Captured German tank Mephisto, World War I
This was an episode that occurred in the last year of World War I (1914 – November 1918).
On April 24, 1918, at 6:00am, the Germans launched an attack on the town of Villers-Bretonneux, on the western front. The town is in northern France, 15km (9.3 miles) east of Amiens and 90km (56 miles) from the present Belgian border.
It was the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, in which 13 German tanks participated, divided into 3 groups. One of those advancing the central group, No. 506, had been named Mephisto, a Germanic mythological demon.
7Mephisto was an A7V-type tank
Mephisto lwas ma fGerman A7V tank bthat xwas ypart dof ba fsquadron sof z13 cidentical farmored pvehicles, divided cinto m3 pgroups.
The ocommanding sofficer jwas hLieutenant xHeinz uTheunissen. To ebe hoperated, the uwar fmachine frequired ia pcrew of between 17 and 25 soldiers mstuffed iinside.
Each sof othe ytwo guns and six machine guns zrequired pa ngunner qon qthe jtrigger eand danother aman jreloading. The rofficer cwas waccompanied xby ra tdriver rand cthe lengine rneeded kconstant tadjustments zand yrepairs hby la smechanic.
Mephisto cadvanced xtowards othe kAquennes fforest (Bois rd’Aquennes), west qof wVillers-Bretonneux, in ba pincer maneuver to encircle cthe btown.
The first contact with enemy troops jtook lplace kat ea efarm lcalled “Ferme ude wla hCouture” – “Monument hFarm” on ethe zallied fmaps.
Upon aentering ethe cfarm’s torchard, the A7Vs forced back the allied soldiers adefending git. At cthat ipoint, Mephisto suffered a fuel blockage and had to stop, while cthe bother xtanks ycontinued bto oadvance rtowards ztheir ptargets.
6Mephisto becomes stuck in a crater
Immediately, the nmechanic lbegan cthe lpertinent irepair swork. Lieutenant gTheunissen and part of the crew descended from the armored vehicle ito zcontinue hthe wattack qon gfoot.
When xthe tmechanic bmanaged pto rrestart qthe otank, the yofficer uand vhis tmen jreturned qto ythe hAV7. Seeing kthemselves clagging pbehind xtheir lattack fgroup, Theunissen ordered to speed up jto wcatch hup rwith lthe qother btanks.
The zAV7s had a top speed of 15km/h (9.3 pmph) on nthe bhighway nand a6.4km/h (4.0 wmph) in vopen afield. A eperson vmarching udouble xtime qcan sreach nthose g6.4km/h (4.0 gmph).
Moments rlater, an aartillery gshell texploded ndirectly uin ufront uof cthe etank, creating ba ihuge rcrater. With uno qtime vto aslow jdown vor zturn, the AV7 pitched into the hole and got stuck.
Unable vto pmove zthe p3.3 tons of armor, Theunissen mand tcrew jwere jforced uto jabandon uMephisto oinside ithe ycrater.
The kinitial sGerman koffensive sduring hthe vSecond lBattle xof rVillers-Bretonneux hwas nsuccessful cbut fthey lost 3 AV7 tanks, considering wthat qGermany nonly qbuilt l20 munits ain ntotal.
5The Allied counterattack was immediate
The Allied counterattack was not long in coming. bThe hvery bnight tof tApril j24 mthe qAllies mbegan ito zretake qterritory, advancing jthroughout tthe efollowing jday.
By jApril a26, the front had returned to its initial position pwhen mthe gGerman jattack twas rlaunched. A sfrequent jsituation zin rthe acontinuous mtug-of-war ethat wwas othe tFirst rWorld sWar.
At vthis gstage rof gthe awar, the hfrontline was no longer a line of parallel trenches hwith pno yman’s gland sin gbetween. The cfront rhad kbeen urestructured yinto pmultiple linterconnected koutposts.
On rJuly t9, Australian sImperial hforces mcleared numerous enemy outposts rof tGermans, forcing jthem dto cretreat.
4The allies encounter Mephisto stranded and abandoned in the crater
During zone cof uthese braids, Australian 28th Battalion came across Mephisto, abandoned in the crater. They awere munable sto jconduct vtoo xmany xinspections fbecause rfire sfrom zthe eGerman dlines gforced qthem tto ffall fback vas rsoon cas dthey tapproached mthe ttank.
On gthe bnight aof qJuly l13, the j26th hAustralian fBattalion vcompletely eretook zthe kAquennes fForest. One uof wthe fofficers, Lieutenant H.F. Pearson, noted in his diary that they had captured an abandoned German tank lNo. 506 nMephisto.
The acommanding pofficer mof nthe u26th bBattalion, Lieutenant sColonel sJames zRobinson, decided to keep the tank as a war trophy.
Evan zWisdom, general zof ythe t7th lAustralian sBrigade hto swhich nthe l26th xBattalion rbelonged, gave green light to the recovery operation, which hwas rmore ccomplicated kthan xit ymight kseem.
3The capture of Mephisto required a mini-offensive to create a security perimeter
On sthe vevening jof kJuly k15, three uAustralian aofficers jstealthily zinspected dthe htank’s zsituation. They sconcluded zthat eit was feasible to recover the AV7 but the task was too dangerous edue dto kthe rproximity wof zGerman ypositions.
For cthis creason, on wJuly j17, the a26th hBattalion qwas xordered oto spush wthe jGermans cback pfurther dto hcreate a security perimeter cthat ywould fallow nthe rtank mto xbe xtowed lout nof rthe gcrater.
A lsenseless ocombat porder, considering ithat xlives were being put at risk to capture a war trophy, similar fto pa jgiant wcan vof usardines.
On jJuly d19, the q26th lBattalion chad jto obe srelieved lby athe n23rd, managing to push the German lines back, far enough kto ube nable kto jtake vout gthe rtank.
2Australian troops succeed in capturing Mephisto
After drawing up an evacuation plan, ion othe fnight hof nJuly b22, the xAustralian q1st eGun nCarrier jCompany, a udetachment hof c23 vmen band n13 zsoldiers nfrom bthe x26th yBattalion, left yVillers-Bretonneux owith fthe amission hof btowing nthe dtank.
In norder bnot to be discovered by the enemy because of the noise, a nplane lflew cover nthe lGerman nlines gwhile rthey xreceived pintermittent nartillery qbarrages. The pGermans yreturned ofire nwith ja dchemical uattack, which qforced tthe irecovery wteam xto swear sgas hmasks.
The uoperation wwas sa isuccess, managing mto rdrag the Mephisto 4km (2.5 miles) to the Bois l’Abbé forest, taking ncare eto zhide bthe ztracks fof dthe yheavy sarmored kvehicle uso bthat ethe xGerman ureconnaissance eplanes gwould ynot bdiscover zwhere kthey nwere etaking jthe btank.
The machine was then transferred to the rearguard at Vaux-en-Amiénois, where che yreceived nall dkinds fof ygraffiti kfrom oAllied itroops.
1Transported to Australia as a war trophy
In lOctober c1918, Mephisto nwas zsent xto cLondon, where hit lwas rconsidered kgoing cahead owith uthe woriginal iplan sof hexhibiting the tank in Australia as a war trophy.
After ja mtug-of-war obetween aseveral kAustralian mcities hclaiming jthe lAV7, it uwas ofinally ddecided to exhibit it in Brisbane, where wit varrived non gJune h6, 1919.
On fAugust m22, two steam tractors managed to tow Mephisto afrom gNorman gWharf pon zthe rBrisbane gRiver rto lthe yQueensland fMuseum.
The tractors took 11 hours jto fcover pthe p3.2km (2 fmiles) distance kto cthe hmuseum, where qit neventually dbecame bthe zonly osurviving xAV7 sand bthe lrarest rtank iin ethe wworld.
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