Carden Loyd tankette
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| Carden Loyd Mk IV Tankette | |
|---|---|
| General characteristics | |
| Crew | 2 |
| Length | 8 ft 1 in (2.46 m) |
| Width | 5 ft 7 in (1.75 m) |
| Height | 4 ft (1.22 m) |
| Weight | 1.5 tons |
| Armour and armament | |
| Armour | 6 mm - 9 mm |
| Main armament | 0.303 inch Vickers machine gun |
| Secondary armament | none |
| Mobility | |
| Power plant | Ford Model T petrol 4 cylinder 40 hp |
| Suspension | bogie |
| Road speed | 28 mph (40 km/h) |
| Power/weight | ? |
| Range | 100 miles (144 km) |
The Carden-Loyd tankettes were a series of British pre-World War II tankettes, with most succesfull Mark VI tankette, the only one built in significant number. It became a classic tankette design in the world, was license-built by several countries and became the basis of several designs produced in several different countries. Not so much a light tank as a tracked machine gun transporter, the Carden-Loyd tankette was a British development in armoured fighting vehicles in the Inter-war period.
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[edit] Development
The Carden-Loyd tankette came about from an idea started, as a private project, by the British military engineer and tank strategist Major G Le Q. Martel. He built a one-man tank in his garage from various parts and showed it to the War Office in the mid 1920s. With the publicization of the idea, other companies produced their own interpretations of the idea. One of these was Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd, of John Carden and Vivian Loyd. Besides one-man vehicles they also proposed two-man vehicles which turned out to be a more effective and popular idea. Vickers-Armstrong manufactured and marketed it worldwide.
Considered a reconnaissance vehicle and a mobile machine gun position, the Mark VI was the final stage of development of Carden-Loyd series of tankettes.
[edit] Production
Production started in 1927 and lasted until 1935. From 1933 to 1935 production was by the Royal Ordnance. Some 450 were made. The British Army used at least 325 of Mark VI tankettes (other data: 348) in several variants, mostly as machine gun carries, but also as light gun tractors, mortar carriers or smoke projector vehicles. In 1929, Poland bought 10 or 11 Mark VI tankettes with a licence and used them for development of their own TK tankette series, which was the predecessor of the Polish TKS tankette.
Czechoslovakia also bought 3 Mark VI tankettes in 1930 with a licence, and then improved the design, producing 74 of Tančik vz.33 tankettes in ČKD (Praga) works (the original British construction was evaluated as unusable in modern warfare).
The Soviet Union bought 20 pieces of Mark VI (marked K-25 in Russia) as well as a license. However, the final project was significantly modernised and the license was dropped. Instead, the Bolshevik works in Leningrad started the production of the T-27 tankette, a modernised and enlarged variant of the British design. A total of 3,228 T-27 tankettes were built between 1931 and 1933.
Japan also bought 6 Mk.VIb tankettes, but later developed its own Type 94 Te Ke design, not connected with Carden-Loyd. Italy bought a numer of Carden-Loyd Mark VIs and built a small number of licence copies designated CV-29, but then developed own tankettes L3/35.
In addition, the tankettes were also supplied in small numbers to Canada, France, India, Italy, the Netherlands (5), and Siam. Bolivia had 2 tankettes Mk.VIb and used them during the Chaco war.
[edit] Operators
- Bolivia
- Canada
- Chile
- Czechoslovakia
- France,
- Great Britain
- India
- Italy,
- Japan
- Poland,
- Portugal,
- Thailand - about 60 used in the French-Thai War
- USSR - used to develop T-27 tank
