Landships II

An intriguing photo, Centurion, which raises some questions. Note the photo date in the caption; Jan. 1, 1945, prior to the battle for Berlin. The ruined building in the background is the Berlin Cathedral, taken from the Lustgarten (soon to become Marx-Engels Platz, now reverted to the Pleasure Garden). The cathedral was burnt-out by an incindiary bomb on May 24, 1944. Could the Mk.V likewise be a bombing victim? And who was the tank captured from, the British in 1918 (unlikely, given that the Mk.V's were not in action before July), or the Russians in WW2?

I wonder if After the Battle's Berlin, Then and Now book might shed some light on this? Anyway, in the "then and now" spirit, here is a recent photo of the cathedral (restored 1974-82) from the Lustgarten. 

This is the ex-Russian Mk.V that was exhibited in the "Lustgarten" adjacent to the "Zeughaus" (armory). It was captured during the German advance into Russia and became part of the Zeughaus collection. In better days it was flanked by some captured Russian guns. The tank never moved away from the "Lustgarten" (the building you see in the photograph is the "Dom"/cathedral, which limits the Lustgarten to the east).

However, in this picture, the tank is damaged. There are other photographs that show it still intact with Russian soldiers around it. The damage thus may have been caused by someone trying to drag it away - or its the start of scuttling the vehicle. The tank has been turned about 90 degrees to its original position.

There's also a German colour picture showing this vehicle, in a time when there still were trees standing in the Lustgarten (ca. 1943).

Peter Kempf wrote:

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 (Not to mention the lack of ammo for the 57mm guns.)

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Which wouldn't apply to a female  tank. Any surviving beutepanzers would have only been permitted to be kept (by the Allied Disarmament Commission) if the guns had been removed so if put back into service new guns would have had to be fitted anyway.

Its always possible that some of the old tanks were used as static strongpoints so that mobility would not necessarily have been an issue.

The date provided with the photograph should - like so many captions - be regarded as "wrong". Especially German archives are prone to having incorrect places and dates. - The original collections were mostly destroyed, no notes by the photographers survived, and years later someone "thought out" a suitable text for those pictures still at hand.

The Zeughaus had an 1:1  A7V-replica (by the name of "Hummel") and an orginal Ehrhardt armoured car, so this Mk.V fitted well with their collection, although they were short of a Mk.IV (all scraped by order of the IMKK in 1919). The Zeughaus collection was destroyed in 1945, the Mk.V survived because it was placed outside the building.

The following website has a photo of the Lustgarten Mk.V being examined by a G.I.: 

http://macswitch.tripod.com/berlin/id12.html

Evidently the tank was still largely intact and in it's original position when the Allied occupation troops arrived in Berlin in the summer of 1945.

Centurion wrote:

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He was then loaded on a turretless World War One tank for a trip thru Berlin's streets.""There I am standing in this old tank in this bright blue suit going through the Berlin suburbs.” He had become a war trophy.Northwest Florida Daily News. January 2003

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