POW Made Wood Tank-What is it??? (1 Viewer)

[Gideon]

I just got this thing for my growing toy tank collection. The story I got was that it was tank made by a German POW inthe Bawtry prison camp. As primitive as it may look, this was not made by an amature, it has the right patina of something made 60 years ago and the details are really interesting. Also, it has this two color bit painted on the front. I'm wondering if it means anything.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Here are the pics...

 

[OzDigger]

It looks like its made to fire pretend 'shells' by the look of the turret fixture and the fully bored barrel. It does appear to be original but from the pics it may have had some recent renovations to the wheels etc underneath. I'm not sure about the two colored stripes, perhaps its measnt ot be a French tank and they are recog signs.

 

[Gideon]

Actually, the gun is spring loaded and does fire. The wheels are not new at all - they kind of look that way until you see it close up. They are loaded with ball bearing to help roll smoothly.

 

[Louis Badolato]

It looks like a British Infantry Tank to me, maybe a Crusader or a Valentine. I would guess that the two stripes in the front are a divisional or regimental marking from a British Unit. I think Andy put something similar on the 8th Army Sherman he made for me.

 

[OzDigger]

Actually, the gun is spring loaded and does fire. The wheels are not new at all - they kind of look that way until you see it close up. They are loaded with ball bearing to help roll smoothly.

I'm surprised the maker could have got hold of relatively scarce and sophisticated parts in a POW camp.

 

[Gideon]

It is a really interesting piece which is why I picked it up.

I would imagine that pow's would be put to work and might be able to get hold of some bits and parts.

It might not be pow made. I would imagine that a pow would make a German tank anyways.

I am really curious about it. It is quite large to - somewhere about 1:20 to 1:18 judging by the dimensions. It's a good 5 pounds too.

I'd love to know what type of tank it is, what kind camo scheme is on it, etc.

I've never seen something like this except for some WWII era American toys by keystone. But they were mass produced and it shows. This is cleary a one off.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Once on the Antiques Roadshow I saw an all wood Cromwell Tank made by a British Ordinance Non-Com. The detail of the hand carving was unbelievable.

I know that during the Napoleonic Era French POW's made incredible stuff like model ships out of bones from their food to sell for money to buy "luxury" items like extra food or wine. I actually saw one of these remarkable ships in an antique shop in NYC.

 

[Chuck Harris]

I'm surprised the maker could have got hold of relatively scarce and sophisticated parts in a POW camp.

They would have no trouble get the parts in POW Camp in the US. German POW had the same standards as GI had at his base. When they worked off camp they got paid.

Most POW's worked on farms but not in all cases. My grandfather was a contractor. He had a crew of 20+ Afrika Korps POWs that worked for him. I believe most of them spoke English very well. I was around them daily. None of them as I recall were sorry to where be a POW. They where worried about their family's the Red Cross kept them informed the best they could.

In the South there were a lot local laws call blue laws. What could be open and sold on a Sunday. A movie theater would not open on Sunday. The Army rented them on Sunday for the POW. Starting about Sept 1944 they let POW's have unguarded pass on weekends.

OzDigger
The English did'nt keep to POW rules like the US did with the Germans.

 

[OzDigger]

Chuck, I understand that the Baltry Prison Camp was actually in the UK and your comments would tend to support my post because imo the tank appears to have more features than the average POW or trench art article I've seen. That said, I'm not saying the tank isn't genuine. Gideon is in a better postion to assess the article and I'd be inclined to agree with what he thinks.