World War I: Archaeological dig at the Somme turns up ‘missing’ British tank that fled due to ‘cowardice’

The Daily Telegraph has posted a new article about an archaeological dig that has turned up a WWI era British tank.

Article excerpt:

The first major archaeological dig in 100 years at the site of one of Australia’s biggest military defeats has turned up a “missing” British tank that Aussies long thought had fled the Bullecourt battleground due to cowardice.

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) backed team of British and Australian archaeologists and volunteers have just unearthed tank armour plates with original racing green paint work, bits of track, its six pounder shells and other metal objects belonging to “Tank 796”.

The French Government had issued an extraordinary permit for the first dig of an Anzac battlefield in the Somme since the end of the Great War, to solve the mystery of the fate of a dozen British tanks that were deployed to Bullecourt to support the 1917 assault of the German line by the Australian 4thDivision but “disappeared” leading to the slaughter of 10,000 Diggers.

Read the full article here.