Gaza
The Gaza Tanks
In January 1917 ‘E’ Battalion sent a detachment to Gaza. Eight MK I tanks were sent with this detachment, apparently these came directly from Bovington which implies they were some of the fifteen training tanks that are known to have been stationed there. The Tanks participated in the first Battle of Gaza during which three were destroyed. Three MK IVs then joined the detachment and brought it back up to strength prior to the second battle of Gaza.
Whilst the detachment's war diary survives a great deal of other documentary information was lost when the ship carrying the Second in Command, Major Forsyth- Major, was torpedoed whilst returning to England in 1918. (S13 p.146)
In addition to the War Diary there are numerous photographs of the Gaza tanks.
Serial numbers aren't given in the War Diary; two have been located on photographs by the members of “Landships.com”.
The number 735 is visible on a photograph in the Imperial War Museum’s collection that appears to show the eight Gaza tanks in late 1917, possibly awaiting transport back to the UK. There are several Sponson carts in the Photograph, one of which has the number 735 on it (An enlarged copy of the photograph was alongside the surviving sponson cart in Bovington when the author visited in 2010, this clearly showed the number to be 735). This implies that one of the surviving Gaza male MK I was serial 735 http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=10618653
Mark Hanson discovered a photograph that shows War Baby"'s serial number was 574.
http://63528.activeboard.com/m859847/message/forum.spark?aBID=63528&p=3&topicID=35474066
On the same thread are a lot of photos of the Gaza tanks.
It is worth noting that 574 was the last but one female Mk I to be completed and 735 was one of the last MK I male to be completed by Fosters. It is thus possible that all eight tanks were chosen as they were still relatively new and unworn, implying they all had serial numbers in the 570 - 575 and 735 - 738 range. Except for 574 and 736 no other details are known of any of the tanks with these serial numbers.
The ultimate fate of the Gaza tanks is not know, they may have been returned to the UK or left in Egypt and scrapped.
The third and final attack involving the Gaza tanks took place on 2nd November 1917. Unfortunately the War Diary only refers to the tanks by number (one to eight) and thus it is impossible to know what tank did what.
Tank sexes, and the names of Lady Wingate and Sir Reginald were obtained from this very useful Danish site. http://www.chakoten.dk/eng_kvg_gaza.html