Original British WWI Tank Mechanical Maintenance Mark V Manual Named to Robert Hart, 301st Tank Center, American Expeditionary Forces - Extremely Scarce

Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is one of the scarcest manuals we have ever offered, with some amazing content and diagrams. This is the Mechanical Maintenance manual for the British Mark V Tank, which was first deployed in July 1918 on the Western Front at the Battle of Hamel; then at the Battle of Amiens, and on the Hindenburg Line during the closing months of World War I. The Mark V is notable as the tank the majority of American Tankers drove in the final months of the war, and this example is actually named to Robert Hart of the 301st Tank Center, which managed much of the repair and deployment of these tanks.

The manual measures roughly 6¼ x 8¼” and is in fair service-used condition. The cover is a bit bent up as shown, but doesn’t show signs of coming off anytime soon. There are 98 pages with several fold-out diagrams of specific parts of the tank that often need repair or replacement. It details how to jack the tank up, how to replace the engine, and many other small parts of the tank, with some alternative methods if the first method isn’t working. It’s exactly what you would expect for a technology only a couple of years old at the time.

This is a truly phenomenal piece of Tank history, and we haven’t been able to find other examples, so this is likely the only one we’ll ever see! Comes ready for further research and display.