Mephisto (tank)

On March 21 it took part, along with 4 other A7Vs and 5 captured British tanks, in a moderately successful attack at Curgies, north-east of Saint-Quentin.

A figure was also painted on the front armour depicting a red demon running off with part of a British tank under its arm.

[1] Meanwhile, the German high command was planning an attack on Villers-Bretonneux, hoping to capture the town and the hill to the north so that their artillery could dominate the important road and rail junction of Amiens, some 20 kilometres to the west.

The ground was firm, gently sloping, and relatively free from shell craters, and the Allied defences were comparatively weak.

On the night of April 21st, fourteen of the vehicles (one refused to start) were loaded onto trains and taken by rail to Guillaucourt, unloaded, and hidden a short distance away near the village of Wiencourt-l'Équipée, about 4 km from the German trenches.

A 6-man infantry patrol was allocated to each tank, to act as reconnaissance, and the entire force then took up its starting position close behind the Line in preparation for the attack at 6 a.m.

The group advanced through an orchard in front of the farmhouse, forcing the British troops to withdraw, but Mephisto suffered a fuel blockage and had to stop, while the other tanks continued towards their objective.

Two other A7Vs (Elfriede and Nixe) had been lost, and once the infantry had secured the captured territory the remaining tanks returned to Marcelcave.

By early morning on the 26th the lines had returned almost to their previous positions, but the orchard at Monument Farm remained in German hands, with Mephisto, unbeknownst to the Allies, still immobilised but intact in the crater.

[2] The front between the two armies was now a series of connected "outposts" rather than the continuous parallel deep trenches that had been a feature of the earlier years of the war.

In the weeks after the battle for Villers-Bretonneux, units of the Australian Imperial Force began a series of small, often impromptu, raids on enemy outposts, surrounding and occupying them and killing or taking prisoner the occupants.

During one of these excursions, on July 9, men of the 28th Battalion in Monument Wood came across Mephisto but had to retire after coming under enemy fire.

With approval from General Evan Wisdom (commanding the 7th Brigade, of which the 26th battalion was part) he liaised with Major Harrington of the Tank Corps and with artillery officers.

On the night of the 15th, Pearson took three officers of the British 1st Gun Carrier Company to inspect the vehicle and assess the feasibility of recovering it.

To cover the noise of the operation, an aircraft flew low overhead and Allied artillery carried out sporadic shelling.

A steel cable was attached to the tank, and the vehicle was towed about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) westwards to the temporary cover of the Bois l'Abbé.

Proposals for it to be displayed as a war trophy in Australia were raised, and on 2 April 1919 it was loaded on the SS Armagh at Tilbury, destined for Sydney via Plymouth, Cape Town, Durban, Adelaide, and Melbourne, along with 1,423 returning ANZAC troops.

Finally, largely owing to the strenuous and unceasing efforts of the Queensland Agent-General (Sir Thomas Robinson) and General E. Wisdom C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O."

[5][6] As early as September 1920 the Brisbane Courier complained in an editorial about Mephisto's exposed position and the deterioration in its condition caused by the weather, especially the obliteration of the inscriptions on the hull, "which, to some, are sacred.

[8] In 1986 the museum relocated to the Queensland Cultural Centre, where Mephisto was moved indoors and, later, put behind glass in a temperature controlled environment that protected it from the public.

The vehicle was partly submerged during the 2011 Brisbane floods, and was taken to the Workshops Rail Museum at North Ipswich for extensive restoration.

[12] There are two further names on the rear armour: A. Wallace, and "TJR"; three on the left side: E.(or L.) E. Smith, H. Scaddon (probably Scaddan) and Sonny Arundell; and on the front, D. Mason and R. Aldrich.

A replica A7V named "Wotan" but modelled substantially on "Mephisto" was built in Germany in 1988, and is on display at the German Tank Museum in Munster.

[13] In 2014 Stephen Dando-Collins published Tank Boys,[14] a book set against the battle of Villers-Bretonneux and the fate of Mephisto.