QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Amiens

Mephisto

Saint-Quentin

Dieppe

Villers-Bretonneux

Rouen

Reims

PARIS

An unexpected survivor of the Great War was repatriated to Queensland at the end of the bloody conflict – a German A7V tank with chassis number 506, named Mephisto . (A7V is the abbreviation of Allgemeines Kriegsdepartment 7 Abteilung Verkehrswesen – General War Department 7, Traffic Section – which became the tank’s official designation.) Twenty of the ungainly ‘Sturmpanzerwagens’ were built – each individually named, from the mythical ( Faust and Wotan ) to the feminine ( Lotti and Gretchen ) – and their chief claim to fame was their participation in the first tank-versus-tank battle, in the mud of the Western Front outside the French village of Villers-Bretonneux. The tank was part of Daimler’s

Troyes

Tank 506 was originally assigned to Abteilung (Detachment) 1 and by January 1918 had been transported from Berlin to Charleroi in Belgium, whence it was railed to the Western Front. From here 506 became part of the first-ever tank offensive, at St Quentin. The tanks were then returned to Charleroi for repairs and 506 was transferred to Abteilung 3, where it acquired the name Mephisto (short form of Mephistopheles, the evil spirit to whom Faust, in the German legend, sold his soul). In late April 1918, Mephisto

and 12 other tanks were sent forward as infantry support for an attack on the towns of Villers-Bretonneux and Cachy in France. Mephisto was part of the attack on the Bois d’Aquenne through the position known as Monument Wood. Mephisto participated in the advance until it fell

initial production run and first appeared in ‘female’

form ( sans cannon) but later converted to ‘male’ with the installation of a Maxim-Nordenfelt 57mm cannon.

Tank 506 was powered by two water-cooled, 100hp four-cylinder engines, controlled by a driver who sat immediately above the engines.

into a deep shell crater, and stayed stuck, in No Man’s Land between the opposing lines, until July. The commander of the Australian 26th Battalion, Major Robinson, was keen to recover Mephisto , and a party of 12 men – mainly Queenslanders – supported by two tanks set out on the night of 22 July. Despite opposition, Mephisto was successfully dragged from its shell hole and into Monument Wood. Later transported to Dunkirk and thence London, on 2 April 1919 it was loaded aboard the SS Armagh for Australia. Below: Mephisto after his salvage, with explanatory notes to this effect painted on the sides of its hull. Image E02877 courtesy of Australian War Memorial, Canberra

A crew of 18 was standard, but up to 26 could be accommodated – commander, driver, mechanic, gunners, and troops such as signallers and engineers. Inside, life was cramped for these men. It was hot (up to 60°C), dark, noisy, and rank with petrol fumes. As well, in combat, gas attacks forced the use of individual respirators. Unconfirmed 1917 image of Mephisto, on the right, during the conversion from unarmed ‘female’ (on the left) to armed ‘male’. Above right: cutaway drawing of Mephisto; the side-gunners shown were duplicated on the left. Image courtesy of Fiddlers Green Paper Models – www. fiddlersgreen.net

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