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Picture of the Week: 8th September 1918 near Demuin, France


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In this picture, taken 93 years ago today you can see some of the crew of a MkV tank taking a closer look at a captured anti-tank rifle.

 

The rifle is a German M18 Tank Gewehr. It fired a 13.2mm round designed to penetrate tank armour (which rifle and machine gun rounds could not do). Weighing 16kg, this single shot bolt action rifle would give an incredibly powerful recoil – and to stand any chance of success the rifleman would need to be within 100 metres of his target. Even then, halting a tank with one or two rounds would be a challenge.

 

The majority of the crew are wearing standard serge service dress jacket, with their brown overalls beneath. They are all carrying respirators. The officer (kneeling) has his chain mail mask tied around his head (see last week’s Object of the Week), and seems to prefer wearing shorts!

 

Demuin is today the site of a small British Commonwealth War Grave, with 40 Canadian and 3 British graves, and is 5km from Villers-Bretonneux which was the site of the world’s first tank versus tank battle.

 

 

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