A7V Tank 562 Herkules

A few weeks ago, while researching the estate of Tor Kiefer held at the Landesbibliothek Rheinland-Pfalz in Speyer, I discovered two small envelopes of film, each containing around 20 negatives.

The individual negatives (not a roll) were in black and white format. Holding them up to the light, I could see that they were First World War photos. We already have several photos taken by Tor of his daily life at both the Western and the Eastern Fronts, which he sent home to his family. However, these negatives were of scenes that I had not yet seen.

I used a smartphone app and a light table to turn the negatives into positives, with very good results. The only drawback was that the photos gave very little indication of the time or the place where Tor had taken them.

Two of the photos were of the A7V "Herkules", tank number 562. The tank has apparently fallen into a ditch or hole. Researching on the Internet, I have been able to find out more about the accident that befell "Herkules", as well as similar photos of the accident, and am thus now able to identify when and where these photos were taken.

"Herkules", A7V 562 by Tor Kiefer
Copyright Landesbibliothek Rheinland-Pfalz

On June 9, 1918, "Herkules", a male tank of Panzerabteilung Nr. 1, toppled over and fell into a ditch between Rollot and Courcelles-Epayelles at the Western Front.

The mission of the tanks of this unit was to reach the road between Méry and Lataule.

If the tanks had been able to support the capture of Hill 110, the mission would have stopped, for the last tank, at the entrance to Mortemer. In the photo on the left, we can also see a soldier standing next to the tank at bottom right.

"Herkules", A7V 562 by Tor Kiefer
Copyright Landesbibliothek Rheinland-Pfalz
(Negative reversed for better scan quality)

The tank fell into the ditch in a wooded area during the morning of June 9, 1918. According to the Regimental History of the RIR 250, the regiment to which both Tor and the tank belonged, Herkules was not retrieved from the ditch until early or mid-July.

The male tank was a category of tank used in World War I. The female version of the Mark I tank had five machine guns, while the male version had a QF 6 pounder 6 cwt Hotchkiss and three machine guns. By the end of the war, tank technology was advanced enough for tanks to be both male and female.