A tank a day keeps Politicians at bay.

The French might reasonably claim that the Schneider CA 1 and St Chamond came first... it rather depends on your terms.

The Gun Carrier is really a porté. Not the best image but, a little way down the page, is a side shot of GC 103 carrying a 60-pounder: Tanks in the Great War 1914-1918 by J.F.G.Fuller. Pretty sure it could fire the howitzer mounted but not the gun.

 

An article published in the Tank Corps own newsletter just after the war points out that the big weakness with the gun carrier was that the CoG calculations for it when carrying a gun were off so that it was nose heavy and ditched very easily even in quite shallow depressions. It was mainly for this reason that it was used more often as a supply tank as the load could be distributed so as to avoid this problem. The French did produce some SPGs in WW1 but AFAIK none reached service. The St Chamond was used as a form of assault gun in 1918 and during the 100 days when the fighting moved to relatively unshelled areas proved better at the assault role than the slower British Mk Vs. The Germans produced a prototype SPG on A7V tracks mounting two 88mm calibre guns.

A Mk II Gun Carrier was designed but only got as far as a mock up when the war ended

 

To be entirely correct: "the Germans" built three SPG on A7V chassis: Two armed with a pair of russian 7.62 cm guns, the 3rd with a single 7.7 cm Krupp gun

BTW: The Wehrmacht took the term "Universal carrier" quite literally:

 

Can you provide evidence? I know that -post war the Germans built a couple of SPGs based on Volmer tractors which used half sets of A7V tracks systems but all the works on the A7V I have do not show 3 spgs on the chassis

 

Honestly not - just secondary sources. Unfortunately the documents of Ehrhardt are lost, hence no contemporary sources are available.
It´s not even sure they were developed as SPAAG but instead simply "auxiliary tanks" on modified "Überlandwagen" chassis
Here´s an I-net site about these variants:
Flakpanzer A7V
Also there was a trech digger:
A7V Schützengrabenbagger LMG trench digger
Post war at least one rebuild on a Fahrschulwagenchassis saw action during the revolutionary upheavals in Berlin and Leipzig:
A7V "Hedi", 11.05.1919, Leipzig - Landships WW1 Forum

 

Hello Itdan, interesting photos but IMHO the first photo is of a conversion based on Light Tank Mk VI, the gun was German 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 16. It was the first of Becker's brainchildren, used in 1941 on the Eastern Front.

Juha

 

Thanks Juha, you´re right. It was in fact based on the "Leichter Panzerkampfwagen Mk VI B 735(e)"

 

As time goes by....

 

The "Flakpanzer" was a singleton and the info I have suggests that the guns were not captured Russian but Krupp 88s (as I said a different 88 from the WW2 88 but sort of related).
There were at least two "rebuilds" as I have a copy of a photo that shows two together but as you suggest they were not rebuilds but boilerplate extemporised conversions of Uberlandwagens (the chassis was not modified as all A7V variants shared the same chassis). There is a suggestion that there was a third but as far as I can see this is due to one of the original two being transferred to the East and used by a different freicorps under a different name. The Allied Control Commission ordered the scrapping of two.
There appear to have been three trench diggers and photographs allow the identification of at least two but matters are confused as more were built for commercial use after the war - possibly using imported Holt track systems which were identical to those used on the A7V

 

As said, all contemporary data about the Flakpanzer is lost. The majority of the secondary sources - as I´m aware of them - speak of three specimens as described
Anyway thanks for clarification

 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

more here:
https://ia600903.us.archive.org/31/items/mechanicaltract00layrgoog/mechanicaltract00layrgoog.pdf
Mechanical traction in war for road transport, with notes on automobiles generally (1900)

 

Fowler B5 Armoured Road Train. The field gun could be carried inside one of the carriages

 

Type 97 dozer

 

A psywar instrument to bore the Albanians to death with Tito's speeches?

 

Oddball holds the original patent.

 

Don't forget that the heretic Moriarty called the Tiger, "A piece of junk!"

 

Maybe he was simply referring to the stereo system.

 

Always nice to throw a one off into the mix.

Name the tracked vehicle.

Adam, the clock's ticking!

Kind regards, always,

Jim.