Object of the Week: The First World War Mark IV tank used in Steven Spielberg's War Horse

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

The Mark IV tank - a cameo star of Steven Spielberg's War Horse - has travelled to France for the Somme commemorations

The Tank Museum’s incredible collection of original First World War tanks are too precious and fragile to run under their own power or venture far afield.

But curators in Bovington reckon this replica, which was first used in Steven Spielberg’s First World War blockbuster War Horse, has all the "presence and menace" of the real thing, and say they have been “honoured” to send her to the Somme Centenary Commemorations in France.

Although the replica is a tenth smaller, it is constructed around the engine and transmission of a modern commercial excavator.

Its fleeting appearance in the film symbolised the brutal impact of technology on the battlefield and the changes in warfare that the First World War ushered in.

Award-wining special effects company Neil Corbould Special Effects LTD built this version following several visits to the museum in 2010.

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More Objects of the Week from Culture24

A gas mask worn by a German soldier in the First World War trenches

The family of a 16-year-old World War One hero learn of his posthumous honour

The incredibly rare Union flag flown on the HMS Minotaur at the Battle of Trafalgar

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/first-world-war/art558172-tank-museum-mark-four-somme-spielberg