Chapter One
Although there had been experiments with armoured traction engines and ammunition road trains during the Boer War, the modern armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is less than 100 years old. The first design for what could be considered a tank was mooted by a French Army captain in 1903. This was subsequently abandoned, as was a later design produced in Austria. British tanks first saw action in 1916 and, by the end of the First World War, the tank was in service with the armies of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the USA.
The Birth of the Tank
From around the turn of the century, experiments had been conducted into the feasibility of producing iron-clad ‘landships’ which could mount a large-calibre gun and which would be sufficiently well-protected to be able to operate under fire on the battlefield. Improvised armoured cars started to appear during the early stages of the First World War, when boilerplate was used to provide a measure of protection against small arms and machine-gun fire, but their usefulness was severely restricted by a lack of mobility.
As First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill established what was known as the ‘Landship Committee’ to investigate the possibility of developing a crosscountry armoured vehicle. A specification was drawn up by Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest D. Swinton in October 1914 and there were experiments with wheeled vehicles. However, it was the continuous caterpillar crawler track devised by the American Benjamin Holt in 1907 that suggested a way forward.
The first workable prototype for a tracked armoured vehicle was produced in Britain when, in September 1915, William Foster & Company, agricultural engineers based in Lincoln, constructed what became known as ‘Little Willie’. Designed by William Tritton and Lieutenant Walter G. Wilson, by the beginning of 1916 Little Willie had been followed by a second prototype, known as ‘Mother’ or ‘Big Willie’. This machine was sufficiently successful that Fosters were contracted to build an initial twenty-five units, with contributions towards a further 150 also coming from the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. Described as the ‘tank, Mk I’, these early machines consisted of a huge rhomboidal box-like hull of riveted boilerplate, with unsprung steel tracks wrapped around the perimeter. For reasons of security, the machines were initially described as ‘water carriers for Mesopotamia’–thus giving rise to the name ‘tank’–and were assigned to a new unit known as the Heavy Section, Machine Gun Corps. The design of the tank evolved rapidly and, by 1917, the Mk VIII was being constructed to a standardised design in both Britain and the USA.
‘Medium’ tanks started to appear at the beginning of 1917, against a War Office requirement for a lighter, faster machine. The first of these, the twin-engined medium Mk A (or Whippet), was designed by William Tritton and William Rigby, and went into action in March 1918. The Mk B was designed by Walter G. Wilson, by now a Major, and incorporated elements of both the original Mk I and the Whippet. This was followed by the Mk C, or Hornet, of 1917, of which some 200 examples were constructed, the type remaining in British service until about 1923.
Whilst it was the British Army which fielded the first tanks, the Germans were quick to copy a captured Whippet and their Leicht Kampwagen (Lk II) was prototyped in 1918, and the first production example of the huge Sturmpanzerwagen A7V appeared in October 1917. Similarly, the French produced their first tanks, in the form of the Schneider Char d’Assaut 1 (CA 1) and the Char St Chamond during 1916. However, the most significant French tank design of the First World War was the Renault Char Canon FT-1, the first tank to incorporate a revolving turret, with a 37mm gun, and track suspension. This design was also adopted by the US Army as the M1917.
The Interwar Period
With the exception of a few half-finished medium Mk Cs, tank production in Britain came to a halt following the signing of the Armistice in November 1917. Many existing heavy and medium tanks remained in service, but outstanding production contracts were cancelled. However, despite considerable scepticism, there were those who believed that the tank was here to stay and development of the faster medium Mk D was continued, whilst work was also initiated on a series of advanced light infantry tanks. Both were designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Johnson of the newly created Tank Design Department, but it was not long before both projects were in trouble. The medium Mk D was cramped and inadequately armed, and there were difficulties with its tensioned wire-rope suspension system and cable tracks. Only four examples were constructed. Johnson’s light infantry tank appeared in November 1921 but, despite the prototype acquitting itself well in trials, it did not go into production. Rival designs for the latter role were produced by Vickers-Armstrongs in 1921, but these lacked speed and reliability, and the transmission was particularly prone to problems.
By 1922/23, Vickers had produced a new design which was designated light tank Mk I–later known as the ‘Vickers medium’ when lighter designs appeared. Powered by an eight-cylinder air-cooled engine, it was fast and manoeuvrable, and featured a 3-pounder (47mm) gun in a rotating turret. Replacing the earlier Mk C, it was the first British tank to enter service after the First World War.
In 1928/29, attempts were made to improve the design, with the experimental A6 medium Mk III; this was followed by a further three experimental vehicles, designated A7. The failure of the A6 and A7 projects led to some fresh thinking about the role of the tank and when the prototype A9 appeared in 1936 it was described as cruiser tank Mk I. Designed by Sir John Carden of Vickers-Armstrongs as a replacement for the A6 medium Mk III, this was the first British tank to have a powered turret. Production started in 1937, with some 125 vehicles built, and the type remained in service until the end of 1941.
Years earlier, Carden-Loyd (Carden’s previous company) had been busy designing a series of one-man tanks–or tankettes–some 325 of which were procured for the British Army. When Carden-Loyd was taken over by Vickers in 1928, the design evolved into the Vickers light tank. The first of these was known as the Carden-Loyd Mk VII, but it was the subsequent two-man Mk VIII that entered service in Britain in 1929. Designated light tank Mk I, the design incorporated Horstman leaf-spring suspension, and was armed with a .303in machine gun in a rotating turret. A programme of gradual improvement led to the Mks IA, II, IIA, IIB, III, IV and V, before the much-improved Mk VI appeared in 1936 with room for a crew of three, and a redesigned turret. Further developments resulted in the Mks VIA, VIB and VIC, which saw service in northern France in 1940.
Light tanks of the Second World War included the Mk VII Tetrarch, and the Mk VIII Harry Hopkins, both of which were considered to be suitable for airborne operations.
British Tank Nomenclature
When the first tanks had appeared in 1916, they were described simply as ‘tank Mk I’. Subsequent models were identified as Mk II, Mk III, etc., with minor modifications indicated by a star (e.g. Mk V***). The appearance of the lighter tank in 1917, typified by the Whippet, saw the originals described as heavy tanks, and the smaller machines described as medium tanks. The new Vickers medium tanks which entered service in 1923 were described as light tanks in order to differentiate them from the wartime medium tanks but, just to add to the confusion, were subsequently reclassified as medium tanks when smaller light tanks were introduced in 1930.
From 1926, prototypes of tanks produced for the War Office were allocated ‘A’ numbers, with individual examples identified by an ‘E’ suffix and a number (e.g. A6E1). It was not until 1940 that British tanks were also given names, together with a second series of numbers to indicate modifications. A typical description was, thus, ‘tank, infantry, Mk IV, Churchill II’.
Infantry and Cruiser Tanks
By 1938, British military thinking held that tanks were intended either for the independent mobile role–in which case they were referred to as cruiser tanks, reflecting naval practice that described large warships as cruisers–or were intended for infantry support, being described as infantry tanks. Field-Marshal Montgomery proposed abandoning this distinction in July 1944, but the concept of infantry and cruiser tanks survived until just after the Second World War when, for a short while, the description of choice was capital tank, this eventually giving way to the now-familiar main battle tank (MBT).
The Emergence of British Specialised Armour Units
The British Army’s Machine Gun Corps (MGC) had been formed in October 1915 in an attempt to co-ordinate response to the proliferation of machine guns on the Western Front. In a deliberate attempt to avoid revealing what was felt to be a new ‘wonder weapon’, the first tanks were operated by six companies of the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps, formed in March 1916 expressly for this purpose. The name was changed to the Heavy Branch in November of that year, by which time there were eight companies, each expanded to form battalions, lettered ‘A’ through ‘H’. In July 1917, the Heavy Branch was separated from the Machine Gun Corps to become the Tank Corps, with seven more battalions, lettered ‘I’ through ‘O’, in existence by January 1918, when they all were converted to numbered units. By December 1918, the Tank Corps consisted of twenty-six battalions; twenty-five of these deployed tanks, the remaining unit being assigned to armoured cars.
After the Armistice, the Tank Corps was reduced in size to a central depot and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Battalions. In 1920, twelve armoured car companies were established as part of the Tank Corps, absorbing units from the Machine Gun Corps. Eight of these were subsequently converted into independent light tank companies, but all had been disbanded by 1939. On 18 October 1923, the Tank Corps became the Royal Tank Corps and, in April 1939, the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) was created by combining the Royal Tank Corps–which was renamed the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR)–with the now-mechanised cavalry units. The Reconnaissance Corps was absorbed into the RAC in 1944. At the outbreak of war, the RTR consisted of eight regular battalions, numbered 1 through 8, plus a large number of territorial battalions, and what were described as ‘hostilities-only’ battalions. The regiment was further expanded during the war.
Mention should also be made of the Experimental Mechanized Force (EMF), a brigade-sized formation under the command of Colonel R. J. Collins, which was intended to investigate and develop the techniques and equipment required for armoured warfare. Established on 27 August 1927 and renamed the Experimental Armoured Force (EAF) the following year, it participated in exercises designed to pit mechanised forces–mounted in armoured cars, Carden-Loyd tankettes and Vickers medium tanks, and supported by machine guns and artillery–against traditionally organised and trained infantry and cavalry. The force was disbanded in 1929.
British Tanks in 1939
By 1938, mechanisation of the British Army was proceeding rapidly, with light tanks being favoured since they were relatively cheap, easy to maintain and ideal for training. When war was declared the following year, the Royal Armoured Corps had around 1,100 tanks available, 90 per cent of which were light tank Mk VIs, armed with nothing more than a pair of machine guns, and really only suitable for reconnaissance duties. There were also sixty-seven Matilda infantry tanks Mks I and II, the former also armed with machine guns, and seventy-nine examples of the more modern cruiser tanks Mks I to IV. The infantry tank Mk II and the cruisers were armed with the Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) quick-firing (QF) 2-pounder (40mm) armour-piercing gun. This had been designated the standard anti-tank weapon back in October 1934, but was scarcely adequate against the German armour of 1939/40.
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) took this ragbag collection of machinery to France in 1940, facing a total of 3,380 German tanks. When the BEF was forced to evacuate from Dunkirk, all but thirteen of the 500 tanks that had been shipped to France were abandoned. The experiences gained in France made it obvious that the light tank was obsolete, and it was abandoned soon after. Similarly, the 2-pounder (40mm) gun proved to be insufficiently powerful and whilst later British tanks were equipped with either the British 6-pounder (57mm) or the American 75mm gun, it was not until 1944 that the British finally received tanks which could face the German Tigers on a more equal footing.
However, in 1940 it was obvious that Britain desperately needed a new design of tank–one that would be fast, well protected and sufficiently well armed to take on the Germans. Unfortunately, there was no time to develop such a machine properly. Most of the British designs that were introduced during the next two or three years suffered from mechanical and design faults that could have been avoided if more time had been spent on development, and Britain struggled throughout the war with a multiplicity of designs, often unsatisfactory.
Tanks first saw action at Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916 and, although few of the forty-nine vehicles deployed were able to reach their objective, the army Chiefs of Staff were sufficiently impressed with their performance to order more machines. (Warehouse Collection)
In March 1917, five Mk II tanks were used as development ‘mules’ to try out various transmission systems. The engine of the tank shown here drives the tracks through a Williams-Janney hydraulic system, using pumps with adjustable swash plates to alter the speed. The Model T radiator, together with a pair of radiators from Daimler motor cars, was installed in an attempt at keeping the transmission oil at a reasonable temperature. (Warehouse Collection)
Whilst the Mk I required a crew of eight men–commander, driver, four gunners and two steersmen, the Mk V, seen here at the Tank Museum, was the first of the series that could be controlled by one man. Nevertheless, conditions inside the hull were intolerable. (Warehouse Collection)
Timber decoy or camouflage version of the Mk V tank. (Warehouse Collection)
Gun mounts were provided on either side of the early tanks, with the so-called ‘male’ variants (seen here) equipped with 6-pounders (57mm), and ‘females’ armed with Hotchkiss machine guns. The tanks were easily defeated by wide trenches. (Warehouse Collection)
The Mk V* and Mk V** were three feet longer than the Mk IV in order to improve trench-crossing performance. The US Army also deployed British-built tanks and this photograph was taken at the Tank Corps School in Raleigh, North Carolina. (US National Archives)
It can be argued that it was actually the French who came up with the tank in the form that we would recognise it today, in the shape of the Renault FT-17. (Warehouse Collection)
Some 1,600 examples of the Renault FT-17 remained in service with the French Army until at least 1939, with some of these pressed into German service, as the PzKpfw.18R 730(f), when France fell in 1940. (Warehouse Collection)
By 1922/23, Vickers had produced a new design, initially designated light tank Mk I, but later universally known as the ‘Vickers medium’ when lighter designs appeared. (Warehouse Collection)
The Vickers medium was developed through Mks I, II and IIA and provided the backbone of the Royal Tank Corps during the interwar period. Around 160 examples were constructed, both by Vickers and the Royal Ordnance Factory (Woolwich) over a five-year period. This is the Mk II. (Warehouse Collection)
All variants of the Vickers medium were armed with a 3-pounder (47mm) gun together with Hotchkiss or Vickers machine guns. This is a Mk II* from 1926. (Tank Museum)
Typified by this Mk II*, the Vickers medium was the first British tank to feature a rotating turret. Some remained in service for training into the early years of the Second World War. (Tank Museum)
Just three examples were built of the improved A6 medium tank Mk III in 1930/31. There was no series production. (Warehouse Collection)
Armed with a 3-pounder (47mm) main gun and five Vickers machine guns, the medium Mk III was often described as the ‘sixteen tonner’. (Warehouse Collection)
The A6 was followed by a further three experimental vehicles, designated A7 and designed to be built at the Royal Ordnance Factory (Woolwich). (Warehouse Collection)
The experimental A14, dating from 1938, was the first attempt at building a heavy cruiser tank. It was intended to be fitted with a 2-pounder (40mm) gun in the turret, together with a pair of Besa machine guns in small auxiliary turrets, but was never completed. (Warehouse Collection)
Experiments with buoyancy compartments during the 1930s led to the development of this Vickers A4 amphibious light tank. The work proved to be something of a dead end, and when amphibious tanks were used in the D-Day landings, flotation screens were used in place of the buoyancy compartments. (Warehouse Collection)