Tanks & The First World War: Mark Tanks

Welcome back to our Tanks & The First World War series, with today's post being all about Mark. By the end of the war, the Mark tank would have so many variations as the reality of war meant that improvements were constantly needed. But it all began with the Mark I tank, with two variation, male and female. 

The Mark I Female tank had four Vickers machine guns as well as one 8mm Hotchkiss machine gun and weighed an impressive 27 tonnes. Th


is tank or landship as they were originally called, was nicknamed Mother. A Male version was also created which was armed with two 6 pound QF Hotchkiss and three 8mm Hotchkiss machine guns. Due to the mix of cannons and machine guns, the male tank weighed a little more than the female version, coming in at 28 tonnes. Both variants could carry a crew of up to eight men, which if you get a chance to see the size of the tank in the flesh, means that they were pretty much packed in like sardines. The Mark I tanks travelled at a maximum speed of 3-4 mph, which compared with today's tanks, is very slow indeed. 

Despite how slow they were, they were still a huge help at the front. This new type of weapon was designed to do more than just fire its weapons. They were used to clear barbed wire to make way for the infantry, as well as destroying trees in the way. There is even stories that suggest the tanks were driven through houses in order to destroy machine gun emplacements inside them. 

Minor improvements were made in the Mark II variant, but as they were only meant to be used for training purposes, they were reportedly clad in unhardened steel. These minor improvements were so small that it isn't really worth mentioning in detail, so then we move onto the Mark III.

The Mark III was a tank that never saw overseas action and was again used as a training tank. This version was meant to have the latest designs that were proposed for the new Mark IV which we will talk about in a moment, yet it took so long and was slow in the technological change that it never really had its limelight. The Mark III was capable of carrying Lewis machine guns and a small sponson for the female versions. 

In May 1917, the Mark IV went into production. This new version was designed based on the feedback from the front line, with the hope that the small changes would help to bring the war to a close. The Mark IV carried shorter barrelled 6 pound guns, whilst the sponsons could be pushed in where necessary, which was extremely useful when it came to rail transportation. Previous versions of the Mark tank were prone to breaking down or getting stuck in the mud, which was the last thing we wanted, because it meant that the German's could inspect our new weapon of war, enabling them to design an anti tank weapon themselves in response.  This had been taken on board with the designing of the Mark IV because the rails on the roof carried an un-ditching beam in the hope that they would last longer. The crew's safety was also improved with the movement of fuel storage to be situated in a single external tank found between the rear track horns so harder for the enemy to target. In all some 420 Males and 595 Females were built of this variant, with 205 of the tanks being used for carrying supplies only. 

Lastly, the Mark V was designed to be a completely new tank, but due to circumstances of the war, ended up just having minor improvements made on the Mark IV version, again with nothing worth talking about, other than to say that 200 Males and 200 Females were made of this variant. This wouldn't be the last version of the Mark tanks, in fact there would be a few more as men tried to make them easier to run and more adaptable to their surrounding. Yet they were a great base to start with, that would in many years to come be the warfare that we now know today. 

To see how manoeuvrable and slow the Mark tanks were I suggest first and foremost you watching the War Horse movie if you haven't done so already because it gives you such a great indication of what they were really like during wartime and if you get the chance I would highly recommend you visiting The Tank Museum situated at Bovington, Dorset, where you can see the replica tank used in War Horse. The Tank Museum hold there Tankfest days annually and is well worth a visit so that you can see the War Horse Tank as it has become known, travelling around the arena as well as stood side by side with today's modern tanks, giving you a glimpse into how far they have come in 100 years of the tank. Don't forget to check back soon for the latest in this series.