Vickers 6-Ton
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The Vickers 6-Ton Tank or Vickers Mark E was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not purchased by the British Army, but was picked up by a large number of foreign armed forces, and was copied almost exactly, by the Soviets as the T-26, and by the Polish as the 7TP. By the start of World War II it was the second most common tank design in the world after the Renault FT-17.
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History
The first Mark E was built in 1928 by a design team that included the famed tank designers John Carden and Vivian Loyd. The hull was made of riveted steel plates, 1 inch (25 mm) thick at the front and over most of the turrets, and about 3/4 inch (19 mm) thick on the rear of the hull. The power was provided by an Armstrong-Siddeley Puma engine of 80-95 horsepower (60-70 kW) (depending on the version), which gave it a top speed of 22mph (35km/h) on roads.
The suspension used two axles, each of which carried a two-wheel bogie to which a second set of bogies was connected with a leaf spring. Upward movement of either set of bogies would force the other down through the spring. This was considered to be a fairly good system and offered better than normal cross-country performance although it could not compare with the contemporary Christie suspension. High strength steel tracks gave over 3000 mile (5000km) of life which was considerably better than most designs of the era.
The tank was built in two versions:
- Type A with two turrets, each mounting a Vickers machine gun.
- Type B with a single two-man turret mounting a single machine gun and a short-barreled 47 mm cannon .
The Type B proved to be a real innovation, it was found that the two-man turret dramatically increased the rate of fire of either weapon, while still allowing both to be fired at the same time. This design, which they referred to as a duplex mounting, became common on almost all tanks designed after the Mark E.
The British Army evaluated the Mark E, but rejected it, apparently due to questions about the reliability of the suspension. Vickers then started advertising the design to all buyers, and soon received a trickle of orders eventually including USSR, Greece, Poland, Bolivia, Siam, Finland, Portugal, China and Bulgaria. A Thai order was placed, but taken over by the British when the war started. Vickers built a total of 153 (the most common figure) Mark E's.
Experience with the Polish machines showed that the engine tended to overheat due to poor airflow over the air-cooled Puma engine. This was addressed by the addition of large air vents on either side of the hull. For a new Belgian order the design was modified to use the Rolls-Royce Phantom II water-cooled engine instead. This engine would not fit in the rear, and had to be mounted along the left side of the tank, requiring the turret to be moved to the right and rearward. One example of the resulting Mark F was tested by Belgium, but rejected. Nevertheless the new hull was used, with the older engine, in the sales to Finland and Siam.
The Mark E was also developed as a cargo vehicle, and purchased by the British Army in small numbers to haul their large 60 pounder (27 kg) artillery. Twelve were ordered by the Army as the Dragon, Medium Mark IV', while China purchased 23 and India 18.
Poland was generally happy with the design, and purchased 50 and licensed it for local production. Modifying it with larger air intakes, their own machine gun and a Diesel engine, the design entered service as the 7TP. Only the original 50 (38 sent assembled and 12 assembled locally) entered service. Out of 38 original two-turreted tanks, 22 were later converted to single turret version with a modified turret and the 47mm main gun.
The Soviets were also happy with the design and licensed it for production. However in their case local production started as the T-26, and eventually over 12,000 were built in various versions.
Versions
They were used in the following countries - in order of tanks' quantity:
- Poland - used 38 tanks since 1932: 22 Type B and 16 Type A tanks. Polish tanks had large air intakes behind the crew compartment as a significant feature. Poland also bought a license and developed an own improved model 7TP. Vickers Mk.E (Vickers E) tanks fought in the Polish September Campaign.
- Finland - used 33 tanks since 1938. They were armed initially with 37 mm Bofors anti-tank gun. They were used in the Winter War with the USSR. After this war, the Finns rearmed Mark E tanks with captured Soviet long 45 mm guns as used in the T-26. The Finns designated the rebuilt Vickers tanks as: T-26E. They were used in combat from 1941-44.
- China - used 20 single-turret tanks Vickers Mk.E Type B. They were used in combat against the Japanese in Shanghai in 1937.
- Siam (Thailand) - used 18 Vickers Mk.E Type B. They were used in a war with France in Indochina between December 1940 - January 1941.
- Soviet Union - the first buyer of Vickers Mk.E tanks. In 1931 bought 15 twin-turret tanks Mk.E Type A, and a license. The Soviets next started building and developing own improved tanks T-26 (about 12 000 made).
- Bulgaria - bought 8 single-turret Mk.E Type B tanks, used from 1944 against Germany.
- Britain - used only 4 tanks for training.
- Bolivia - used one twin-turret tank Type A and 2 single-turret tanks Type B. The Bolivian Vickers tanks were the first to see combat service, also the first tanks to see combat in the Americas - in 1933 they were used in the Chaco War against Paraguay.
- Greece - 2 tanks for tests
- Portugal - 2 tanks for tests
- Spain - one ex-Bolivian single-turret Vickers Mk.E Type B tank (supposedly) and a number of Soviet-made T-26.
See also:
External link:
- http://derela.republika.pl/vae.htm - history and usage of Vickers Mk.Epl:Vickers E