jacking up the tank in WW1, without modern mechanicals. Very impressive

Thanks to Burkey, his grand dad passed down a letter he wrote during WW1 about the tanks:

My great grandfather fought along side the tanks at Passchendaele (their first outing) and mentions them in one of his letters:

 " we were in the "Valley of Death", a name given to the valley by the British. The tanks are there with shell holes right through them, when the ground got too soft they were useless and could not be moved. They did their work, and their occupants died."

This image shows the Germans retrieving dead captured tanks and sending them back to Germania after the battle of Campri.(their second outing, three months later). After digging them out and placing dollies(left) under the hulks, they would be towed back by traction engine(also left) and jacked up so flat bed carriages could be rolled underneath.

http://anyskin.tumblr.com/post/163058921982#notes