Mark IV Tank - Service

Service

The Mark IV was first used in large numbers on 7 June 1917, during the British assault on Messines Ridge. Crossing dry but heavily cratered terrain, many of the sixty-plus Mark IVs lagged behind the infantry, but several made important contributions to the battle. By comparison, in the Third Ypres from the 31 July, where the preliminary 24-day long barrage had destroyed all drainage and heavy rain had soaked the field, the tanks found it heavy going and contributed little; those that sank into the swampy ground were immobilized and became easy targets for enemy artillery.

Nearly 460 Mark IV tanks were used during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, showing that a large concentration of tanks could quickly overcome even the most sophisticated trench systems.

In the aftermath of the German Spring Offensive on the western front, the first tank-to-tank battle was between Mk IV tanks and German A7Vs in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

About forty captured Mark IVs were employed by the Germans as Beutepanzerwagen (The German word Beute means "loot" or "booty") with a crew of twelve. These formed four tank companies from December 1917. Some of these had their six pounders replaced by a German equivalent.

The last Mark IV to see service was Excellent, a Mark IV male retained by the naval gunnery school on Whale Island, HMS Excellent. In the early years of the Second World War it was restored to operational status and driven to the mainland, where its new career was allegedly brought to an early end after a number of cars were damaged.


  • A British Mark IV tank with Tadpole Tail.

  • Unarmed supply tank variant going up to the line at Villers-Bretonneux, August 1918

  • Mark IV tank being dug out by German troops at Cambrai, November 1917

  • Captured Mark IV used by the Weimar Republic to suppress a Spartacus League riot during the German Revolution, 1919.

Read more about this topic:  Mark IV Tank

Famous quotes containing the word service:

    “The service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “You had to face your ends when young
    ‘Twas wine or women, or some curse
    But never made a poorer song
    That you might have a heavier purse,
    Nor gave loud service to a cause
    That you might have a troop of friends.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “This was a great point gained; the archdeacon would certainly not come to morning service at Westminster Abbey, even though he were in London; and here the warden could rest quietly, and, when the time came, duly say his prayers.”
    —Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)