If you visit The Western Front, walk lightly, you don't know who you are treading on.

You are spot-on with your comments. The allegation was made by people who were on the spot, and also new the events surrounding this one tank. What about the other tanks and their crews? The Aussies of that generation regarded them selves as British, and wouldn't have made such a serious allegation if they didn't have good grounds to do so.

I was thinking the same about that empty shell. The conclusion was drawn prematurely and in fact incorrectly as 1 empty shell does not prove that the tank crew expended their ammunition. Quite the contrary.

@@craigie6025 the comments about the tank crews being cowards were a generalisation made about all tank crews in the battle, not just this tank (796). The performance of the tanks was in part due to how they were deployed - lessons learned for later on in 1917 such as Cambrai. The Australians saw this as a failure on the part of the British, not just the tank crews but also of the higher ups.

This tank 796 was immobilised - accounts are that the crew continued firing until the Germans brought up a mortar and started shelling the tank at which point the crew abandoned the tank.

Didn't they say they were training tanks and still deciding colours?

May sound odd but when the team found the tank track the inside had an area of primer covered by the green paint. No idea why it would be there - on purpose, accidental spillage when painting the exterior etc - but remarkable nonetheless.

No 😂

@@drstrangelove4998 🤣🤣

You are choosing to listen to adverts. I do not see how you can complain about it.

@@mbak7801 historyhit ads are built in by the channel and are part of the video. Not added by youtube. But Im fine with ads that dont blow my eardrums out.

@@mbak7801 and i complain about anything i want. I can show you some time if you meed more help understanding how that works

I find it extremely annoying when everything they find and don’t understand is defined under the “ritual” label, makes my skin crawl

Trade Secret: the term 'Ritual', used in conjunction with either 'Site', 'Artefact' or 'Item', means that 'We haven't got a Scooby!'!

@@jonathanmarsh5955 clearly not a secret

No, indeed!😂​@@cassieoz1702

@cassieoz1702 Indeed not!😂👍

It is a completely pointless tradition.

@@user-ki2jp1cp3o Well I suppose you could say that about the wearing of the poppy, flying flags at half mast, 1 minute silences, the last post being played, draping coffins in the national flag and 21 gun salutes. All these tributes are done in respect and honour of those that died fighting for our country and for me removing your hat as a gesture of respect, remembrance and veneration is not too much to ask. So I will continue to do it if I'm wearing a hat. I do it when entering a church too, will hold doors open for people and will give up my seat for a lady or somebody older than me, but I'm just old fashioned I suppose.

@@aib0160 yes all great if that what you want to do… (and I do most of that) but no one should be looked down upon because they don’t choose to do those things. It’s not a competition. Those guys chose to die for our freedom. Also the last ones, giving up your seat and holding doors are nice things to do, not pointless at all

@@user-ki2jp1cp3o Those guys that died in that era would have thought it right to remove their hats. Why it's suddenly become a pointless exercise is beyond me when other similar marks of respect are retained. Why just this one?

@@aib0160 there’s no ghosts whizzing around going “these c*n*s have come to pay their respects but they’ve got their hats on still!! I’m going to haunt them” Seriously tell me why it’s important. Tell me why it makes a difference

Or for something to keep themselves occupied; I have a 105mm shell casing that my Great-grandfather peened a grapevine design into to make a vase during his time in an artillery unit in France in WWI; many other examples of 'trench art' exist, illustrating what the soldiers on the front did to occupy their time.

I don't know about the French or German Armies' policies but the British, Imperial and Dominion forces were very keen on recycling/salvaging almost anything, almost as keen as the troops were on 'repurposing'! The late Rob Thompson presented a very informative and quite surprising PowerPoint lecture on the Western Front Association site entitled - something like! - 'The Wombles of the Western Front'.

The date on the shell was April 1917 - 796 was immobilised on 12th April immediately in front of the German front line. The context of where it was found was with the remains of the tank. The front line remained in German hands and there are no accounts of artillery being in that place after it was captured in May 1917. The men in the tanks were indeed heroic - the tank was rendered immobile by a mechanical failure and was only abandoned when the Germans brought up a trench mortar and started shelling it.

@@jonathanmarsh5955 indeed, a there was a lot of recycling going on but bear in mind that after 796 was abandoned the Germans held the nearby trench and the tank was shelled as it was thought to be being used as an observation post and the location of an MG prior to the May battle. The case could have been buried by shelling or for some other reason not picked up post May.

@@janinepeck776 Yes, quite possibly!

I don’t think anyone would disagree with you Robby, but it’s been going on since the dawn of time, why?

I came off my meds too!

That's really interesting. I've never heard that before.

And the Tunnel that connects Dover Castle to Buckingham Palace, of course!!😅❤🤩✊

Wheres my tinfoil hat?

I think you bumped your head.....again.

Time team was a 1000 times better than this knock off crap

get a filter....

really?

@@doncook2054yes

I agree. I'm all for looking at what facts you discovered. out of 12 tanks you dug the tank that made it the furthest, ok then you found one shell casing and told us that the crew must have fired off all their ammunition, Um ok then you told us that you just proved that any accusations by the Australians of cowardness have been disproved.........Um we were watching the same show weren't we? because i'm not seeing any proof.

I had to rewind this bit myself because I also thought that was an inferential leap too far. An empty shell casing merely shows that ONE shell casing was discarded there. It doesn’t show that it was fired there let alone that it was the last one they had. That’s not analysis, it’s guesswork.

In other words, the tank crew was engaging the enemy, as was their duty. I’ll stick with the official record written by officers who experienced the actual incident, not smarmy British revisionists

while ignoring our own evil ....

It's British, not English. The Empire was the British Empire, & not the English Empire. Lots of Australians would have been 1st or 2nd generation, or schooled in Britain, which continued up to WW2. There were lots of ties back to their country they hailed from. Everyone's lives mattered, but the political powers at the time from both sides thought they could win. I'd agree one shell casing doesn't prove the Australians in this case weren't right. Whilst she also mentions the tank captain's testimony, the archaeology shown hasn't proved anything (unless they found lots of other shell casings, but didn't edit this in, which would have been a huge mistake). While you are angry about Australians being used as 'cannon fodder', you seem to miss the point that the British High Command sent out British tank crews in 'TRAINING TANKS', which had much thinner armour than combat tanks, & weren't suited for combat. They were sitting ducks for the German artillery, & also for the machine guns & rifles using special anti tank ammunition. The British High Command should have waited until proper resources were available - BUT, & IT'S A HUGE BUT, - It was a political decision to try & support the French Main 1917 Offensive AND ALSO to try & keep the Russians in the war. All soldiers from all sides ended up as cannon fodder due to the technological advances at the time, which favoured the defense (unless you could produce weapons to break the deadlock). The Hindenburg line was probably the most defended line of WW1, it would never be easy to break through, & Allied commanders had to try with what they had, AT THAT TIME, which for a lot of the war, wasn't enough, so thousands of brave men died. The Australians were some of the best soldiers of the war, it's just part of the human tragedy of how many of that generation, from all countries were lost. Note;- Britain, wartime rationing introduced a time when a lot of people actually ate more than one meal a day. Even up to WW2, there were British people were dying of starvation before rationing was introduced, it wasn't an easy time for many, even from a supposed 'Superpower'.

@@eric-wb7gj….well said …totally agree !…and thanks my Grandfather Bob Cowell MM …was in the Tank corp in 1917 …his 3rd regt …since joining up in 1914 …Thank you for saying it as it really was …and not the words of some ranting Aussie!…who try’s to belittle very Brave men on all continents…it was a world war ! !

Huh? They go all over the UK.....

Crossan by name; cross'un by nature.

Please comment in a language you're better at, Google will translate.

Zyprexa

Yeah A..hole that’s why my Grandfather won the Military Medal “for Bravery in the field “…Bob Cowell ….look him up …and he was in 3 different Regt’s …the last one in 1917 The Tank Corp …what he went through effected him for the rest of his life