First World War Mark I Wireless Tank - 1916-1917

The Mark I Wireless Tank represented the first real attempt to mount wireless equipment within a viable combat-capable tank, and was one of the most important variations of the basic Mark I tank design. However, many details of this the first real wireless tank are still shrouded in mystery, especially as to how the radio equipment was mounted within the tank and what type of wireless it actually was, how it was used "in the field", how many Mark I Female tanks were actually converted to this configuration, and just how and where the tanks so converted were actually used in action - if at all.

It is known that the type of Mark I tank used as a basis for the Mark I Wireless Tank was the Mark I Female, with its machine gun armament removed and the sponsons partly plated over, with a part of the sponson's side open or openable and presumably with the radio equipment and operator within the sponson - although even this latter fact is not known for certain. A tall aerial mast was available for mounting to the front of the tank's hull with its associated mountings, aerial lines and tensioners. Claims have been made that a considerable number of these tanks were used in action at Cambrai in 1917, but in reality these is little or no hard evidence of this, eyewitness first-hand testimony actually suggesting that these Mark I tanks were more likely used for training purposes and for trials in pioneering the use of radio equipment in tanks. It also seems more likely from the same sources that radio-equipped Mark IV tanks were used at Cambrai, and not the by then rather elderly and well-used Mark Is. Nevertheless, the Mark I Wireless Tank was very important in being the first real tank to carry radio equipment, and thus it has a special place in the history of armoured fighting vehicles.

Colour Notes
The evidence that has so far come to light suggests an overall brown colour (a little darker than Humbrol No.29), including the sponsons, with the mast also apparently dark coloured (possibly dark grey). Photographs of an apparently freshly painted Mark I Wireless Tank displayed at Erin near Neuve Église in France for the benefit of Queen Mary in July 1917 reveal a number, 527, in black on the left side of the tank behind the left sponson in line with the opening visible in the left sponson.

Acknowledgment
Sincere thanks to David Fletcher of the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset for his invaluable help with Wireless Tank details, first-hand sources and colours, and for allowing access to the unique sequence of photographs taken at Erin in July 1917 that confirm the details in this kit, the master for which was researched and built by Malcolm Lowe.