A British Mark V tank manufactured in 1918 is one of the most interesting exhibits on display at the Kharkiv Historical Museum. At the start of the Civil War following the 1917 Revolution, the tank was in service with the White Army, to which it had been supplied by the Entente. The tank was captured by the Red Army, presumably in 1920, at the Kakhovka bridgehead in Crimea.

The main feature of this World War I artifact is its combined armament. Most similar tanks were equipped with either a cannon and a machine gun in each side turret on the right and left (“male”) or two machine guns in each side turret (“female”). The tank in Kharkiv has a 57-mm cannon and a 7.7-mm machine gun in the left turret, and two machine guns in the right turret; this rare variant is called the “composite.” Additionally, all variants had an extra machine gun at the front and another at the rear.

In 1938, the tank was installed in Kharkiv as a trophy.

A total of 400 Mark V tanks were produced between 1917 and 1918. The tank’s crew consisted of eight men. The maximum speed of the 29-ton tank was 8 km/h.

The range provided by the 19-liter, 150-horsepower “Ricardo” inline-six engine was only 72 km.

288 Mark V tanks played a key role during the Battle of Amiens on August 8–12, 1918, by breaking through the German defenses, which resulted in a catastrophic collapse of the German front line and ultimately led to their defeat in World War I.