Mephisto (tank)

"Mephisto" on display in the Australian War Memorial, July 2015.

Mephisto is a German A7V tank captured by Australian troops, of the 26th Battalion (composed mainly of Queenslanders), led by two tanks from the Gun Carrier Company. One of only 20 built, it is the last surviving example of the first German tank. It forms part of the collection of the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. After a 2 year loan spell at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Mephisto is at present in the process of being returned to Brisbane.[1]

Description

The front of "Mephisto"

Mephisto, chassis serial number 506, is not in running order.

Unlike modern tanks, the A7V has no turret. Instead, it has a cupola for the commander and driver, and its main gun, a 57mm Maxim-Nordenfelt, is carried in a mounting in the front, allowing limited traverse. Six Maxim 08 machine guns are carried in mountings, two on each side and two to the rear.

The name "Mephisto" is painted on the end facing of the box-shaped tank, as almost all German tanks in WWI were given individual names.

Capture and transport to Australia

Soldiers' names engraved in Mephisto's rear armour.[2]

The tank was lost at the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918. The battle for the area saw the Australian, British, and German forces in a fluid situation, moving around the tank, which had been abandoned after falling into a ditch.

The 26th Battalion of the 7th Brigade, mostly from Queensland,[3] hatched a plan to capture it. In July 1918, under the cover of an artillery barrage, Australian infantry and two British vehicles (either Gun Carriers or Mark IV tanks) moved forward and dragged it back to their lines under fire from the Germans who were still within sight of the tank. They had to don gas masks after German poison gas was deployed.

The 26th Battalion working party involved in the recovery of Mephisto on 22 July 1918 probably consisted of Sergeant F.R. Hanson, Privates J. Battley, G. Bradley, T. Clark, H.J. Dray, E.J. Frost, A.W. Heit, J.J. Kennedy, T.M. Kingston, R.J. Lewis, A.G. Masters, W. Sam, and G.H. White.[4]

Mephisto being dragged into the Queensland Museum by two steamrollers in 1919

Following its capture, Mephisto was transported to the 5th Tank Brigade demonstration ground at Vaux-en-Amiénois near Amiens. During its stay there it was decorated with "soldier-art" paintings of a British lion with its paw on an A7V, many soldiers' names, details of its capture and recovery, the colour patch of the 26th Battalion and the rising sun badge of the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) The words "TANK BOYS" and the names of 13 soldiers (mainly from other Australian units) were engraved on the front, left side, and rear armour. From Vaux-en-Amiénois, Mephisto was shipped by rail to the Tank Corps Gunnery School at Merlimont and then shipped from Dunkirk to London. Proposals for it to be displayed as a war trophy in Australia were raised, and on 2 April 1919 it was loaded on the SS Armagh at Tilbury. The ship was to deliver it to Sydney, with plans for it to go to the war memorial in Canberra's display, but it was diverted to Brisbane, arriving on 6 June 1919 at the Norman Wharf (near the intersection of Creek Street and Eagle Street, approximately where the Eagle Street Pier ferry wharf is today) in the Brisbane River.[5] On 22 August 1919 two steamrollers from the Brisbane Municipal Council pulled Mephisto (travelling on its own caterpillar treads) from the wharf to the Queensland Museum (then at the Old Museum building in Bowen Hills), a journey of less than 2 miles taking 11 hours.[6][7]

Exhibition

The Queensland Museum, where it was housed, changed its location a number of times, and the tank at one point was housed outside, where it was exposed to the elements, and parts were removed from it by the public.[8] After many years it was eventually moved inside the museum and put behind glass in a temperature controlled environment that protected it from the public.

A7V Mephisto on display at The Workshops Rail Museum in Ipswich, Queensland, 2014

Following the 2011 Brisbane floods, Mephisto was removed from the Queensland Museum to an undisclosed location for restoration. It was claimed that the vehicle would be returned to the museum in 2012.[9] However, in March 2013 it was revealed that the vehicle was temporarily housed at the Workshops Rail Museum at North Ipswich where it was placed on temporary display.[10] In June 2015, Mephisto was transported to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.[11][12] After 2 years there, it is at the Workshops Rail Museum in Ipswich, awaiting return to the Queensland Museum.[1]

Replica

A replica A7V named "Wotan" but modelled substantially on "Mephisto" was built in Germany in 1988, and is on display at the German Tank Museum in Munster.[13]

Tank Boys is a 2014 novel by Stephen Dando-Collins,[14] set against the battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the fate of Mephisto. The protagonists are three under-age soldiers, two Australian and one German. The book is recommended by Booktopia as suitable for ages 10-12,[15] and the Children’s Book Council of Australia reviewed it favourably in 2014.[16] The work contains a small number of historical and technical errors.

Mephisto appears as a visual overhaul (skin) in the 2016 first-person shooter Battlefield 1.

References

  1. 1 2 Crockford, Toby (10 June 2017). "WWI Mephisto tank captured by Qld soldiers makes its journey back to Brisbane". Brisbane Times. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Whitmore, Mark (1989). Mephisto - A7V Sturmpanzerwagen 506, p. 60. Queensland Museum. ISBN 9780724233885.
  3. ↑ Morgan, Joseph (2014). "Voices from Gallipoli and the Western Front: The Forgotten 26th". Sabretache. Garran, Australian Capital Territory: Military Historical Society of Australia. LV (1): 17–27. ISSN 0048-8933.
  4. ↑ Whitmore, Mark (1994). "Mephisto, Part II". Quarterly Journal of Australian Military History: 62.
  5. ↑ "GERMAN TANK.". The Daily Mail (5185). Queensland, Australia. 7 June 1919. p. 7. Retrieved 10 June 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "Mephisto.". The Brisbane Courier (19,218). Queensland, Australia. 23 August 1919. p. 4. Retrieved 10 June 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "War Notes". The Richmond River Herald And Northern Districts Advertiser. 34, (2183). New South Wales, Australia. 29 August 1919. p. 8. Retrieved 10 June 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ Connolly, Steve "The great tank Robbery" p. 7, November 2004, The Sunday Mail.
  9. ↑ Kris Crane (20 January 2012). "Queensland Museum celebrates 150th birthday with a monster bash". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "German WWI tank in Ipswich for forensic analysis" by Kiri Ten Dolle, The Queensland Times, 16 March 2013
  11. ↑ Queensland Museum [@qldmuseum] (15 June 2015). "#Mephisto has arrived in Canberra" (Tweet). Retrieved 15 June 2015 – via Twitter.
  12. ↑ Morely, Dave (13 August 2015). "The Last of its Kind". Army: The Soldiers' Newspaper (1357 ed.). Canberra: Department of Defence. p. 13. ISSN 0729-5685. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  13. ↑ Strasheim, R. & Hundleby, M. (2010) "Sturmpanzer A7V", Tankograd Pub., p. 98. ISBN 978-3-936519-11-2
  14. ↑ "Tank Boys". Random House Australia. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  15. ↑ http://www.booktopia.com.au/tank-boys-stephen-dando-collins/prod9780857981301.html
  16. ↑ http://readingtime.com.au/tank-boys/

Coordinates: 27°28′22.77″S 153°01′04.45″E / 27.4729917°S 153.0179028°E / -27.4729917; 153.0179028

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