Thanks to Burkey, his grand dad passed down a letter he wrote during WW1 about the tanks:
" we were in the "Valley of Death", a name given to the valley by the British. The tanks are there with shell holes right through them, when the ground got too soft they were useless and could not be moved. They did their work, and their occupants died."
This image shows the Germans retrieving dead captured tanks and sending them back to Germania after the battle of Campri.(their second outing, three months later). After digging them out and placing dollies(left) under the hulks, they would be towed back by traction engine(also left) and jacked up so flat bed carriages could be rolled underneath.
http://anyskin.tumblr.com/post/163058921982#notes
You sure that's WWII? It looks more like WWI to me.
ReplyDeletethose damn Germans (you're not German are you?) tricked you! It's a trap! They figure some one would see this, and walk over and ask why the hell a WW1 tank is still hanging around... then someone sneaks up behind you and bops you in the head, and you're in the pokey!
DeleteWho would work under that!!!
ReplyDeleteOh pshaw... good old british engineering? What could go wrong? Safe as a baby's crib!
DeleteW.W.One
ReplyDeleteYes, and in my head while typing I said to myself, World War one... but what my damn fat fingers did was double cross me and hit the 2 instead. Well... I corrected it. And chopped off my fingers. I now push the keys on the keyboard with a long stick held between my teeth
DeleteIn the background there is a tank on a RR car. Maybe they are unloading (or loading) them.
ReplyDeletewow, that is WAY back there! I hadn't even noticed that! Thanks!
DeleteMy great grandfather fought along side the tanks at Passchendaele(their first outing) and mentions them in one of his letters:
ReplyDelete" we were in the "Valley of Death", a name given to the valley by the British. The tanks are there with shell holes right through them, when the ground got too soft they were useless and could not be moved. They did their work, and their occupants died."
This image shows the Germans retrieving dead captured tanks and sending them back to Germania after the battle of Campri.(their second outing, three months later). After digging them out and placing dollies(left) under the hulks, they would be towed back by traction engine(also left) and jacked up so flat bed carriages could be rolled underneath. The jacks look like railway jacks, with a gear reduced worm drive for lift.
Heres another shot of the same occasion, .
http://i.imgur.com/cf28c7W.jpg
On the far left is a steam tractor that has been used to drag these damaged tanks off the field. The rollers are like towing dollies on a wrecker. The sponsons have been removed from the tank on the lift so that it will clear tunnels and other narrow areas while being transported by rail. The tank already on the rail car looks pretty rough, like it was hit by artillery.
ReplyDelete