Midland-built World War One tank buried in battlefield for a century set to be star attraction at new museum
AFIRST World War tank, built in Oldbury but buried for the best part of a century under the Western Front, is set to become the major attraction at a new museum in France.
The British Mark IV tank, named ‘Deborah’ D51, has been exhumed from its grave and will be the star exhibit at a museum dedicated to the Battle of Cambrai.
Sited in Cambrai, it will open on November 26 – 100 years after the battle in which Deborah and 475 other British tanks fought.
It completes the remarkable story of the tank which was once home to eight crew members in her iron stomach.
First World War tanks were designated as male or female depending on their armoury, hence the tank’s name.
A female tank carried multiple machine guns instead of a mix of machine guns and cannons on male tanks. At 8.5 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and tipping the scales at 26.5 tonnes, Deborah had a top speed of 4mph and was armed with six Lewis guns.
The Mark IV was seen as a significant improvement on earlier tanks, with strengthened armour, greater reliability and a design that improved the tank’s ability to negotiate the trenches and obstacles of No Man’s Land.
Carried by train towards the front lines, in August 1917, Deborah first saw action in Flanders where she was disabled by a German shell strike to her tracks.
After repairs she was transported on one of 36 trains, alongside her 475 counterparts, in readiness for the Battle of Cambrai, a strategic action to break through the mighty Hindenburg Line.
The German forces had occupied Cambrai from 1914, using the railways and warehouses to support their own lines.
A hugely strategic location, the French and British commanders had identified the significance of recapturing the area, while recognising the formidable defences of the line.
The tanks and crews were moved forward under great secrecy before being concealed in the woods in Havrincourt. It was two days before Deborah and the tanks had to attack, two days to remain silent while the artillery and the planes hid the noise of their movements.
Her objective was the village of Flesquières. Under the overall command of Tank Corps Colonel Hugh Elles, she took her place on the 10km-wide line. Surprised and scared by these new weapons of war, the thundering noise of their tracks breaking the dawn silence, the Germans were quickly driven back on that first day. But, as D51 left the shelter of the last houses in the streets of Flesquières, she herself came under fire from a field gun. She battled on but was put out of action after receiving five direct hits. Her commander, Frank Gustave Heap, had stopped the tank to find his bearings. As he was consulting his maps, Deborah was hit in her heart, and four of her crew members killed. They were Gunner Frederick Tipping, age 36, Lance Corporal George Charles Foot, age 20, Gunner William Galway, aged 25, and Gunner Joseph Cheverton. All four are buried at the British Hill Cemetery in Flesquières. But Deborah’s story was not yet over for she was turned into a shelter after the British buried her in a hole with the help of German prisoners. After the war, Deborah was forgotten until, remarkably, 81 years later, she emerged from her grave.
In 1998, the tank, buried two and a half metres down, was finally discovered by local historian Philippe Gorczynski in a field near the village after six years of painstaking research.
Deborah is the only surviving tank from the 476 deployed at the Battle of Cambrai. In fact, only seven Mark IVs remain in the world. The only running example is on display at the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset.
That one was presented to the Royal Navy’s Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, after the war to commemorate their help training Tank Corps gunners.
It was temporarily refurbished for Home Guard duties in 1940 during the Second World War, and is now maintained in full running order.
Though Deborah will never again, the new display ensures battered Oldbury war machine endure for many years to come. run this will