Splendid Motors

A7V Sturmpanzerwagen "Schmock"

In this photograph taken in the week before Schmock's maiden voyage, the pointing figure is identifiable as Leutnant Fangelschnard. The wryly amused figure of Hauptmann Rosenbaum sits ahead of him on the cupola with arms folded. A copy of this photograph, autographed by Rosenbaum sometime in the 1920s, was found in Capt. D'Urbrayne's archive.

Commanded by Leutnant Gustav Fangelschnard, Schmock was one of 21 German tanks to see active service in 1918. A sluggish and cumbersome beast, Schmock reputedly got her name from her driver, Hauptmann Rosenbaum, who reportedly exclaimed: "You expect me to ride *that* thing into battle? Just what kind of a schmock do you take me for?"

According to Fangelschnard's combat report of 31 August 1918, Schmock was rammed and overturned, and subsequently abandoned, after storming ahead on a heroic rampage that single-handedly knocked out a dozen British Mark V tanks. Authorities differ on the subject, but given the A7V's record some revisionist historians favour a post-war testimony that Schmock's combat career consisted of trundling one mile behind the British front line, then falling over and being abandoned following an heroic but ill-advised attempt to ram a British field kitchen.

The truth is  now lost in the sands of history. What is unquestionable is that moments after Schmock's capsize, one Captain Douglas D'Urbrayne pitched up, still munching on a suet pudding, to see what all the kerfuffle had been about...

Schmock at the end of her intrepid first (and last) combat sortie. Note what appear to be discarded Fray Bentos crates (centre right). From the D'Urbrayne archives.