The Tank Corps

Surviving WW1 British Tanks

Written, Researched and Copyright

Mike Cooper, July 2000

This list is provisional only, and details – especially with photographs – of any surviving machines would be appreciated

Little Willie - At the Tank Museum Bovington, Dorset UK. Now gutted, but awaiting the installation of a new, dummy, engine. (1)

Mark I – Mk I Male at the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset. Restored as C15 "Clan Leslie" at the time of Flers. This tank was WD Number 702, of the same production batch as the original "Clan Leslie" WD number 705. 702 was not at Flers, and her early histoy has not appeared in any of the secondary sources available to date. The tank was presented to the Marquess of Salisbury in 1919 in recognition of the first tank trilas on his estate at Hadfield, and was given to the Tank Museum in 1969. At some point she had had shorted 23 calibre Hotchkiss 6pdrs installed, as her presnt guns have a false wooden extension to take them to the 40 calibre length of the originals. (1)

Mark II – "Female" at the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK. This tank ha had a somewhat checquered history. Built as a male ( number 785) was variously D5 Dahlia of D Bn (at Arras), D48 (at 2nd Bullecourt, May 1917) and then converted to a tender apparently serving with F Bn. as F53 The Flying Scotsman. At some point during the 1940s she gained an old Mark I steering tail to make up for the Museum’s lack of such a vehicle, and by the late 1950s, perhaps earlier was named HMLS Dragonfly. At some point a Mk I female Sponson was fitted, so that until she was opened up for display she had the appearance of a unique Mk II Hermaphrodite! Other unusual features are the hatch in the roof of her cab, and what seem to be fittings for de-ditching gear . (2)

Mark IV – six, possibly eight survive.

1. Male – WD number 2324. A training machine, numbered 102, this tank served in the Second World War in the Royal Navy, albeit briefly, for Home Defence. She was named Excellent, after the RN gunnery school HMS Excellent, and presented to the Tank Museum in 1971. A runner until very recently, she was some non-standard cooling features and lacks some additional armour on her fuel tank and rear hull plate. (1)
2. Female – Flirt II, WD number 2179 - at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, Lincoln, UK. Flirt II saw action at Cambrai, finally ditching on Nov.27^th. She was recovered, and saw action again in March-April 1918. By the 1930s she had arrived at the Tank Museum after a spell on the nearby ranges. In 1985 she moved back to her place of manufacture in Lincoln, where she was effectively re-built. (3)
3. Female – outside a shopping centre in Ashford, Kent, UK. This tank is now gutted, but is the sole representative of many tanks presented to towns that had raised money for War Bonds.
4. Female – D51 Deborah, Flesquieres, France – knocked out on the first day of the Battle of Cambrai, D51 was used by the Germans as a shelter and was buried until recovered in 1998 (4).
5. Male – Australian War Memorial, Canberra. No details (1)
6. Male – Musee Royale de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium. Although no details are available at the time of writing this machines is said to be in its original paint finish from 1918.(1)
7. Two more Mk IVs may survive still buried on the Cambrai battlefield. (4)

Mark V – up to eight survive

a. Male No.9199 – Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK. Originally H41 of 8^th Battalion, this

• machine served at Amiens, her commander Lt. HA Whittenbury winning the Military Cross. She remained in use – amazingly – until 1945 and was donated to the Tank Museum four years later. 9199 was a "runner" until at least 1998-99. (1)

2. Male – Imperial War Museum, London, UK – This machine has a dummy sponson, and little is known of her origins at the time of writing (1)
3. Hermaphrodite – Kubinka Tank Institute, Russia. (5)
4. Female – Archangel’sk, Russia. (1,5)
5. Male – Regional History Museum, Lugansk, Ukraine (5)
6. Female – Regional History Museum, Lugansk, Ukraine (5)
7. Two more machines were in scrap yard in Lugansk in 1996-7 (5)

Mark V* - Male – Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor, Fort Knox, Kentucky USA (1)

Mark V** - Female – Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK. Apparently the machine – or one of the machines – used in early bridgelaying experiments.

Mark VIII – Two survive, a British model in the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset and an American Model in the Aberdenn Proving Grounds, Maryland USA. (1)

Mark XI – Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, UK.

Medium A "Whippet" – At least four survive

1. A253 – Caesar II of 3 Battalion – Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset UK. This machine survives as it was that of Lt Cecil Harold Sewell who won the Victoria Cross at Fermicourt on 29^th August 1918. She was one of the Tank Museum’s first exhibits. (1)
2. Musee Royal de l’Armee, Brussels, Belgium – A347 "Firefly" of 6^th Battalion, apparently in her original paintwork (1)
3. Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland USA – No details
4. Base Borden Military Museums, Borden. Ontario, Canada. No details.

1.Basic guides are George and Adam Forty The Bovington Tank Collection Ensign, 1992 and a valuable survey in E. Bartholomew First World War Tanks Shire Publications, 1986 (Shire Album 172)

2. David Fletcher Bovington newsletter Tankette Vol.18 No.2 (1983)

3. The Story of Flirt II Lincoln Tank Group, 1988 ( Tank papers no.10)

4. Jean-Luc Gibot and Philippe Gorczynski Following the tanks: Cambrai… The Authors, 1999

5. Trevor Larkin and Jim Kinnear Preserved tanks in Russia Armour Archive, 1997

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