Mephisto!

Things We Have In Australia That The Rest Of The World Doesn't Have #73 - The only surviving German WW1 A7V tank in existence.

Meet Mephisto. It is, as I said above, the only surviving WW1 German A7V tank in existence. Normally it lived in Brisbane (which, being in Queensland, is pretty much a foreign country) but at the moment it's making a guest appearance at the National War Memorial in Canberra. I've been trying to organise a trip down to see it for weeks, and today I finally managed it.

 You can read the story of Mephisto HERE, but for those reluctant to click on links, it was basically captured at Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918, and eventually brought to Australia as a war-trophy because, basically, Australians will nick anything that's not nailed down.

Enough.

The link above has all of the text you need to read about this piece of tank history. Here are pictures. Lots of pictures:

How big is an A7V? The lovely Rachel, looking a bit grumpy, it has to be said, shows you. She is, as you will recall, 5' 8" tall.

You can tell that I found Mephisto ... riveting!

 There is other stuff at the War Memorial. A lot of other stuff. I didn't take pictures of most of it. But here's Lancaster Bomber 'G for George'

And an Italian CV33 tankette.

 And the Me262.

And, finally, a personal favourite - the Me163 Komet.