The circa 1918 Mark VIII Heavy “Liberty” Tank was a rarity.
At some 37 tons, they were massive, designed to carry a pair of 57mm QF 6 pounders and up to five M1917 Browning water-cooled 30.06 machine guns, all clad in 16mm of steel armor plate, this hulking land battleship was powered by a modified V-12 Liberty aero engine (hence its moniker) that could make it crawl at a blistering 5 mph across broken terrain on its tracks.
Only 125 were produced of a planned 1,500 before the Great War ended, with 100 of those made in America at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois from kits supplied by the British. Sent to armor training camps at Camp Meade, Maryland, and Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, they served through the 1920s in a series of test units and, placed in storage in 1932, were scrapped in 1940 to recycle their steel for more useful purposes.
U.S. Army M1917 Tank on a Mark VIII Liberty Tank No. 67981 at Camp Meade, 1921
Just two remain in the U.S.: a hull at the U.S. Army Armor & Cavalry Collection at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) and a second, which has spent most of its life at Aberdeen Proving Ground before it was shifted to Benning in 2014. That last example, which has undergone a much-needed three-year preservation cycle after being exposed to the elements its entire life, has finally returned “home” and was installed as a macro exhibit at the RIA museum late last month.
Dubbed simply, “Mark” it is now on (covered) display at the corner of Rodman and Gillespie Avenue, overlooking the Museum.
