were used with varying success in the offensives of 1917 on the Western Front; however, their first large scale use in a combined operation was at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, when nearly 400 tanks working closely with advancing infantry and a creeping barrage overran the German lines in the initial attack. During the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, several hundred Mark V tanks, along with the new Whippet and Mk V* tanks, penetrated the German lines in a foretaste of modern armoured warfare. German service The German army recovered about 50 abandoned British Mark IV tanks from the Cambrai battlefield and were able to restore some 30 of them to running order. One was taken to Berlin and was demonstrated to the Kaiser, while the others went to a captured engineering plant near Charleroi for refurbishment. The machine guns were retained but rechambered to fire German ammunition, while the 6-pounders were replaced by captured Belgian 57 mm Nordenfelt guns. The captured tanks were painted with prominent Iron Cross emblems and a bold disruptive camouflage pattern, although some appear to have retained the original khaki colour scheme. Although some of these tanks were used in the German Spring Offensive, they tended to be deployed in small numbers for mopping-up operations, while officers reported that they were unable to keep up with the fast-moving infantry. In the aftermath of the offensive, some 300 abandoned British tanks were behind German lines, of which 170 were reported to be repairable. By the end of the war, there were seven German tank battalions equipped with captured British tanks. Russian service In 1919, a number of British tanks were involved in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War; 74 Mark V and Whippets formed the South Russian Tank Detachment which was landed on the Black Sea coast, while a much smaller North Russian Tank Detachment was sent to guard the port of Arkhangelsk. Attempts were made to train White Army troops in their use and they were left in their hands when the Allies withdrew. 59 of them were captured by the Red Army and were used in 1921 during the Red Army invasion of Georgia and contributed to the Soviet victory in the battle for Tbilisi. The last Soviet Mark V tanks were finally retired in 1938. Two ex-Estonian Mark V tanks were used in the defence of Tallinn in