"British Mk V Tanks Defend Berlin 1945" Topic

On another forum I read about a pair of British Mk V Tanks (WW1 version) that may havv been used in the defence of Berlin in 1945.

Apparently part of the Allied RCW intervention force, they were captured by the Reds in 1920, then by the Germans in 1941/42 and shipped back to Berlin.

They were found, badly damaged after the fall of the city.

Can anyone offer any substantiation to this ?

IIRC … Somewhere on TMP we had a lenghty discussion about this … I'm not sure where ?

Try these threads. The second one has a colour photo :)

TMP link
TMP link

If anyone can point me to it I'd be grateful ….

I think DragonMaster gave the definitive answer to this in the other thread.

I like the gate guard idea myself.

There was all manner of junk a wheeled out during Endkampf. If you can imagine it and there is a possibility German had it – it is a fair bet it was wheeled out.

A veteran friend of mine (now deceased) claimed C19 weaponry was deployed to slow Russians. IIRC mid century artillery!

There is a historical example where an artillery piece from the late 1800s was hauled out of the Austrian Army Museum in Vienna to supposedly use against the Russians.

But in this case of the Mk V tank in Berlin in '45, Dragonmaster has advised (in the other thread) that the tank was part of a stationary display of enemy weaponry outside a Berlin museum (not the Reichstag). No evidence it was used in combat, and every reason why that would be impractical.

I'd like to have seen the look on the G4's face when he was told he had to ammunition and fuel a British WW1 Mark IV…

Can't have been worse than being told you've got 24 hours to source enough 'feminine hygiene dressings' for the entire city of Sarajevo whilst in the middle of the Adriatic, mind you….

The Altes Museum, and the cathedral in the photo and the Reichstag form a sort of U shape with the cathedral facing the back of the Reichstag and separated by a narrow canal. There are three or four rhombus type tanks in that area that were there at the time of the Battle of Berlin.
That area was the scene of a sort of outdoor museum of various captured weapons. I doubt any of the tanks were operational, still it does make an interesting scenario. I certainly would consider them to be a four tank platoon of MK IV or MK V tanks for any Berlin game.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Lots of late 19th century guns were used by various combatants during the war. Their shells weren't that different to modern WW2 ones but as they usually lacked recoil systems and were shortranged and heavy compared to modern guns they were generally used for fortress and coastal artillery and for reserve units and training but some minor countries used them in front line units and they sometimes appeared for use against fortified positions.

1878 Systeme de Bange (really!)120mm howitzer, as used by the Romanians in 1944.

From link

Sparker,
That last paragraph in your response sounds like quite an, um, interesting story….
BWW

Etranger, the 120mm de Bange was widely used by several countries, especially the Italians who had large numbers in use as medium artillery in forts as the 120/25. The reason so many were available was that the French used a lot of them in early-mid WWI and they had a good reputaion as the 75mm M1897 field gun was so ineffective against trenches and production of 155mm howitzers hadn't kicked in yet. Post WWI many were sold off. The lighter 90mm version and heavier 155mm versions also appear here and there.

I know they were used but I couldn't find any WWII era photos of them,

For anyone interested, we have a British MK V* on the way, Sized for 28mm miniatures.

Pics and details on our Facebook page here link or in our Forum here link

kind regards

Rob
scarabminiatures.com
warandconquest.co.uk