news OBJECT OF THE WEEK: A Souvenir from the first Tank Action...

[The Tank Museum]

 

OBJECT OF THE WEEK: A souvenir from the first tank action.

 

2nd Lieutenant Basil Henriques (third from left) took part in the first tank attack in history at Flers on 16th September 1916.

 

Commanding his Mark I tank, Henriques was looking through the small vision slits that allowed him to direct the tank, when he was wounded in the face.

 

In his post-war memoires, Henriques recalled: “A smash against my flap in front caused splinters to come in and the blood to pour down my face. Then our prism glass broke to pieces, then another smash, I think it must have been a bomb right

in my face.’

 

Henriques had a large fragment of the glass extracted from his face and mounted onto a gold ring. His wife wore it for many years before donating it to The Tank Museum in the 1960s.

 

It has recently gone on display at The Tank Museum, in a case which tells the story of the very first tank men.

 

 

 

[Enigma]

Amazing story.

Another case f a simple thing with a remarkable history.