Operation Mother

[Johnny]

An interesting page I found on Facebook: Operation Mother

The remains of the prototype MK1 tank (known as Mother) were known to be at the early tank museum at Bovington Camp until about 1940, but are now unaccounted for.
The most likely explanation is that she was scrapped around that time as part of the war drive, but there is no documentary evidence of this, and other historically significant early tanks were retained.
There is a rumour that the shell was buried somewhere on Bovington to protect it from the scrap man, and the project is trying to locate it.

Like most of the "buried" myths, it seems unlikely, unnecessary and impractical that they would have gone to the trouble of burying a tank shell.

The most likely explanation is that the remains were scrapped in 1940, but there seems to be a bit more to this than some of the other stories.
 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2024 by Johnny