Lewis gun in a Mark IV Tank
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Lewis gun in a Mark IV Tank
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Lewis gun in a Mark IV Tank, seen through a side door. Untextured version.
There is a vintage version of this image.
The Mark IV "Male" tank of the First World War carried two 6-pound cannons and three Lewis machine guns. The Lewis were standardized for Mark IV tanks because of their compact barrels.
The image shows the starboard sponson of a MK-IV through an entry hatch with a Lewis in the foreground and a 6-pounder behind.
The Mark IV is the first tank ever to come into battle with practical results and the most iconic one of the Great War.
As the conflict became stagnant and the armies entrenched themselves and turned the battlefield into a hellish labyrinth of mud, bomb craters and barbed wire, the contenders tried to find a way to help their infantry break through the enemy lines. They British idea was an armored and armed vehicle that could advance on mud, over barbed wire and sort the crossing gaps formed by the trenches. They called it a "tank" so that the enemies and the press would think it was some kind of water deposit. The first prototypes were not up to expectations, but proved the British were ion the right path.
The Mark IV was a British tank introduced in September 1916. It benefited from significant improvements. Most of the tanks that took part on the first armored attack broke down or were somehow destroyed, but they effectively broke through the enemy lines and went deep into the German rearguard. War had changed forever, once again.
More Great War images at https://weston-westmoreland.pixels.com/collections/the+great+war
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
March 19th, 2019
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