The prototype for the first British WWI Mark I tank, nicknamed “Mother”, went missing in WWII. It’s been assumed it was melted down like other scrap to assist in the war effort.
But…
There have been persistent rumours that it was somehow hidden away by British soldiers, to preserve an important piece of military history.
Now a British Army soldier, intrigued by the rumours, has come across a letter written in WWII that says Mother was buried in the training area for a military base. He’s trying to raise money to look for it. LIDAR has apparently identified a large potential
metal object beneath the soil on the training area.
Will the Mother of All Tanks rise from her grave?
Stay tuned.
That will be really cool. I remember watching the program about Guy Martin building a replica of the Mark IV. I hope they find Mother.
If you’re a tank fan, the Bovington Tank Museum is the place to be. Unfortunately this year’s Tankfest is sold out, but their youtube channel is full of interesting mini-documentaries, including one that discusses the “Birth of the tank”.
I assumed “Mother” in the title meant “The Biggest Ever”, vs. “The First”, so I concluded they were looking for a German Maus, the biggest tank ever actually built. The only survivor is in a museum in Russia note. The English had their own super-heavy tank prototype, the Tortoise.
Hope this turns out better than Al Capone’s safe.
They’ll be buried with the crates of Spitfires.
Having been buried for 75-80 years now, in a rather wet area, wouldn’t any remains be mostly rusted away by now?
That’s what I wondered as well.
Quite possibly not. Rust requires oxygen. Very wet soil tends to be low in oxygen. If it’s buried in a swamp it could be quite well preserved. If it’s buried in soil that is well aerated and merely damp, not so much.
It’d also have been made from fairly thick steel. It takes a while for that much steel to rust through. It’s not uncommon to find horseshoes a couple of centuries old, still mostly intact, and a tank, even an early prototype, is a lot more substantial than a horseshoe.
I would have sworn I saw this in a documentary a few/several years ago. But that may have been Spitfires or Hurricanes that were disposed of by burying them in a military training area. (I think they only found a few bits of metal.)
