On the Beute-MkIV

[David]

As we all know, the most numerous tank used by the Germans in WW1 was not German at all, but British! Especially after the Battle of Cambrai in late 1917, the Germans found themselves in possession of both the Battlefield and quite a large number of knocked out and abandoned Mk IV's, and they started a big operation of collecting all these vehicles, some of of which were ready to use, others only good for spares. And due to the fact that the A7V-programme proceeded slowly, it was decided to use these to equip German ATD's (Assault Tank Detachments) with these tanks.
Repaired and rebuilt, they were used under the designation "Schwerer Kampfwagen (Beute)" or as we tend to call it "Mk IV - Beute". The modifications introduced were small. To quote from Rainer Strasheim's and Maxwell Hundleby's The German A7V Tank and the Captured British Mk IV Tanks of WW1:
"In early April 1918, the 5.7 cm Belgian QF guns in socle-mounts started to arrive at BAKP 20. As they were delivered in complete form by the Prussian Artillery Workshop at Spandau, the installation caused little problem, and after a short time all Male tanks in service with the "captured" ATDs were gun-equipped. On June 5th, the OHL demanded that all captured tanks were to be armed with guns. A corresponding number of guns was ordered, but the measure was never translated into reality. BAKP 20, however, evolved a method to replace the bow machine gun of the Mark IV with a 13 mm anti-tank rifle. In the autumn of 1918, some Female tanks were fitted out with the 13 mm T-Gewehr. Except for the armament, the Germans usually left the Mark IV tanks as they were. The only alteration was the fixing of an escape hatch to the cupola-roof of most vehicles."
The Mk IV's were not overly popular. Due to their slow speed, they often had problems keeping up with the fast-moving German Stormtroopers. But it was often the only tank readily available. The rate of attrition was great. With a good supply of captured tanks, vehicles damaged or stuck were not usually salvaged. If they were still useable, the guns and machine guns were removed, and the tanks themselves were either blown up or abandoned. This is the major reason why so few detachments equipped with Beute Mk IV's were formed, although they had so many tanks in store. BAKP 20 could simply not repair vehicles as fast as the detachments used them up. Also, the Beute Mark IV's often suffered from mechanical failures, as was also the case with those still in British service. To keep the fighting strength of the detachments, it therefore was very common to add one or two reserve tanks to the normal set-up from late summer of 1918.
The photos below show different Beute Mk IV's.