The Rock Island Arsenal’s Newest Piece: A Restored 100 Year Old Tank

Last Tuesday, the Rock Island Arsenal held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the Arsenal Museum's newest piece - a tank made at the Rock Island Arsenal over 100 years ago.

“It was made between 1919 and 1920, returning it back to the community in which it was originally produced,” Director of Rock Island Arsenal Museum, Patrick Allie said. “What’s really neat about the tank and bringing it back and having it back as part of the army’s collection here at Rock Island Arsenal.”

A crew of 10 was able to be transported inside of the restored 37 ton beast.

Part of the project included stabilization, repair, and painting.

“I fabricated all the stuff that was rusted out on it,” Sheet metal maintenance worker, Lucas Voss said. “Made new and the floor was rusted out, cut the floor out, rebuild new floor. The vent on the side refabricated, built a whole new one. The toolbox on the back, new one of that, and just fixed everything that was rusted out.”

The Rock Island Historical Society says of the 100 Mark VIII heavy tanks were built, only three are left today.

"The one here at Rock Island Arsenal, the other one is held in the armor cavalry training sport facility at Ft. Moore Georgia, where it’s used to teach tankers,” Allie said. “Then the third one is in a museum, The Tank Museum in Bovington, England.”

The Mark VIII had similar features to the British-built rhomboid tanks, with full-length high track run and large track links, sponsons and raised superstructure at the front. The latter housed three Lewis machine guns (each for every corner, in ball mountings), while the driver had a small, raised cabin or cupola with four vision slits. The sponsons housed two 6-pounder (57 mm) guns, while two hull machine-guns in ball-mounts were placed just behind on the hull doors. Other great improvement was the engine compartmentation through a bulkhead, preventing noise and fumes from invading the fighting compartment. The hull form was studied after reports and was much rounder. The sponsons were made retractable to reduce the width for transportation.

The tank is now displayed at the northwest corner of Rodman Avenue and Gillespie Avenue. If you want to see the Mark VII tank or the Arsenal Museum, head to the Visitor Welcome Center at the Moline gate, where you show your ID and social security number to get a visitor pass good for one year.