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clausb · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 146

Came across these on the Bundesarchiv website. Seems like an A7V modified by a small tank unit in one of the Freikorps supporting the German goverment in 1919. The fixed "turret" seems to have been removed and replaced by two small cupolas(?) and the front heavily modified with two small machinegun turrets. Possibly, the rear have been modified the same way.

Chris_C · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:01 pm Post subject: Re: Modified A7V

Hundleby and Strasheim posit, "One possibility is that it was fabricated from parts of the old A7V-U after the war...It may also be that Heidi was made from A7V parts with mild steel plates on a carrier chassis. This latter seems the most probable explanation." Later they are more concrete: "In January 1919 a modified A7V minus gun but with four revolving machine gun mounts, one on each corner, was used by the Freikorps in Berlin. This machine was not an original A7V, as various details show, but a Geländewagen of the Tank Training Detachment fitted with surplus armour plates, possibly from 524, A7V-U...This vehicle was used only on a few occasions. It was later named Heidi, and for some time was commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Theunissen. In July 1919, the tank was required to be delivered to the Allied Control Commission, but was afterwards scrapped, of which there is photographic evidence."

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