The Mark VIII or Liberty was a Anglo-American tank of the First World War. The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International dUnités). ... The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ... The Hotchkiss machine gun was the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. This article is a stub. ... The Browning Model 1917A1 water cooled heavy machine gun Browning Model 1917 Heavy Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I and World War II. The Browning is a water cooled heavy machine gun. ... A hoplite wearing a helmet, a breastplate and greaves (and nothing else). ... The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Early Development

As the First World War progressed, the industrial production capacity of the Entente was taxed to the limit. Of the many allies, only Britain and France had been important industrial states in 1914 and the latter country had lost 70% of its heavy industry when the Germans overran that part of Lorraine they hadn't already occupied in 1871. The output in Britain was limited by labour shortages and a skyrocketing national debt. Entente, meaning a diplomatic understanding, may refer to a number of agreements: The Entente Cordiale, 1904 between France and the United Kingdom. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning compared to light industry. ... Capital Metz Area 23,547 km² Regional President Jean-Pierre Masseret Population  - 2005 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 2,310,376 98/km² Arrondissements 19 Cantons 157 Communes 2,337 Départements Meurthe-et-Moselle Meuse Moselle Vosges You may also want: Lorraine, Quebec Lorraine, Ontario Lorraine (German: Lothringen) is a... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Information processing In information processing, output is the process of transmitting information (verb usage). ... Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). ...

When the United States of America declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, many in Britain hoped this event would solve all these problems. The two men directly responsible for British tank production, Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt and Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Gerald Stern, first considered to sent a delegation to the States immediately, to convince the new ally to start production of a British type; after some reflection they decided it was best to leave the initiative to the Americans. In June 1917 the first American approaches were made, but not by the US Army as they had expected. The US Navy wanted the most modern tanks for its US Marine Corps. At that moment the latest British tank project was the Mark VI. This tank was obviously designed with existing British industrial capacity in mind. The Americans should however be able to produce a much more powerful vehicle. Stern therefore pretended that an even more advanced project had already been in existence that he called the Mark VIII (there was also a much more conventional Mark VII-project). He invited the Americans to participate and contribute as much as they would like to its design. Quite impressed by British hospitality and magnanimity the delegation returned to the States. The Navy was on the brink of sending a team of engineers to Britain when the American Ministry of War was informed by the US Military Attaché in London. It ordered to shift the project to the Army and selected Major H.W.Alden to go to Britain to work with the design team at Dollis Hill to work on the first drawings of the new tank. He arrived on 3 October in London, discovering that a lot of design work had already been done by Lieutenant John G. Rackam, mainly influenced by the dismal conditions then encountered at the battlefield in Flandres. 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... The Mark VI was a British heavy tank project from the First World War. ... Dollis Hill is an area of North-West London, England. ...

International Tank

Meanwhile US Army had set up headquarters in France. It decided to form its own Tank Corps with 25 tank battalions among which five Heavy Tank Battalions. To equip the heavy units Major James A. Drain ordered 600 Mark VI's in October 1917. Also it tried to convince the Ministry of War to diverge all available tanks to the Army, leading to a conflict with the Navy (the first of many to come over this issue). This posed serious problems for the British government. Now it seemed that American involvement in the war would mean a lesser number of tanks available to the British troops. Also on 4 February 1917 binding agreements hade been made with the French about tank production. These had to be renegotiated.

The man to solve all these problems was again Albert Stern. Winston Churchill, the new Minister of Munitions, had just been forced to fire Stern as director of the Mechanical Supply Department because of his mistakes in handling the Mark IV project, leading to enormous production delays. He now appointed him International Commissioner for Mechanical Warfare. Stern went to France to meet the French Minister of Munitions, Louis Loucheur and the American CinC John Pershing. Loucheur made it clear from the beginning that France had nothing to offer in terms of existing production facilities; even the Renault FT-17 could only be produced because of British armour deliveries. This came as no surprise to Stern who had already prepared an International Plan of ten points (in fact a bilateral agreement between the USA and Britain) that he now managed to get accepted by the Americans and was submitted to Churchill on 11 November. Its main points included (using the original terminology): The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... A Mark I tank (moving left to right). ... Photo portrait from May 1917 New York Times John Joseph Black Jack Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was a soldier in the United States Army. ... The Renault FT-17 (Automitrailleuse à chenilles Renault FT modèle 1917) was the French light tank. ...

• The incorporation of a partnership between the USA and Great Britain for the production of 1500 heavy tanks to be erected in France.
• The supply of a number of these tanks to France to further the higher purpose of Allied unity, should she require them (Britain hoped France would produce its own Char 2C in sufficient numbers, Loucheur already knew this was unlikely to happen).
• France might supply an erecting shop, if convenient; in any case it might be wiser to build a new one (So a clompletely new factory had to be build in France).
• A joint supply of components. Britain would supply guns, ammunition and armour; the USA engines, transmissions, forgings and chaines (employing US car industry).
• The design would be based on British experiency and American ideas and resources, and be superior in power, loading and trench crossing.
• Major Alden would finish the working drawings before Christmas enjoying full cooperation of the British; the design was to be approved by both nations.
• Unskilled labour would be provided by imported Chinese; the French government ensured their local accomodation.
• Production would begin in April 1918 and finally reach 300 a month (So the number of 1500 was only preliminary).
• The project would have high priority.
• Management would be in the hands of two Commissioners, one British (Stern himself) and one American; but the French could appoint their own if their interests were concerned.

The plan already contained some specifications: the tank should have a 300 hp (220 kW) engine, weigh 38.8 tons and have a trench crossing capacity of 14 feet (4.3 m). Also the name of the tank was given: the Liberty. Char 2C Alsace The Char 2C was a superheavy French tank from the First World War. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The first design conference took place on 4 December and Churchill approved the plan soon afterwards. It was made into a formal treaty signed by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and US Ambassador Walter H. Page on 19 January 1918. The treaty specified the programme in great detail. The first 1500 tanks had to be made by the end of the year and production should be expanded to 1200 a month. Both goals were very ambitious given the fact there was neither a completed design nor a factory and that British tank production was in fact to be 150 a month during 1918. The Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (25 July 1848 - 19 March 1930) was a British statesman and the thirty-third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ...

The United States would supply: the engine; radiator; fan; piping; silencer; lighting; dynamo; battery; propeller shaft; transmission, including gearbox; brakes; roller sprockets; gear shift and brake control; track links and pins; rear track sprockets, hub and shafts; front idler hub and shafts; track roller, track spindles and bushings.

Britain would supply: bullet and bomb-proof plates; structural members; track shoes and rollers; guns, machine guns and mountings; ammunition racks and ammunition.

The agreed price was to be 5000 pounds per vehicle.

In December 1917 Stern had ordered to finish the Mark VI project ensuring that the Mark VIII would be the new standard Allied weapon: the International Tank.

Description

The Mark VIII kept many of the general features of the Mark I-V series: it had their typical high track run and no revolving turret but two sponsons, one on each side of the tank, armed with a 57 mm gun. But it also resembled the Mark VI-project in that it had more rounded and wider tracks and a large superstructure on top directly beneath the front of which the driver was seated. An innovative feature was the departure from the concept of the box tank with its single space into which all accessories were crammed. The Mark VIII was compartimentalised with a separate engine room at the back. This vastly improved fighting conditions as a bulkhead protected the crew against deafening engine noise, noxious fumes and heat. Sponsons are flat projections from the sides of a watercraft, for protection, stability, the mounting of armaments, etc. ...

The sponsons held no machine guns, only the 6-pounders manned by a gunner and loader. Major Alden had designed the sponsons to be retractable by the crew (they could swing in from the rear, being pivoted at the front), to diminish the width of the vehicle in case enemy obstacles were encountered. Each side of the tank had a door with a machine gun position. Five more such positions were at the superstructure: two at the front — left and right next to the driver — and one at each other side. As there was no machine gun at the very back of the tank this created a dead angle vulnerable to infantry attack. To solve this problem a triangular steel deflector plate was attached there, allowing the back superstructure machine gunner to let his fire ricochet towards the ground behind the tank. The tank carried 208 shells and 13,848 machine gun rounds, mostly in a large ammunition locker in the centre forming a platform on which the commander stood behind the driver observing the battlefield through a cupola with four vision slits. A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ...

The twelfth crew member was the mechanic, seated next to the 300hp V-12 Liberty engine. Three armoured tanks at the rear held 200 imperial gallons (909 liters) of fuel rendering a range of 89 km. The transmission included a planetary gearbox with two speeds in either forward or reverse. Top speed was 5.25 mph (8 km/h). The gallon is a unit of volume used for measuring liquids (as well as dry matter). ...

To improve its trench crossing ability to 4.88 m the vehicle had a very elongated shape. The length was 10.42 m: even though its width was an impressive nominal 3.76 m, length-width ratio was extreme because that width was caused by the sponsons: the hull was narrow. As the tracks were very wide besides, it proved difficult to turn the tank. During testing many tracks simply twisted and broke in a turn and it was decided to use longer 13.25 inch (337 mm) links made of hardened cast armour plate, stiffened by webs formed by recesses in the track plate. Another effect of its shape was that the fighting compartment was very narrow also. This was made worse by the fact that now the gap between the double track frames at each side was very wide; earlier types had only the tracks themselves widened. Nevertheless the tank was supposed to accomodate another twenty infantry men in full gear if necessary! In absolute size the vehicle had large bulk: 3.13 m tall the Mark VIII was the second largest operational tank in history, after the Char 2C. Still its weight was only 37.6 metric tonnes as the armour plate it was protected by had a thickness of 16 mm — a slight improvement over the Mark V but very thin by present standards. Roof and bottom had only 6 mm armour plate, so the tank was very vulnerable to mortar shells and mines. Mortar has several meanings: A mortar is a military weapon into which is dropped a mortar shell, which is then fired in a high ballistic trajectory. ...

Production

The French government hoped to receive 700 Mark VIII's for free, as the French superheavy tank, the Char 2C, couldn't be produced in sufficient numbers, if at all. Suffering from a lack of manpower and raw materials however, the French weren't very forthcoming in providing any facilities for the production of the International Tank. Soon the Americans decided to indeed build a brand new assembly factory at Neuvy-Pailloux, contracting a British company. Far from producing its first tank in April, this factory wasn't nearly finished in June. The Americans then tried to find a producer in the USA, but failed. In August they contracted another British firm. It finished the factory in November, when the war had already ended. It wouldn't build a single tank.

There were also serious delays in the production of the components. The Liberty engine was redesigned to replace expensive steel parts with cheap pig iron. The first redesigned engines were only produced in October. The British finished the prototype hull, made of unhardened steel, in July and sent it to the States. On arrival it transpired no mass-produced parts were ready to finish the prototype, so Locomobile Automobile Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut made these all by hand, completing the first vehicle on 28 September. Testing began on 31 October; only then armament was shipped from Britain, two guns and ten Hotchkiss machine guns. Pig iron is raw iron, the immediate product of smelting iron ore with coke and limestone in a blast furnace. ... Bridgeport (41n10, 73w12 EST) is the largest city by population in Connecticut, and is located in southeastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. ... The Hotchkiss machine gun was the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. This article is a stub. ...

Testing was finished after the war and it was decided to build 100 vehicles in the USA; these were constructed in 1919 and 1920 by the Rock Island Arsenal for 35,000 dollars each, using British armour plates. 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... RIA is a company located in the Phillipines. ...

Meanwhile the British government had decided to start production in Britain also: 1500 vehicles were ordered from North British Locomotive Company, William Beardmores Company and Metropolitan, using a 300 hp (220 kW) V12 Ricardo engine. Only the first factory managed to produce a prototype before the end of the war, testing it at 11 November. From preproduced parts another 24 vehicles would be produced after the war; five were sent to the training centre at Bovington, the others went right to the scrap dealer. The North British Locomotive Company (NBL) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow companies; Sharp Stewart, Neilson Reid and Dübs and Company creating the largest locomotive building company in Europe. ... Sir Harry Ricardo (1885-1974) was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine. ...

Mark VIII*

During 1918, the then prevalent preoccupation with trench crossing capabilities led to preparations being made for the production of an even longer tank: the Mark VIII* (Star). The hull was to be lengthened a full three meters: four feet at the front and six feet at the back. This way it should be able to cross a trench 18 feet wide. To ensure that the tank could turn at all, despite its critically high length-width ratio, the bottom profile of the tracks would be more strongly curved, so that a smaller part of the track would touch the ground. Ground pressure would have increased however, as total weight reached 42.5 tons. If the tank had sunk into soft ground somewhat, it's questionable whether it would have been able to make a turn. No prototype was built.

Operational history

The American Liberty tanks equipped a single unit: the 67th Infantry (Tank) Regiment, based in Aberdeen, Maryland. The curious designation of the unit had its origin in the fact that since 1922 by law all tanks had to be part of the Infantry. The two machine gun positions at the sides of the superstructure were eliminated, so the crew could be reduced to ten. Water-cooled Browning Model 1917 machine guns were used. Despite many modifications the vehicles suffered from overheating and poor reliability, causing a prejudice in the Army against the use of heavy tanks. From 1932 onward they were phased out; all were in storage in 1934. In 1940 Canada had a lack of training tanks and bought most vehicles at scrap value. Aberdeen is a city located in Harford County, Maryland. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Browning Model 1917A1 water cooled heavy machine gun Browning Model 1917 Heavy Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I and World War II. The Browning is a water cooled heavy machine gun. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

A single Liberty tank survives at Fort Mead in Maryland. State nickname: Old Line State; Free State Other U.S. States Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Official languages English Area 32,160 km² (42nd)  - Land 25,338 km²  - Water 6,968 km² (21%) Population (2000)  - Population 5,296,486 (19th)  - Density 165 /km² (5th) Admission into...

The British never allocated their Mark VIII's to a tank unit; a single vehicle survives at the Bovington Tank Museum. The Bovington Tank Museum is the foremost collection of armoured vehicles in the United Kingdom, and with almost 300 vehicles on exhibition from 26 countries it is the most wide-ranging collection of tanks and armoured vehicles in the world. ...