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Bavarian, I’m just going to park my tank here, there’s a war going on nobody will steal it…..Queenslander I’ll have that it will great for driving to the pub in south Brisbane ( Very rough part of town at that time)
I live in Brisbane, Australia. There's a museum here where a captured A7V is on display. It was named "mephisto" pretty crazy to see it in person. Its size and the size of the uniforms and headgear on display convinced me that people today are bigger than the people of 80-100years ago
@@AleksandarFilipovic-r4z Yeah thats true. Although the length of the lee enfield and gewehr 98 surprised me. Not as long as I always I imagined them to be.
@@nickysimi9866 the only thing that i saw that is actually huge is the WW2 15cm cannon 18 (k 18) that is on display here in Belgrade, Serbia. compared to it, regular tanks seem small
Ah, it's interesting to finally hear of actions with the A7V! It's been a fascinating mystery to me for awhile and I never really new of much actions taking place with it other than that one clash with the 3 MK.IVs Great vid; cheers.
I really enjoyed this, so thanks very much for your work. Both this and the K - wagen programme have many very interesting photos I've not seen before, particularly the moving footage
Mephisto livesin my home town, Brisbane Australia. It was restored by the old railway workshops and has returned to Brisbane after a time in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. When I was kid in sixties it was out in the open at the Queensland Museum and kids could clamber all over it. Now more securely stroed for display.
To be fair saying most German tanks were bad is unfair to say because most tanks of every nation during ww1 and ww2 were flawed. It's surprising that german out-dated tank designs even lasted so long and could hold with enemy armour which had much more mordern designs and weren't so box like
Yeah, I'd like a fighter aircraft capable of mach 1.8, vertical takeoff and landing, 2 25mm cannons, 4 weapon pylons and a range of 2000km. Oh, also I'd like a transport variant of the same aircraft that can deliver 2 Abrams.
In my city’s museum we have the only original A7V that was captured in ww1. Britain France Germany and Austria have begged us for it. I live in Brisbane Australia, it was captured by Australian troops after being bogged down and hit by a mortar shell
It wasnt really ‘captured’ as such. A number of Australians had chalked their battalion numbers and claims to ownership on it and the Queensland battalion on that sector - i forget which battalion; id have to check my books - decided that no-one else was going to have it, so they quietly removed it and shipped it back to Australia - ‘unofficially’. Thats why it resides in Queensland and not in the war memorial in Canberra. Comically, the Queenslanders actually stole it. But it seems that everyone thought that was funny so they turned a blind eye to the legal technicalities. The Queenslanders were probably helped by the fact that the AIF was notorious on the western front for stealing just about everything (including horses) and the allied forces had developed a habit of ignoring AIF infractions that werent too blatant.
That's actually a good question. I might be wrong, but that might be the Soviet T-26 tank (inspired by British Vickers Mk. E aka "Vickers 6-ton") with Type A being a double-turreted machine gun-only variant and Type B having a single BT series turret with a 45 mm cannon (IIRC. Later it was upgunned with a 76 mm howitzer or something to the likes of that) Interestingly enough, there also were flamer (kHT-26, "Chemical Tank") and remotely controlled variants (TT-26, "Tele-Tank", although I might be misremembering this one as well as mistaking it for the TT-27 tankette design)
I’ve got a few contenders, although none are actually called “male and female.” First is the Italian CV33, a “male” version was made in 1940 by replacing the twin mgs with a 20mm AT rifle. Next is the Japanese type 97 tankette, with versions carrying either a 37mm gun or 7.7mm mg. Finally there is the British Light Command Tank (that’s the name), from 1938. Different turrets would have either a 2-pounder or twin machine guns.
Awesome video! I barely knew that the A7Vs existed let alone the combat utility variants. It’s like a glimpse into a timeline where Germany realized standardized mechanized transports would be important (something they didn’t really embrace until after WW2)
@@AFT_05G True. I suppose I should have put emphasis on the standardization part, since WW2 Germany had something like a couple dozen different diesel engines that powered vehicles of similar/identical class and weight.
Note that the spec said ( 6:30 ) a variant for troop/material transport: a Mark 1 Female with the compartment extended fore and aft, or/and dragging a materials trailer might have worked for that.
Okay, if the A7V was developed earlier in the war and then cemented into the ground as completely stationary defenses, I think it could've worked. Just remove the rear guns and some side guns, and then you got a pillbox. The weight would not have mattered and they could put as much armor, types of guns, and anything else as they want. It would also decreases the crew number and the rear could be used for ammo storage or something along the sorts.
@@oco8783 yeah I know that, that't the point of the comment. I said it just as an idea to use the structure and materials used to build the A7V into something that would probably have been more useful
No, that would be a Half-track. But what are amored vehicles except regular vehicles on reinforced chassises with armor and weapons added to them. There is a popular Armored Luxury vehicle that is basically just a Ford F-450 with armor and a luxury package that people pay $10 Million for.
It is possible that the strv 2000 could become a cursed by design vehicle? Because it for me, as a Fan of the swedish tech tree in wt I would hear what you Think of the Tank Prototype or if its possible that the tank could come to wt
Just do say it in advance, the improvements of tanks in WW1 wasnt that great. The only thing they changed about the tank concept was to add a petrol engine.... .The A7V had a really good legacy, even if it is far less great compared to the FT-17, but at least it wasnt such a disaster as the Mark series of tanks. Only the british "think" a landbattleship could work. The legacy of the FT-17 lasts even until today, the legacy of the A7V lasted until around the 1980s and the Mark series legacy crashed hard around 1941.
The Mark legacy is the tank... I don't think ww1 would've seen nearly as much tank development if it wasn't there saying "this idea can actually work!". Also I don't remember the churchills having sponsons.
To me, this seems like a more practical German implementation of a Russian pre-WWI Mendeleev Tank, which basically was a freight train car-sized land submarine built around a 4-inch cannon.
@@aliceyagami8260, I mean, both the Mendeleev Tank and the Tsar-Tank were Russian projects, but quite different in their essence: Mendeleev Tank was designed to be an impregnable crawling bunker (yes, the caterpillar tracks were planned to be retractable in order to make it stationary) with a big-ass naval gun at the front, while the Tsar-Tank was essentially a scaled up beduin wheelbarrow with disco balls of death for turrets as well as two gun sponsons on the sides.
The interesting thing about the late German implementation of tanks is that it also created the first very potent anti tank weapons. Like the tankgewehr, K-bullets and early anti tank cannons.
It is the same thing in the Cold War. The US had a focus in Navy and carriers, while the Russians focused on anti ship warfare. Just like tanks, only now we are seeing other nations outside of the US sphere of influence implementing carriers forces.
@@JonatasAdoM which is arguably a side effect of WW2, one reason the US fleet in the Pacific shifted tactics was that it was mainly the battleships that were hit at pearl harbor. The old capital ship dual concept had to be replaced out of necessity.
In terms of space in the tank it should be noted that according to doctrine the tank had a crew of 16 men. However, in combat this number increased to around 26 men, with MGs crewed by 2 each to ease reloading, and others to remain in contact with nearby troops. Temperatures would reach around 60 degrees Celsius and since there was no dedicated engine bay it was also incredibly loud. With no lights installed it was almost pitch black inside. Fuel/oil leaks were not uncommon, leading to a nasty smell. Regarding ergonomics, except for the gunner, driver and commander everyone else was standing in a crouched position since the inside was only about 1.6m high. Some nooses were added at the ceiling to provide at least something to hold on, however it is questionable as to how useful they were in uneven terrain such as artillery craters. All in all an interesting tank, and certainly nice to see how people more than 100 years ago approached the challenges without any prior knowledge. As for serving in one, well, whenever not in combat the crew usually opted to sit on the roof instead, choosing no protection over the conditions inside.
According to the Curator of the Munster Tank Museum 95% of the Western Front did not involve artillery craters or trenches and the tanks were successful there. Department A7V (The truck department of the Logistic division of the German Army Ordinance that designed the A7V was department A7V) there were more sophisticated tanks designed. The British Male/Female tanks were not much better really in ergonomics. The reason we did not see more German tanks was that the Germans were running our of Iron and they had to make a hard choice between building canon (which could stop tanks)or tanks. Of course they chose tanks and simply operated captured British tanks. The Iron Ore Poroblem is why when the British landed troops in Narvik Norway (Operation Wilfred) in WW2 threatening German Iron ore supplies the Hitler immediately invaded all of Norway using Denmark as a staging point since the Luftwaffe was still occupied in BoB and BoF and could not stop the RN intercepting German convoys.
if you have a full crew of competent gunners, you can just drive into the entire enemy team and kill everything winning the game, unfortunately most of the time your gunners will be asleep so you cant really do that without friends
@@humanbread2619 I had the opposite experience most of the time. I love to gun on tanks but the drivers wouldn’t angle right for me to really chew up infantry when I needed to.
A notice at the museum says it was also used as a rudimentary Armoured Personnel Carrier, sometimes having as many as 22 people inside. That must have been horribly cramped, but better than being machine gunned.
@@someguy-qb2rs Yes. I don't think there was any way the Queensland Government was going to let the Australian War Memorial keep the tank. It was something of a state treasure even though for years it had been neglected sitting outside the old Brisbane Museum in Bowen Hills.
I get the joke, but at that time, smiling on a photography would have been the equivalent of sticking your tongue out and flipping the bird. The guy is a General, he is not supposed to look like a nice guy
Recently found out, that an uncle of mine actually died at villiers-brettoneux, just at the same day, the Tanks opposed each other. Sadly i couldn't find any letters or similar, so i really Don't know, if He actually knew about the Tanks in his surroundings.
Well... It's actually my great grandfathers cousin... I think My grandmother just said He was her and my 'uncle' so i never botherered with the proper german or english term 😅
Actually it wasn't a Panzer, it was just a tank. The German word "Panzer" referring to armoured fighting vehicles wouldn't gain widespread usage until the 1920s. During WW1 the Germans called them Tanks, because that's what the British called them.
That's not true. Panzer means "Tank" in German. The reason in English they are called Tanks is because it was a way to disguise the parts boxes shipment to England for the development of the first tanks. It being a pretty big secret, the boxes with the parts were labeled "TANKS", as in the Bri 'ish name for water bottles. It was so that IF the Germans or their spies somehow got the Boxes they wouldn't think to open them because, in their minds, it was just a bunch of water bottles. The name stuck for the developers and that's why we call them tanks to this day.
@@thescotslair Yes,and still these vehicles were called Tank even in germany,up until the 1920s.The word "Panzer" did NOT appear during WW1 to describe them
@@thescotslair it's even mentioned in the video that the tank was originally envisaged to use a 20mm cannon firing "TuF" rounds. TuF stands for Tank-Und-Flieger, or Tank-and-Plane, which were heavy machinegun and anti-tank rifle rounds developed for destroying tanks and aircraft. The German word "Panzer" actually more literally translates to armour in English. Panzer referring to tanks is actually an abbreviation of Panzerkampfwagen (approximately armoured fighting vehicle) and this terminology would not emerge in Germany until after WW1. During the war they were known as tanks.
@@marmite8959 Yeah still no. Panzer means Tank still. But that's in a modern sense. the older meaning is a type of German chain-mail but since we are not 500 years old I'm sure you just looked that up like I did but took it at face value.
Yeah they moved it from qld due to the flood. Sent to ipswich train museum to repair it and mysteriously ends up in canberra instead of back to qld. That is what i heard.
I'm proud to be a Queenslander in Australia and very glad to have seen the A7V aka Mephisto in person, it's smaller than what most people think but still a large-ish vehicle.
I want to see it some day. I live in Indiana and there is a military museum in Vincennes, Indiana that has one of two surviving turrets (sadly it's only a section of it) in the US. Along with a beautiful replica of a M1917 and a Type 97 Chi-Ha.
@@GrumpyIan I have been to that museum in vincennes a few times. Well worth the visit and I always somehow stay longer than planned. Hope to visit it again sometime.
Interestingly, all the tank producing nations began with the same idea - plonk an armoured box on a Holt or similar caterpillar track chassis. Fortunately the British engineers realised the limitation, and serious defects of this idea, whereas the Germans, French and Italians failed to do so. I read somewhere that German tankers preferred to use captured British tanks to the A7V - they worked far more reliably. Imitation is most certainly the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks for this film - loads and loads of moving and still pictures I've never seen before. Brilliant.
The French did also see the limitations of the idea. After all, the Renault FT (which was not a copy of the british Mark 1) is still one of the most successful tank of WWI on top of being among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history
There were a lot of pictures I never have seen before, and I didnt know that Imerial Germany had any other workign designs in the making besides the K Waggon
The British tanks were optimised to cross trenches - the A7V was not. The A7V was essentially incapable of crossing trenches and frequently toppled over due to its extremely high centre of gravity on rough ground. The fact the tracks didn’t extend beyond the armor leading to frequent bogging when it’s nose dug in.
Those early armoured car designs are straight out of "Wacky Races" ! 11:05 "The A7V had 40mm of ground clearance" ?? That's like a Formula One car ! That's crazy !!
0:52 I didn’t know that the MG in the FT-17 had limited traverse within the turret. This makes sense, all weapons protected by armor or bunkers had limited traverse and so it was given to a traversable turret.
I believe a lot of it was to do with the non-powered turret. for small adjustments it was a lot more useful for the gunner to just move the MG in its mount, rather than twisting body to move the turret. which, I'd imagine, would get awfully tiring very quickly. and of course it would be impossible to fire and traverse at the same time
I've been in the only A7V left in the world, Mephisto. It was loot that the AIF brought back to Australia after WW1. Years ago it was outside the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. We were kids at the time and we could climb inside.
I think the reason why early German tanks are so shit and why they were so reluctant to make one (and maybe it even has some baring on their obsession with heavy tanks later on) is because they made some of the first anti-tank weapons. Likely leading them to think tanks can just be defeated by well equipped infantry unless the tank is ludicrously strong. I mean they did invent the Panzerfaust and schreck for a reason
In Battlefield 1: Overused Death Machine In real life: Underused Glorified Troop Carrier Seriously this thing carried up to 25 MFs and barely saw combat (I wonder why) FT-17 Light Tank Gang for life Edit: changed to a bit more factual information
@@LyonPercival My sources must have been talking about a variant or something. Good on you. Only 20 were ever made. But where you got it wrong is that it only saw 5 battles, 1 of which where they all broke down at St. Quentin Canal and another where the first Tank-on-Tank skirmish happened where they got smacked and routed. They didn't a lot of combat and it is generally held that their contribution to the war effort was negligible at best.
I was watching a show about tanks on the history channel years ago and they said that the A7V was never used in combat yet I have a book that describes the first tank on tank battle with them.
It is like they didn't' know what they were doing, which is true as only their opponents had done this before, and they were not going to share their findings.
The only A7V in the world was Stolen by Aussies from the poms because the British High Command was going to keep it, even though the same Aussie captured it.
Mephisto sat outside the Queensland Museum for many years under what could best described as a "car port". There was a low picket fence surrounding the structure to keep people out, but that didn't stop us youngsters from climbing all over the tank. I seem to recall there was a "keep off" sign but we ignored it. I also recall peering in through the gun ports to check out the interior but at that age not really understanding what it was all for. I do seem to recall that at one time a side door was left open but I was too frightened to climb inside because of the claustrophobic atmosphere & maybe the presence of ghosts :) I'm so glad that it has finally been preserved for historic reasons.
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Ok
Nic video lad
*i dont want'na play shitty strategy games, sorry*
Can we have a video about the opinion of germans about the FT-17
No. I already have enough of their shitty ads
"Ayo Johhny, why is that Shed moving towards us?"
The devil dogs meet their greatest nightmare, the battle toaster
who will win: armor traktor vs battleship lite
It’s just bob and his crazy ideas
"Bobby...what's a toaster?"
Excellent question
If you think this is a glorified tractor, wait until you see the WW1 American parade tanks. Now those are definitely glorified tractors.
Hello there
@@jwwt4 General Kenobi
@@williamgandarillas2185 You are a bold one!
Good God now you made me remember the HA 36 and CLB 75 tank
@@RolanJhehanMElaco lol hey they need to be remembered
This is a fascinating showing of the whole "trail and error" early tank development went through.
Awesome video 👍
*trial
@@archygrey9093 Dammit...
Bavarian, I’m just going to park my tank here, there’s a war going on nobody will steal it…..Queenslander I’ll have that it will great for driving to the pub in south Brisbane ( Very rough part of town at that time)
I live in Brisbane, Australia. There's a museum here where a captured A7V is on display. It was named "mephisto" pretty crazy to see it in person. Its size and the size of the uniforms and headgear on display convinced me that people today are bigger than the people of 80-100years ago
it is more the fact that tankmen had to be shorter in order to fit into the tanks cramped spaces. (but yeah, people nowadays in general are taller)
@@AleksandarFilipovic-r4z Yeah thats true. Although the length of the lee enfield and gewehr 98 surprised me. Not as long as I always I imagined them to be.
@@nickysimi9866 the only thing that i saw that is actually huge is the WW2 15cm cannon 18 (k 18) that is on display here in Belgrade, Serbia. compared to it, regular tanks seem small
barrel is longer than a tank itself
Just a brilliant breakdown and explanation of how tanks have evolved.
Ah, it's interesting to finally hear of actions with the A7V! It's been a fascinating mystery to me for awhile and I never really new of much actions taking place with it other than that one clash with the 3 MK.IVs Great vid; cheers.
I really enjoyed this, so thanks very much for your work. Both this and the K - wagen programme have many very interesting photos I've not seen before, particularly the moving footage
Mephisto livesin my home town, Brisbane Australia. It was restored by the old railway workshops and has returned to Brisbane after a time in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. When I was kid in sixties it was out in the open at the Queensland Museum and kids could clamber all over it. Now more securely stroed for display.
The best documentary I've yet seen on German WW1 tanks. Very detailed and thorough - thank you.
"The A7V Was marked by consistant problems" So, Like alot of other German Tanks then? heh-heh.
Like literally any tank until the Vickers 6t?
trenches were widened during ww1 so they got stucked
To be fair saying most German tanks were bad is unfair to say because most tanks of every nation during ww1 and ww2 were flawed. It's surprising that german out-dated tank designs even lasted so long and could hold with enemy armour which had much more mordern designs and weren't so box like
Well pnzr 38t or 35t or hetzer is ok¿
Germans. Even thair problems are consistent.
Average A7V fan vs Average Mk V enjoyer
Yeah, I'd like a fighter aircraft capable of mach 1.8, vertical takeoff and landing, 2 25mm cannons, 4 weapon pylons and a range of 2000km. Oh, also I'd like a transport variant of the same aircraft that can deliver 2 Abrams.
And the whole comitte went Confusion mode 🤣🤣🤣
Mephisto!!!! I saw Mephisto at the Queensland Museum. Seeing her in actual vintage footage is thrilling
In my city’s museum we have the only original A7V that was captured in ww1. Britain France Germany and Austria have begged us for it. I live in Brisbane Australia, it was captured by Australian troops after being bogged down and hit by a mortar shell
It wasnt really ‘captured’ as such. A number of Australians had chalked their battalion numbers and claims to ownership on it and the Queensland battalion on that sector - i forget which battalion; id have to check my books - decided that no-one else was going to have it, so they quietly removed it and shipped it back to Australia - ‘unofficially’. Thats why it resides in Queensland and not in the war memorial in Canberra. Comically, the Queenslanders actually stole it. But it seems that everyone thought that was funny so they turned a blind eye to the legal technicalities. The Queenslanders were probably helped by the fact that the AIF was notorious on the western front for stealing just about everything (including horses) and the allied forces had developed a habit of ignoring AIF infractions that werent too blatant.
What was the final tank to have "Male and female" variants?
That's actually a good question.
I might be wrong, but that might be the Soviet T-26 tank (inspired by British Vickers Mk. E aka "Vickers 6-ton") with Type A being a double-turreted machine gun-only variant and Type B having a single BT series turret with a 45 mm cannon (IIRC. Later it was upgunned with a 76 mm howitzer or something to the likes of that)
Interestingly enough, there also were flamer (kHT-26, "Chemical Tank") and remotely controlled variants (TT-26, "Tele-Tank", although I might be misremembering this one as well as mistaking it for the TT-27 tankette design)
I’ve got a few contenders, although none are actually called “male and female.” First is the Italian CV33, a “male” version was made in 1940 by replacing the twin mgs with a 20mm AT rifle. Next is the Japanese type 97 tankette, with versions carrying either a 37mm gun or 7.7mm mg. Finally there is the British Light Command Tank (that’s the name), from 1938. Different turrets would have either a 2-pounder or twin machine guns.
What I don't get about Germany in WW1, why didn't thy just take the variants and breed more? Such shortsightedness...
@@TheCaptNoname The T26 might have been. But other types have appeared without being called female/male. Read the item by Shaun Jones.
Awesome video! I barely knew that the A7Vs existed let alone the combat utility variants. It’s like a glimpse into a timeline where Germany realized standardized mechanized transports would be important (something they didn’t really embrace until after WW2)
They realized that by 1930s,but they didn’t have enough oil to make their army full mechanized.That’s why they used horses in infantry divisions.
@@AFT_05G True. I suppose I should have put emphasis on the standardization part, since WW2 Germany had something like a couple dozen different diesel engines that powered vehicles of similar/identical class and weight.
Love the original specs: "500 + 300" rounds for the main guns."
You'd think they're talking about machine gun ammo.
Hey I was wondering could you do an episode on the K wagen I've always been fascinated by it being a WW1 super heavy tank.
Imagine being in that thing when it falls into a trench. That would pry do a bit more than knock the wind out of you.
I work for a Daimler shop, transmissions are definitely its biggest weakness.
For some reason, everytime I think of the A7V I really want to say "the AV7" just because it is easier to say. Is it just me who's like this? XD
If you speak german saying A7V dosent sound bad
If you played the original Cyberpunk tabletop game, the AV7 was the go to flying truck/gunship.
Note that the spec said ( 6:30 ) a variant for troop/material transport: a Mark 1 Female with the compartment extended fore and aft, or/and dragging a materials trailer might have worked for that.
Germany: cannons are boys… machine guns are.. girls?
Glorified tractor maybe but it was a Leap Forward in technology you're looking at it from a hundred years of hindsight
Okay, if the A7V was developed earlier in the war and then cemented into the ground as completely stationary defenses, I think it could've worked. Just remove the rear guns and some side guns, and then you got a pillbox. The weight would not have mattered and they could put as much armor, types of guns, and anything else as they want. It would also decreases the crew number and the rear could be used for ammo storage or something along the sorts.
You're just talking about a bunker, which were built in WW1
@@oco8783 yeah I know that, that't the point of the comment. I said it just as an idea to use the structure and materials used to build the A7V into something that would probably have been more useful
When I was a kid looking through old tank designs my favourite was the German ww1 tank
Oh fun fact: this video has World of Tanks old theme music at the last part!
1st time my brother and I saw this monstrosity, we dubbed it the "armored garage"...
When you show the Romfell at 3:41 that was an Austro-Hungarian design not German.
Ah, Germany, trying to develop and mass produce an armored vehicle. Invents the excavator instead.
No, that would be a Half-track. But what are amored vehicles except regular vehicles on reinforced chassises with armor and weapons added to them. There is a popular Armored Luxury vehicle that is basically just a Ford F-450 with armor and a luxury package that people pay $10 Million for.
"Large Toaster..." LOL
But really for a first tank it seemed pretty good. Of course they made mistakes, but that always leads to improvements.
This would be the perfect ride to a steampunk party.
03:25
That is a WW2 Beaverette.
Woah. Supremacy 1914 looks significantly different from what it was when I first played it like six years ago.
Can you do an explanation video about the cursed panzer 34 in company of heroes
Never underestimate the strength of a tractor in battle!
It would take 10 a7 tanks to disable a Bob semple ground dominace tank
The shippiest of landships
Sounds like it did a good job, despite being "difficult.". (everything was difficult back then!)
Lets be honest, A7V was not forgotten just because of battlefield 1
Imagine being on the front and end up facing this oversized toaster.
Toaster with a machine gun
4:52 LMAO
No, no man, it's not a tractor, it's a shoebox
Dont forget the char 2c, stshamond and kvagon
Why my favorite tank is here
All I see are tanks and vehicles that could have been added to bf1. Shame we couldn’t see them.
6:43 why does that symbol look exactly like the decepticon logo?
Putilov-Garford video next?
A7vu looks really close to a leeman russ
Yeah it had problems, but it has such a great steampunk vibe -- it had personality :P
Good intro
Got my plushie today
Only 304 made~
Best tank 10/10
At the very roots of things, every tank is a glorified tractor
It is possible that the strv 2000 could become a cursed by design vehicle? Because it for me, as a Fan of the swedish tech tree in wt I would hear what you Think of the Tank Prototype or if its possible that the tank could come to wt
....It could have been terrifying if it had a Scottish driver. He'll just use it to crush enemy tanks.
I'm sorry, the term is "armored refrigerator box."
Ah yes, that age-old enemy of German tank design... transmission problems.
A7 had only 40mm of clearance, that is just 4cm. I think it should be 40cm.
what marvin heemeyer? wasn't first at this?
Just do say it in advance, the improvements of tanks in WW1 wasnt that great. The only thing they changed about the tank concept was to add a petrol engine.... .The A7V had a really good legacy, even if it is far less great compared to the FT-17, but at least it wasnt such a disaster as the Mark series of tanks. Only the british "think" a landbattleship could work. The legacy of the FT-17 lasts even until today, the legacy of the A7V lasted until around the 1980s and the Mark series legacy crashed hard around 1941.
The Mark legacy is the tank... I don't think ww1 would've seen nearly as much tank development if it wasn't there saying
"this idea can actually work!".
Also I don't remember the churchills having sponsons.
Warfare people :)
Tank people ;)
To me, this seems like a more practical German implementation of a Russian pre-WWI Mendeleev Tank, which basically was a freight train car-sized land submarine built around a 4-inch cannon.
Ah yes the metal brick
Ah yes, everybody's first design in Sprocket.
That's an insanely high caliber for the time.
@@aliceyagami8260, I mean, both the Mendeleev Tank and the Tsar-Tank were Russian projects, but quite different in their essence: Mendeleev Tank was designed to be an impregnable crawling bunker (yes, the caterpillar tracks were planned to be retractable in order to make it stationary) with a big-ass naval gun at the front, while the Tsar-Tank was essentially a scaled up beduin wheelbarrow with disco balls of death for turrets as well as two gun sponsons on the sides.
better than the t14
The scariest thing about the A7V was that the crew could outnumber most units sent against it.
Armored clown car.
@@sb6675 lmao
@@sb6675 TBH that
sounds about right
@@sb6675 made me lol
@@sb6675 lmfao
"The vehicle would also be the first to start the German transmission trend as the gearboxes easily broke"
Can't hold my laugh at it
a meme was born! 😜
@@sebastianthomsen2225 Doctor, the DSG in my 2008 Golf is still doing great. What is wrong with me? Can I have some more of these pink pills?
It also started a trend of beating British tanks soundly wherever they encountered them :D
Isnt that true for most german tank in both war
@@aleksazunjic9672 and losing wars, 2 in a row never to rise again lol
The interesting thing about the late German implementation of tanks is that it also created the first very potent anti tank weapons. Like the tankgewehr, K-bullets and early anti tank cannons.
It is also interesting that even with this flawed design Germans managed to defeat British in their first encounter :D
It is the same thing in the Cold War.
The US had a focus in Navy and carriers, while the Russians focused on anti ship warfare.
Just like tanks, only now we are seeing other nations outside of the US sphere of influence implementing carriers forces.
@@JonatasAdoM Soooo, China xD
@@JonatasAdoM which is arguably a side effect of WW2, one reason the US fleet in the Pacific shifted tactics was that it was mainly the battleships that were hit at pearl harbor. The old capital ship dual concept had to be replaced out of necessity.
@@aleksazunjic9672 St Quentin March 1918? Stopping a minor breakthrough locally is not a big win.
In terms of space in the tank it should be noted that according to doctrine the tank had a crew of 16 men. However, in combat this number increased to around 26 men, with MGs crewed by 2 each to ease reloading, and others to remain in contact with nearby troops.
Temperatures would reach around 60 degrees Celsius and since there was no dedicated engine bay it was also incredibly loud. With no lights installed it was almost pitch black inside. Fuel/oil leaks were not uncommon, leading to a nasty smell. Regarding ergonomics, except for the gunner, driver and commander everyone else was standing in a crouched position since the inside was only about 1.6m high. Some nooses were added at the ceiling to provide at least something to hold on, however it is questionable as to how useful they were in uneven terrain such as artillery craters.
All in all an interesting tank, and certainly nice to see how people more than 100 years ago approached the challenges without any prior knowledge. As for serving in one, well, whenever not in combat the crew usually opted to sit on the roof instead, choosing no protection over the conditions inside.
Holy shit, that sounds hellish
For a second I thought this was that Vaporeon Copypasta
Well, the british rhomboids weren't rolling spa's either
So naming one of the tanks Mephisto fits rather well
According to the Curator of the Munster Tank Museum 95% of the Western Front did not involve artillery craters or trenches and the tanks were successful there. Department A7V (The truck department of the Logistic division of the German Army Ordinance that designed the A7V was department A7V) there were more sophisticated tanks designed. The British Male/Female tanks were not much better really in ergonomics. The reason we did not see more German tanks was that the Germans were running our of Iron and they had to make a hard choice between building canon (which could stop tanks)or tanks. Of course they chose tanks and simply operated captured British tanks.
The Iron Ore Poroblem is why when the British landed troops in Narvik Norway (Operation Wilfred) in WW2 threatening German Iron ore supplies the Hitler immediately invaded all of Norway using Denmark as a staging point since the Luftwaffe was still occupied in BoB and BoF and could not stop the RN intercepting German convoys.
Ah yes, the mighty death star in battlefield 1
BF1 bois here we go!!
if you have a full crew of competent gunners, you can just drive into the entire enemy team and kill everything winning the game, unfortunately most of the time your gunners will be asleep so you cant really do that without friends
@@humanbread2619 I had the opposite experience most of the time. I love to gun on tanks but the drivers wouldn’t angle right for me to really chew up infantry when I needed to.
@@humanbread2619 I rarely had gunners. Everyone rather hump the hill all day or fly the OP Ilya.
@@thespacemarine247 see that's why i said you have to drive into the entire enemy team so there are enemies litterally everywhere
If you are ever in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. You can see Mephisto at the Queensland Museum.
I live in Brisbane lol
A notice at the museum says it was also used as a rudimentary Armoured Personnel Carrier, sometimes having as many as 22 people inside. That must have been horribly cramped, but better than being machine gunned.
Did they move it back to there from Canberra?
@@someguy-qb2rs Yes. I don't think there was any way the Queensland Government was going to let the Australian War Memorial keep the tank. It was something of a state treasure even though for years it had been neglected sitting outside the old Brisbane Museum in Bowen Hills.
Why the fuck is a WW1 European tank in fucking Australia?
Fun fact: Germany's new tank is the leopard2 a7v
Nice
Yeah! Hope it doesn't fall over that often!🤣
A7v:i am your father
LMAO
´
This reminds me of when I was a kid and put a shipping carton for a refrigerator over my wagon and pretended it was a space shuttle.
9:35 -- "I smiled once. It was awful." -- Erich Ludendorf
18 crew: commander, driver, engineer, five gunners, ten to pedal
I get the joke, but at that time, smiling on a photography would have been the equivalent of sticking your tongue out and flipping the bird. The guy is a General, he is not supposed to look like a nice guy
Recently found out, that an uncle of mine actually died at villiers-brettoneux, just at the same day, the Tanks opposed each other.
Sadly i couldn't find any letters or similar, so i really Don't know, if He actually knew about the Tanks in his surroundings.
How old are you if your uncle fought in ww1
@@Jixxor It easily could have been a case of 'Uncle was 20+ when Father was born' later on in his grandma's life.
Well...
It's actually my great grandfathers cousin... I think
My grandmother just said He was her and my 'uncle' so i never botherered with the proper german or english term 😅
@@lukeeszeha5381 aaah. that makes more sense.
@@lukeeszeha5381 soo... a granduncle then?
Actually it wasn't a Panzer, it was just a tank. The German word "Panzer" referring to armoured fighting vehicles wouldn't gain widespread usage until the 1920s. During WW1 the Germans called them Tanks, because that's what the British called them.
That's not true. Panzer means "Tank" in German. The reason in English they are called Tanks is because it was a way to disguise the parts boxes shipment to England for the development of the first tanks. It being a pretty big secret, the boxes with the parts were labeled "TANKS", as in the Bri 'ish name for water bottles. It was so that IF the Germans or their spies somehow got the Boxes they wouldn't think to open them because, in their minds, it was just a bunch of water bottles. The name stuck for the developers and that's why we call them tanks to this day.
@@thescotslair Yes,and still these vehicles were called Tank even in germany,up until the 1920s.The word "Panzer" did NOT appear during WW1 to describe them
@@NashmanNash Link
@@thescotslair it's even mentioned in the video that the tank was originally envisaged to use a 20mm cannon firing "TuF" rounds. TuF stands for Tank-Und-Flieger, or Tank-and-Plane, which were heavy machinegun and anti-tank rifle rounds developed for destroying tanks and aircraft. The German word "Panzer" actually more literally translates to armour in English. Panzer referring to tanks is actually an abbreviation of Panzerkampfwagen (approximately armoured fighting vehicle) and this terminology would not emerge in Germany until after WW1. During the war they were known as tanks.
@@marmite8959 Yeah still no. Panzer means Tank still. But that's in a modern sense. the older meaning is a type of German chain-mail but since we are not 500 years old I'm sure you just looked that up like I did but took it at face value.
As certain chaos warlord would say
Metal boxes!
Do one in M114 vehicle now that was a big brain moment by the US Military
I've seen one irl. It's very shaped.
THE FEWLS
@@wraithcadmus
THE COWARDS!
THE FEWLZ!!
WE.. shall take away.. Their metal.. boxes!!
Happy to know Mephisto is happy Australian vet now.
Haha yes, i've seen and touched the tank so i know its real, and its real cool
@@Foxttellio yeah I live near the Australian war memorial where it's on display, but I haven't been able to touch it
Have they moved it from Qld? Or is it on loan?
Yeah they moved it from qld due to the flood. Sent to ipswich train museum to repair it and mysteriously ends up in canberra instead of back to qld. That is what i heard.
@@tien65 I wondered as I saw it in Ipswich a couple of years ago.
I'm proud to be a Queenslander in Australia and very glad to have seen the A7V aka Mephisto in person, it's smaller than what most people think but still a large-ish vehicle.
I love the story of how it was both captured, and ended up in Brisbane instead of Canberra. True Aussie yarn
I want to see it some day. I live in Indiana and there is a military museum in Vincennes, Indiana that has one of two surviving turrets (sadly it's only a section of it) in the US. Along with a beautiful replica of a M1917 and a Type 97 Chi-Ha.
I have a feeling it looks even smaller when you’re sharing it with 17 other guys.
@@GrumpyIan I have been to that museum in vincennes a few times. Well worth the visit and I always somehow stay longer than planned. Hope to visit it again sometime.
I only saw it in August. Bucketlist item
Interestingly, all the tank producing nations began with the same idea - plonk an armoured box on a Holt or similar caterpillar track chassis. Fortunately the British engineers realised the limitation, and serious defects of this idea, whereas the Germans, French and Italians failed to do so. I read somewhere that German tankers preferred to use captured British tanks to the A7V - they worked far more reliably. Imitation is most certainly the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks for this film - loads and loads of moving and still pictures I've never seen before. Brilliant.
The other factor was there were simply vastly more captured Allied tanks than A7vs, they only made 20
The French did also see the limitations of the idea.
After all, the Renault FT (which was not a copy of the british Mark 1) is still one of the most successful tank of WWI on top of being among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history
The French saw the limitation of this design so much that they came up with a new one that became the basis of all tanks since: the legendary FT17
There were a lot of pictures I never have seen before, and I didnt know that Imerial Germany had any other workign designs in the making besides the K Waggon
The British tanks were optimised to cross trenches - the A7V was not. The A7V was essentially incapable of crossing trenches and frequently toppled over due to its extremely high centre of gravity on rough ground. The fact the tracks didn’t extend beyond the armor leading to frequent bogging when it’s nose dug in.
Looking forward to vids about the Saint Chamond and Schneider tanks
they saw in cambrai and french campaigns
Aka waste of manpower and man-hours
@@512TheWolf512 could say that about a moon landing. doesn't stop it from being awesome though
Oh man, yeah if there is a design that can match A7V in ridiculousness it's Saint Chamond
Of course every german tank that was build gonna have spg or tank destroyer versions 😅
Classic German tank design. The enemy has something they're lacking, so they built the same thing but much bigger and heavier xD
Let's do it.
Those early armoured car designs are straight out of "Wacky Races" !
11:05 "The A7V had 40mm of ground clearance" ?? That's like a Formula One car ! That's crazy !!
0:52 I didn’t know that the MG in the FT-17 had limited traverse within the turret. This makes sense, all weapons protected by armor or bunkers had limited traverse and so it was given to a traversable turret.
I believe a lot of it was to do with the non-powered turret. for small adjustments it was a lot more useful for the gunner to just move the MG in its mount, rather than twisting body to move the turret. which, I'd imagine, would get awfully tiring very quickly. and of course it would be impossible to fire and traverse at the same time
During mid 30s
England : what are you doing?
Germany : smoothie
Nah nah, more like this
Mid to late 30s
Allies: What you got there?
Germany, amassing a lot of light and medium tanks: A smoothie.
I've been in the only A7V left in the world, Mephisto. It was loot that the AIF brought back to Australia after WW1. Years ago it was outside the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. We were kids at the time and we could climb inside.
I think the reason why early German tanks are so shit and why they were so reluctant to make one (and maybe it even has some baring on their obsession with heavy tanks later on) is because they made some of the first anti-tank weapons. Likely leading them to think tanks can just be defeated by well equipped infantry unless the tank is ludicrously strong.
I mean they did invent the Panzerfaust and schreck for a reason
Americans invented the first bazooka. Germans copied it.
In Battlefield 1: Overused Death Machine
In real life: Underused Glorified Troop Carrier
Seriously this thing carried up to 25 MFs and barely saw combat (I wonder why)
FT-17 Light Tank Gang for life
Edit: changed to a bit more factual information
it saw quite a lot of combat. Relatively few made but most of those few was in frontline service
@@LyonPercival My sources must have been talking about a variant or something. Good on you. Only 20 were ever made. But where you got it wrong is that it only saw 5 battles, 1 of which where they all broke down at St. Quentin Canal and another where the first Tank-on-Tank skirmish happened where they got smacked and routed. They didn't a lot of combat and it is generally held that their contribution to the war effort was negligible at best.
@@LyonPercival Oh and the 3 other battles they were kind of just there. didn't really do much of interest
I was watching a show about tanks on the history channel years ago and they said that the A7V was never used in combat yet I have a book that describes the first tank on tank battle with them.
You mean the same channel that says aliens built the pirimids?
They were used in combat
It is like they didn't' know what they were doing, which is true as only their opponents had done this before, and they were not going to share their findings.
The only A7V in the world was Stolen by Aussies from the poms because the British High Command was going to keep it, even though the same Aussie captured it.
Queenslanders: “We take pride in holding onto Mephisto, the only intact surviving A7V”
ConeOfArc: “Giant toaster”
Queenslanders: 👁👄👁
Mephisto sat outside the Queensland Museum for many years under what could best described as a "car port". There was a low picket fence surrounding the structure to keep people out, but that didn't stop us youngsters from climbing all over the tank. I seem to recall there was a "keep off" sign but we ignored it. I also recall peering in through the gun ports to check out the interior but at that age not really understanding what it was all for. I do seem to recall that at one time a side door was left open but I was too frightened to climb inside because of the claustrophobic atmosphere & maybe the presence of ghosts :)
I'm so glad that it has finally been preserved for historic reasons.
Great video! I never knew the Germans had so many tank variants in WWI until now. 👍
Imagine they added all these to War Thunder
I swear to God I keep pressing this video thinking its already premiered
Edit:Well it's out now