c) many Mk. IV's carried extra armour plate over the fuel tank, which is not evident on Bovington's Mk. IV (and hence not available in our kits, so it will need to be scratch-built).

If you've stuck with me so far - thanks, and well done ! I hope it's been of interest.

And, as for my search for data on 4571, I did find a tantalising photo of a 5th Battalion Female called 'Eve' captured by the Germans - the search goes on ......

All the best,

Chris

[Dave Chalmers]

Hi Chris,

Grit is not currently on display at the Australian War Memorial, but I had the opportunity to spend a few hours going over her while she was in refurbishment a few years ago. I have a lot of photos taken then. Given a little bit of notice, I will be able to gain access to her in storage to photograph or measure anything you might need.

Cheers

Dave