A7VU Sturmpanzerwagen
The very inferior cross-country performance of the A7V was apparent at an early stage: the capture of British Mark IV tanks at Cambrai in November 1917 enabled the German engineers to examine the British machines in detail and better appreciate the good points of their design as well as their weaknesses. The great feature of the British tanks was their ability to move across shell-torn and entrenched ground - a feature owing much to the overall tracks and low centre of gravity helped by the armament being placed in side sponsons. The British machines were designed only for a short life and for ease of production, however, and lacked refinements and did not even have sprung tracks.
It was at first proposed that an exact copy of the British Tank, Mark IV should be put into production in Germany where drawings could have been made up from dimensions taken from captured vehicles. This suggestion was impracticable, first because of the difficulty in many cases of manufacturing identical components and, secondly, would have been wasteful of effort in that most if not all of the materials already in production for the A7V could not continue to be used.