|
The Mk V heavy tank was developed from the MkIV heavy tank.
The MkV closely resembled the MkIV outwardly. The most
noticeable change was in the rear cupola.
More access hatches were added to the rear , including a
rearward-firing MG, and a semaphore. The rails were installed at
the factory instead of in the field. By the end of the war, many of
the MkV's were "hermaphrodites", with one male sponson and
one female sponson. I built the example model in this
configuration. The model includes both male sponsons and both
female sponsons. The MG's were usually Hotchkiss, but I
included Lewis MG's also.
MkV's were sent to Russia to bolster the Tsarist (White) Army in
it's losing struggle with the Bolsheviks (Red Army). Manyo f
these vehicles were captured by the Soviets and used for a time
after the end of the Revolution.
This model is of one of the tanks recovered by the Soviets. hTe
colors and markings are based on the Armada #14 book . Note
that these tanks seem to have not had unditching rails, parhaps
because trenches were not as common during the Russian
Revolution as they were on the Western Front.
|