A7V

After the first British tanks appeared on the Western Front, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee, under the auspices of its Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, Abteilung 7 Verkehrswesen ("General War Department, Section 7, Transportation"),[4] to investigate tank development.

The project to design and build the first German tank was placed under the direction of Joseph Vollmer, one of Germany's foremost automobile designers. It was to weigh around 30 tons, be capable of crossing ditches up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) wide, have armament including a cannon at the front and rear as well as several machine-guns, and reach a top speed of at least 12 kilometres per hour (7.5 mph). The running gear was based on the American Holt tractor, copied from examples loaned by the Austro-Hungarian Army. After initial plans were shared with the army in December 1916, the design was extended to be a universal chassis that could be used as a base for both a tank and unarmoured Überlandwagen ("over-land vehicle") cargo carriers.

The first prototype was completed by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft at Berlin-Marienfelde and tested on 30 April 1917. A wooden mockup of a final version was completed in May 1917 and demonstrated in Mainz with 10 tons of ballast to simulate the weight of the armor. During final design, the rear-facing cannon was removed and the number of machine-guns was increased to six. The first pre-production A7V was produced in September 1917, followed by the first production model in October 1917. The tanks were given to Assault Tank Units 1 and 2, founded on 20 September 1917, each with five officers and 109 non-commissioned officers and soldiers.[5]

Tank A7V

The A7V was 7.34 m (24 ft 1 in) long and 3 m (9 ft 10 in) wide, and the maximum height was 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in). The tank had 20 mm of steel plate at the sides, 30 mm at the front and 10 mm for the roof;[5] however, the steel was not hardened armour plate, which reduced its effectiveness. It was sufficient to stop machine-gun and rifle fire, but not larger calibre rounds.

The crew officially consisted of at least 17 soldiers and one officer: commander (officer, typically a lieutenant), driver, mechanic, mechanic/signaller, 12 infantrymen (six machine gunners, six loaders), and two artillerymen (main gunner and loader). A7Vs often went into action with as many as 25 men on board.

5.7-cm Maxim-Nordenfelt gun from A7V "Schnuck", at the Imperial War Museum, Manchester, UK

The A7V was armed with six 7.92 mm MG08 machine guns and a 5.7 cm Maxim-Nordenfelt cannon mounted at the front. Some of these cannons were of British manufacture and had been captured in Belgium early in the war; others were captured in Russia in 1918 and appear to have included some Russian-made copies.

Some A7Vs originally were built with two forward-facing machine guns instead of a 57 mm gun. Most were converted to carry a 57 mm before entering service. Number 501, Gretchen, took part in the action at St. Quentin before her 57 mm was fitted.

In rough terrain

Power came from two centrally mounted Daimler 4-cylinder petrol engines delivering 75 kW (101 hp) each; the A7V carried 500 litres (110 imp gal; 130 US gal) of fuel. The top speed was about 15 km/h (9.3 mph) on roads and 5 km/h (3.1 mph) across country. The 24 wheel suspension was individually sprung – an advantage over the unsprung British tanks. The A7V's power-to-weight ratio was 5.1 kW/ton (6.8 hp/ton), it could cross trenches up to 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) wide, and its ground clearance was 190 to 400 mm (7.5 to 15.7 in).

Compared to that of other World War I tanks, the A7V's road speed was quite high, but the vehicle had very poor off-road capability and a high centre of gravity, which made it prone to getting stuck or overturning on steep slopes. The large overhang at the front and the low ground clearance meant that trenches or very muddy areas were impassable. The driver's view of the terrain directly in front of the tank was obscured by the vehicle's hull, which meant that there was a blind spot of about 10 metres (33 ft). However, in open terrain, the A7V could be used to some success, and offered more firepower than the armoured cars that were available.

1921 Tank Memorial Badge

SS-Obergruppenführer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, third from right, wearing the 1921 Tank Memorial Badge. Josef Goebbels is second from left.

Two vehicles closely resembling the A7V, one of which was named Hedi, were among several used by Kokampf, a Freikorps tank unit, to quell civil unrest in Berlin in 1919. They were constructed using the chassis from Überlandwagen and armed with four MG08/15 machine guns. It is not known whether the vehicles were armour-plated.[9]

There is a popular myth that France handed over several A7Vs to Polish forces, which used them during the Polish–Soviet War in 1919–1920. However, reliable sources dismiss the idea because the fate of each A7V that saw service in World War I is known and includes no transfers to Poland and there is no known official record or photographic evidence of A7Vs in Polish service.[10][11]

The design of the A7V is featured on the 1921 Tank Memorial Badge, awarded to German veterans of World War I who served as tank crewmen.

The A7V-U

• A7V-U: (umlaufende Ketten = "tracks running all the way round"). An attempt to reproduce the all-terrain capability of the British tanks, the A7V-U was still based on the Holt chassis but had a rhomboidal hull and all-round tracks. The cab was similar to, but bigger than, that on the A7V and was mounted on top of the forward part of the hull. Two 57 mm guns were carried in sponsons similar to the British type. The prototype was built in June 1918; trials showed that it was nose-heavy and had a high centre of gravity, and the 40-ton weight caused manoeuvrability problems. On the assumption that the problems could be rectified, 20 were ordered in September 1918, the same month work on the design was halted.[5]

Drawings for two improved designs were prepared, but the war ended before any were produced.

Thirty chassis were assigned for completion as Überlandwagen supply carriers, but not all were completed before the end of the war.

• A7V Flakpanzer: Its engine was placed under the driver's compartment, which had a tarpaulin holder to cover the driver from bad weather, ammo boxes were placed around the driver's compartment and beneath the gun themselves.[16] It is claimed that it was armed with two Russian 76 mm divisional gun M1902 field guns on the first two prototypes of the A7V Flakpanzer.[17] The third prototype of the A7V Flakpanzer was armed with a Krupp-Manufactured 7.7cm (3.03 in) leichte Feld Kanone 1896 n/a, only one l.F.K 1896 was mounted onto the vehicle.[16] No paperwork related or mentioning these weapons has been found.[17]

Front armour and main gun of German A7V tank "Mephisto".

The only surviving A7V is Mephisto, which was abandoned by its crew during the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918. It was recovered three months later by British and Australian troops, and taken to Australia in 1919 as a trophy. The vehicle stood outside the old Queensland Museum in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, under an open-sided shelter for many years until being moved into the new Queensland Museum on Southbank in 1986. It was damaged by floodwater in 2011, and taken for restoration to the Workshops Rail Museum, North Ipswich, Queensland. After restoration it was displayed at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, from 2015 until 2017. It has now been returned to the Queensland Museum.[18]

The cannon from A7V 504 Schnuck is on display at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.

The Tank Museum at Bovington's A7V replica during a public display (June 2009)

There are numerous modern replicas, made to look like the original, many made of wood and modern materials:

• A running replica was built in 2009 by Bob Grundy of British Military Vehicles, Wigan, UK, a company that specialises in the restoration of old military vehicles. The replica is constructed of plywood and angle iron, using the engine, transmission and tracks from two Fordson County Crawlers – tracked agricultural vehicles – and is painted to represent A7V number 504, Schnuck. It was purchased by The Tank Museum, Bovington, in November 2012. It is on display inside the Museum, and takes part in outdoor displays alongside the Museum's replica British Mark IV that was constructed for the film War Horse.[19]

• A static replica is in the Deutsches Panzermuseum in Munster. It is named Wotan, but is largely based on the surviving example, Mephisto.

• A mobile mock-up of an A7V appears in the East German feature film Trotz Alledem (1972), the story of Karl Liebknecht and the 1919 Spartacist uprising in Berlin.[20]

• A mock-up is among the vehicles at the Milovice Tankodrome in the Czech Republic.[21]

• Tanks in the German Army
• Überlandwagen
• Panzer
• Fiat 2000

Notes

Bibliography

• Foley, John (1967). A7V Sturmpanzerwagen. Armour in Profile. Great Bookham, Surrey: Profile Publications.
• Forty, George (1995). Tank Action from the Great War to the Gulf. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd. pp. 39–47. ISBN 978-0-7509-0479-7.
• Foss, Christopher F. (2003). The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles. Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-188-3.
• Funk, Wolfram (2003). "zur Technik des Sturmpanzers A7V (Technology of the Sturmpanzerwagen A7V)". Sturmpanzerwagen A7V : vom Urpanzer zum Kampfpanzer Leopard 2 : ein Beitrag zur Militär- und Technikgeschichte [Sturmpanzerwagen A7V: from early tanks to the Leopard 2 battle tank: a contribution to the military and technological history]. Wehrtechnik und wissenschaftliche Waffenkunde (in German). Vol. 15. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 978-3-76376-243-9.
• Hundleby, Maxwell; Strasheim, Rainer (1990). The German A7V Tank and the Captured British Mark IV Tanks of World War I. Haynes Foulis. ISBN 978-0-85429-788-7.
• Hundleby, Maxwell; Strasheim, Rainer (2010). Sturmpanzer A7V: First of the Panzers. Tankograd. ISBN 978-3-936519-11-2.
• Koch, Fred (1994). Beutepanzer im Ersten Weltkrieg [Captured tanks in the First World War] (in German). Wölfersheim-Berstadt: Podzun-Pallas-Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-7909-0520-5.
• Schneider, Wolfgang; Strasheim, Rainer (1990). German Tanks in WWI – The A7V & Early Tank Development. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publications. ISBN 978-0-88740-237-1.
• Tucker, Spencer (2004). Tanks: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-995-9.
• Zaloga, Steve (2006). German Panzers 1914–18. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-945-5.
• The A7V Tank can be used in a First Person shooter game called Battlefield 1, Rare female versions of this tank actually had Flamethrowers on the sides instead of machine guns, making it more effective for close combat than soldiers dangerously using them for open exposure.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A7V.

• The First German Tank - Sturmpanzerwagen A7V illustrated (video)
• Articles on A7V and variants at Landships II.
• Memoir of the British/German tank battle
• German Sturmpanzerwagen A7V Tank (video)
• "Clearer" video of the A7V Sturmpanzerwagen at YouTube
• A7V Replica Demonstration (video)
• Excerpt from "Trotz Alledem" showing replica