Jack
Major
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 6,347
The backdrop is a picture of the old Queensland museum which now houses the state orchestra. Mephisto was stored outside under an awning, fully exposed to the elements from 1919 until 1986.
In late 1917 the German Army produced 20 A7V Sturmpanzerwagen’s which were deployed in combat the following year. Crewed with 18 men, the cumbersome war machines clambered into action in April 1918. The German tanks were engaged in actions at such places as Villers-Bretonneux, a small French village that was recaptured by Australian soldiers at the cost of 1,200 lives. The A7V’s were involved in the first tank versus tank action. The vehicle known as Mephisto was immobilised in an area close to Villers-Bretonneux called Monument Wood. In July 1918 a detachment of soldiers from the 26th Battalion, mainly comprised of Queenslanders, helped recover the abandoned tank and drag it back to the allied lines. It was sent to Australia as a war trophy, arriving at Norman Wharf in August 1919 where it was towed by two Brisbane City Council steamrollers to the Queensland Museum, then located in Fortitude Valley. In 1986 it was relocated to the South Bank campus of the Queensland Museum. It remains the sole surviving A7V tank in the world.
