Berlin 1945...in a Mk V (Male)

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

What exactly they were doing up there - who knows.

I seem to recall they were dug in as pillboxes.

I suspect these were in Berlin as exhibits and after the Russian victory were dragged out and positioned for propaganda purposes. The chances they were in running condition in 1945 are about nil.... but who knows, stranger things have happened

[zastava128]

Originally Posted by DRG

I seem to recall they were dug in as pillboxes.

I suspect these were in Berlin as exhibits and after the Russian victory were dragged out and positioned for propaganda purposes. The chances they were in running condition in 1945 are about nil.... but who knows, stranger things have happened

The Russians also used four Mark Vs as pillboxes to defend Tallinn, Estonia in 1941.

[blazejos]

That info raises also other question how long Mk.V were in use in soviet Russia by red army after civil war and when they were put on monuments in Smolensk?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_V...tonian_service

Wikipedia

Russian Civil War

Approximately 70 Mark V tanks supplied by Great Britain to the White Russian Army and subsequently captured by the Red Army in the course of the Russian Civil War were used in 1921 during the Red Army invasion of Georgia and contributed to the Soviet victory in the battle for Tbilisi.[23] In the north, four Mark Vs had been delivered to White Russian forces in Archangelsk in 1919, and four to Tallinn, Estonia along with two Renault FTs.[6]

The last confirmed use of the Mk V in battle was by units of the Red Army during the defence of Tallinn against German forces in August 1941. The four Mk Vs previously operated by Estonia were used as dug-in fortifications. It is believed that they were subsequently scrapped.[24]
Berlin

In 1945, Allied troops came across two badly damaged Mk V tanks in Berlin. Photographic evidence indicates that these were survivors of the Russian Civil War and had previously been displayed as a monument in Smolensk, Russia, before being brought to Berlin after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.[1] Accounts of their active involvement in the Battle of Berlin have not been verified.[2]

Mark V Composite Tank in Luhansk
http://tank-photographs.s3-website-e...dite-tank.html

Kharkiv
http://tank-photographs.s3-website-e...k-Kharkiv.html

Kubianka
http://tank-photographs.s3-website-e...sian-tank.html

But here are interesting informations in article about surviving Mk.V in Arkhangelsk in North West Russia.

http://tank-photographs.s3-website-e...male-tank.html

from article is mentioned that this particular tank were still in use in 1930

There is little information about the vehicle’s further fortune, but after the year of 1923, it was itemized in one of the units of Moscow military command.

On 1 May 1930, the crew of the tank No. 9303 took part in the parade on Red Square in Moscow. By that moment, it had been removed from service in Red Army troops like other Mk V vehicles, and after that, it was not used anymore

goes to military magazine meaby used as a training tank? and ...

Pavlov, Head of the armoured and automotive department sent a proposal to Kliment Voroshilov, People’s Commissar of National Defense that 14 obsolete tanks should be sent to the cities of Smolensk, Rostov-on-Don, Kharkov, Leningrad, Kiev, Voroshilovgrad and Arkhangelsk to be used as historical monuments, and 1 tank was sent to Armoured vehicles research test site to be used as an exhibit.

so their final fate is ending 1939 when were set on monuments around

On 20 September 1938 the Female Mark V tank No. 9303 was sent to Arkhangelsk and in summer 1939 it was set up on the city as a monument by an order dated 1938 by Marshal Voroshilovin and officially unveiled a year later.

and here article about their actual fate
http://www.landships.info/landships/...ng_Mark_V.html
and what happens with this two tanks before war in Donbas starts Tank Luhansk Oblast tank 2009 restoration.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war...k-v-tanks.html

[blazejos]

And here photo of this two tanks send to Smolensk in 1939 to be converted to monuments. In 1941 they were not put on them and is possible that they were still in working condition btw they were training tanks in 1930's Possible that that their engines were still runing because they were moving in Berlin 1945

An HT-26 at Smolensk in 1941.


source https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/categ...ther-vehicles/