Whippets in Japan

[velotrain]

No, silly - not the dogs.

 

After WW1 ended, England sold some of their Whippet tanks to Japan.  While these were under-armored and under-armed, they were much lighter and more maneuverable than the earliest British and German tanks. 

 

 

 

 

I was interested in their "cubist" form, and found an intriguing photo of one being loaded onto a ferry for a river crossing.  At least that's what I thought it depicted, but a much more experienced and informed British modeler (but apparently with little intuition) was shocked at the idea they would drive the tank onto a ferry backwards, never mind that the door was at that end so they could better see where they were going.  The door is clearly opened in the photo.  Actually, my view was based on the gaze of the fellows on the barge.  The tank was clearly moving toward them, and they were perhaps concerned with the weight that was about to be transferred - or they would be looking elsewhere.

 

I had established a friendship with a French fellow, who was a librarian and enjoyed researching unusual and challenging subjects to see what he could come up with - not unlike Mark Newton.  I thought my arguments for the tank being loaded - vs. offloaded, were sufficiently strong, but one day he sent me a photo which clearly proved my case.  There's something ironic about this weapon of modern warfare (at the time) being ferried across a river on a wooden barge by men using nothing more than poles.

 

 

 

 

However, Frenchy soon found the prize photo of Japanese Whippets.  This was clearly sometime later, and perhaps even in the 30's, during the Manchurian campaign.  Those in the know can look for signs in the background for indications of the date.  It has been painted with camouflage colors, although the lines may be hard to make out in the B&W photo.  Two things strike me.  First, the total look of amazement on the faces of the residents at having these strange foreign objects in the streets of their town.  Second, that this is a superb B&W photo / print.  Even though this is rather low resolution, everything is tack sharp, the blacks are rich, and there is a full range of lighter tones.

 

 

 

 

A link to a thread elsewhere with more info and photos.

 

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=211851&page=1

[Fenway Park]

Fascinating, Japan was an ally in WW1 but I was unaware the British sold or gave these to Japan to help their army. The Japanese tanks up to and in World War 2 were under armoured and had poor armament but this was not exposed until the Chia 95s and 97s came up against the M4 Sherman late into the war and there was little time to produce a better model. So in theory they followed British practice

[kvp]

Some early japanese warships were british built, very much like early japanese steam and electric locomotives.

 

Now we see japanese trains in britain and japanese subs in australia.

[Guest ___]

As divo said, whippet, whippet good.

[yakumo381]

Are we not men? We are D E V O! :)

[Guest ___]

And Dino said, bowowowwowoowwowo

 

[velotrain]

_{Looks like this topic has gone to the dogs}

[cteno4]

Freedom of choice is what you got / Freedom from choice is what you want.

 

So many memories! Got to see them do an impromptu concert on the mall at uc berkeley one afternoon and they went on for a,most three hours as they were so totally in their element! It was probably the most sublime concert I've ever been to!

Jeff

[miyakoji]

Jeff you being a Devo fan makes total sense to me :)

[cteno4]

Fits with my love of buckaroo banzai! Something to do with monkeys!

 

Jeff

[cteno4]

Sorry back on topic the 1/72 military model posts in the new in mail thread made me fire some childhood neurons tonight and I'm pretty sure I had a 1/72 model of a whippet as a kid, I had most of the tank models done in 1/72 for wwI and II. It's looking more familiar as I look at it.

 

Jeff

[velotrain]

It was most likely an AirFix 1:76 kit.

 

Here's a larger scale kit:

 

http://www.accurate-armour.com/ShowProduct.cfm?category=1&subcategory=1&product=1747&manufacturer=0

[cteno4]

Could have been lots of airfix models were made.

 

Jeff

[marknewton]

Charles, that's a fascinating photo you posted, I didn't know that there were Whippets in service with the Japanese army.

 

On the subject of WW1 tanks, I recently had an opportunity to inspect this beast:

 

 

Mephisto is currently on loan to the Australian War Memorial, displayed as part of a special exhibition commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign.

 

As far as I recall Airfix never produced a kit for the Whippet. Their only WW1 armour kit was for a Mk1 rhomboid heavy tank. I think the 1/76th scale kit Jeff refers to was either by Esci or Italeri.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited July 23, 2015 by marknewton

[velotrain]

Mark - I thought I had found a reference to an Airfix Whippet, but it looks like I was wrong.  Emhar offer a 1:72 kit, but I believe that was produced later than when Jeff was a child ;-)  

 

http://www.landships.info/landships/kit_reviews.html#

 

Your image of Mephisto indicted it was missing the cupola, and that was also the case when it was hauled to the Queensland Museum in 1919.  It was captured in a ditch, so that could explain the missing piece.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_(tank)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an image of a French-captured X7A, with cupola, on a railcar.

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Yeah it's a bit too long back for me to rember the manufacturers of models, mid 70s for me. Got into the wwI tanks after dong most of the wwIi tanks and finding the wwI tanks so fascinating as they were trying everything at the time. Trying to be a mobile fort many times rather than mobile artillery piece. Unfortunately at the time I think there were less than maybe a dozen in 1/72 done.

 

Jeff

[velotrain]

Jeff is right about "they were trying everything at the time".

 

Here are two experiments from 1915, the French Boirault machine, and the Russian Tsar tank.

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Pure hg wells!

 

Unfortunately when I was a kid they weren't making models of the truly bizarre or I would have been all over them!

 

Jeff

Edited July 24, 2015 by cteno4

[velotrain]

From a train perspective, the 2 foot / 60 cm gauge trench railways were really fascinating.  I'll attach a selection of favorite images, with what captions I have for them - from among many hundreds that I have seen.

 

 

The British engineers seemed to take particular delight at routing their lines through ruined buildings - I've seen several other examples.

 

 

 

 

More British engineering, although I'm quite certain this is actually the far lesser known campaign in Salonika.

That French Pechot-Bourdon engine is a particular favorite of mine, and I have some images of them hauling NG artillery trains in the years leading up to WWI.

 

 

 

 

I have no info on this one, other than being certain that it is a British-run train in France.

It was clearly far enough behind the front that the countryside gives no indication of a war going on, and the crew felt comfortable stopping the train for an extended period to take this shot.

 

 

 

 

 

Typical French - keeping close watch on the wine wagon

 

 

 

 

 

I hope the guy steadying the tipper is strong, as this looks like it could be seriously dangerous.  I feel frustrated that there was no image of what they were dumping into.

 

 

 

 

 

In case you thought these were all small scale operations, this is the goods yard at Elverdinghe, Belgium.  There is a SG engine in the background, and sheds used for transloading.  The building on the left is the yardmaster - operations office.

 

 

 

 

 

" The R.G.A. At Elverdinghe. Taking Up shells By motor driven light railway during The Battle Of Langemarck, 19th August 1917."

This is the well-known Ford Draisine, built at Crewe, England.  They were seriously underpowered, but could handle light duty near the front.  Note the horse-drawn wagon and truck convoy approaching at the rear.

 

 

 

 

 

The WDLR (War Department - Light Railway) built two five-car mobile railway shops, that could handle all required field repairs.

 

 

 

 

 

This is probably the most enigmatic image that I've come across, and don't know what to make of it, partially because the two tiny wagons appear to be propelled by hand.

This is all the info I found when I captured the image, "A railway narrow gauge forest Of Marcaulieu (Meuse)."