page_title: British heavy tanks of World War I
section_title: Mark V
hierarchical_section_title: British heavy tanks of World War I / Surviving vehicles / Mark V
caption_attribution_description: English: British Mark V. It saw action at the Battle of Amiens in August 1918.
context_page_description: British heavy tanks were a series of related armoured fighting vehicles developed by the UK during the First World War.
  The Mark I was the world's first tank, a tracked, armed, and armoured vehicle, to enter combat. The name "tank" was initially a code name to maintain secrecy and disguise its true purpose by making it appear to be a water transport vehicle for bringing water to the troops at the front line. The type was developed in 1915 to break the stalemate of trench warfare. It could survive the machine gun and small-arms fire in "No Man's Land", travel over difficult terrain, crush barbed wire, and cross trenches to assault fortified enemy positions with powerful armament. Tanks also carried supplies and troops.
  British heavy tanks are distinguished by an unusual rhomboidal shape with a high climbing face of the track, designed to cross the wide and deep trenches prevalent on the battlefields of the Western Front. Due to the height necessary for this shape, an armed turret would have made the vehicle too tall and unstable. Instead, the main armament was arranged in sponsons at the side of the vehicle.
context_section_description: Eleven Mark Vs survive. The majority are in Russia or Ukraine and are survivors of the tanks sent there to aid the White forces during the Russian Civil War.
  The Tank Museum, Bovington displays a Mark V Male, Number 9199, one of two British World War I tanks still in working order. It was in action at the Battle of Amiens where its commander – Lt. H. A. Whittenbury – was awarded the Military Cross. This tank is maintained in running condition, but is no longer run because of the wear and tear that would be inflicted on the now-fragile, historic vehicle.
  A Mark V** Female: Ol' Faithful, is also preserved at Bovington.
  A heavily restored Mark V Male, Devil, survives at the London Imperial War Museum.
  A Mark V* Male, Number 9591, has since 2010 been part of the collection of the National Armor and Cavalry Museum, Fort Benning, Georgia. It was issued to Company A, US 301st Heavy Tank Battalion, and knocked out by a single artillery round on 27 September 1918, during the attack against the Hindenburg Line. It was repaired and sent back to the United States, and is the only surviving example of the Mark V*.
  A Mark V is at the Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia.
  A Mark V serves as memorial in Arkhangelsk. This was originally used by British forces during the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War.
  Two preserved Mark Vs, a Male and a Female, form part of an outdoor memorial at Luhansk in Ukraine; two more are in storage.
  A Mark V Female is at the M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum, Ukraine.
caption: Mark V 9199 at The Tank Museum at Bovington (2015). This tank is maintained in working order but is no longer run, in order to help preserve it.
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