Across the road from the site of Pozières windmill…
…the Tank Corps Memorial remembers all the men of the Tank Corps who fell in the Great War.
Tanks were, of course, first used just a little way north of here during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette…
…as the inscription on the main panel reminds us.
Each corner of the memorial features a model of a First World War British tank.
Neat, eh?
A hundred yards away to the north east (between the car and the memorial), you can see one of the two signs that flank the road at the point where the British Front Line crossed it on 1st September 1916.
There are three other panels, each inscribed with the names of the major battles in which tanks were involved in 1916 (above), 1917 & 1918 respectively.
A Mark IV?
Whippet tank.
Actually a Medium Mark A Whippet, to be precise.
You can just see part of the mound that was once a windmill across the road to the left of the memorial.
The Whippet again.
1917 tablet.
British Gun Carrier Mk 1.
Spotted the six-pounder tank gun barrels and driving chains used to fence three sides of the memorial, I presume?
1918 panel.
Mark I?
Next: The Butte de Warlencourt.
By the way, did you spot the Second World War damage to the model of the Whippet? Here’s a photo taken on a return visit to the memorial that shows it clearly.
Just in case anyone is wondering, the official name of the Whippet tank is Medium Tank Mark A.
The two tanks are a Mark IV and a Mark V, the difference is that the Mark V has a rear turret, the Mark IV doesn’t. On the third photograph down, the Mark IV is the left-hand tank, the Mark V the right-hand one (in the third and fifth photos, the rear turret is above the sponson).
Thank you John. I had better make sure that (a) future post(s) that I may, or may not, be currently writing about certain experimental tracked things is/are accurate, had I not? Thanks for commenting.