Carden-Loyd tankette

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Carden-Loyd Mk.VI
Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk IV

Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk IV
General properties
crew 2
length 2.47 m
width 1.70 m
height 1.22 m
Dimensions 1.6 t
Armor and armament
Armor maximum 9 mm
Main armament Vickers machine gun
agility
drive Ford Model T four-cylinder petrol engine
30 kW (40 PS)
Top speed 45 km / h
Power / weight
Range 160 km
Early version for a one-man crew
Carden-Loyd Mk I.
Early version for a crew of two
Carden-Loyd Mk.V *
Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk. VI as a tractor

The Carden-Loyd Tankette was a British small tankette (tankette) of the 1920s and 1930s. The most successful was the Mark VI, which was the only one to be produced in significant numbers. The basic construction was manufactured under license in numerous countries, further developed and formed the basis for a large number of lightly armored combat vehicles.

Development and production

At the beginning of the 1920s, the idea of ​​the one-man tank emerged as a small reconnaissance tank for the actual main battle tank. The British military historian Basil Liddell Hart touted these vehicles as armored infantry. The English engineer officer and tank strategist Major Giffard LeQuesne Martel built a one-man tank from various individual parts in his garage in 1925 and demonstrated it to the War Office . The concept was to use a vehicle that was as light as possible in order to be able to use a weak but cheap automobile engine. It should be cheap to be able to mass produce. The result was a half-track that was steered by rear wheels. The driver / gunner sat in the middle of the vehicle behind the engine. The armored cabin was open at the top.

Martel came together with the Morris Motor Company and there developed his prototype for the Martel-Morris tankette . Competition came from Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd , founded by John Carden and Vivian Loyd. The 1925 Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk. I was also a one-man pazer with half-chain drive. It quickly became apparent that the driver couldn't also use the machine gun ; the Martel-Morris tankette was therefore redesigned to have a crew of two. The same happened with the Carden-Loyd Tankette, in addition, it was switched to full chain drive.

In 1926 the British Army procured eight of each of Martel-Morris and Carden-Loyd for the Experimental Mechanized Force . The vehicles from Carden-Loyd were initially not technically mature and went through several development cycles. The short lifespan of the track was a major problem . The cast iron chains of the Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk. VI reached 1000 km, which was a good value for the time. The chassis has also been improved over time. The suspension remained inadequate and the very tight set-up tired the crew. Carden-Loyd prevailed; the British Army procured 250 Mk. VI vehicles in the years 1929-1930. The operational concept shifted from the tankette to the machine gun carrier. The British Universal Carrier was created on the basis of the Carden-Loyd Tankette Mk. VI . The tankette was also the starting point for the development of various artillery tractors .

The Vickers-Armstrongs company , which CLT Ltd. Had taken over in 1928, produced and marketed the Carden-Loyd tankette in the variant Mk. VI worldwide. By 1935 around 450 Mk. VI variants had been produced.

The last version, the Carden-Loyd Mk. VII (test designation A4E1), already had a rotating tower and formed the transition to the Vickers Light Tanks .

technology

The chassis of the small tanks was based with modifications on the chassis by Carden and Loyd, which had actually been developed for light tractors . The vehicles were turretless, the armory and driver were housed in the front of the tub. Adjusted to the size and performance of the engines, the armor was quite thin with a maximum of 9 mm in the front area and only protected against fire from hand weapons and against fragmentation.

International commitment and influence

The Carden-Loyd tankettes were popular around the world in the early 1930s and were used in various conflicts during this period. They also formed the basis for various further developments, which were produced in great numbers.

Overall, the tankettes did not meet the expectations placed on them. They were too vulnerable and the lack of a rotating turret for the armament had a negative impact. Therefore, they were replaced by the light tanks in the mid-1930s.

  • In 1929 Poland bought nine Mark VI tankettes as well as the production license, built two after them and developed its own TK tank chain from which the TKS tankette emerged.
  • Czechoslovakia bought three Mark VI tankettes and the production license in 1930, improved the design and produced 74 Praga T-33 tankettes at ČKD .
  • The Soviet Union acquired 20 Mark VI tankettes, designated there as K-25, as well as the production license. The Soviet project was then developed significantly. Instead of starting license production, the Obukhov works in Leningrad produced a significantly modernized and enlarged version of the T-27 tank chain. A total of 3,228 of these were built between 1931 and 1933.
  • Bolivia bought two Carden Loyd Mark VIBs in 1931. They were used in the Chaco War, where they proved unsuitable for the undergrowth overgrown terrain.
  • Japan procured six Mark VIb tankettes and later developed them into their own light army tank called " Type 94 Te-Ke ". Carden-Loyd tankettes in service with the land forces of the Japanese Navy were designated "Type 88".
  • Italy acquired four Carden Loyd Mark VIs in 1929, made 29 copies called the "CV-29" and developed this design further into the L3 / 35 .
  • Canada procured two lots of six between 1930 and 1931. After an evaluation by the Regiment Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the Royal Canadian Regiment , the Canadian Army used the Cardeen Loyd Tankette for training purposes at the Canadian Armored Fighting Vehicle School until more modern, larger tanks became available. Until the replacement of the tankettes in 1938 by light tanks of the Light Tank Mk VI type , together with some armored vehicles, they formed the only armored vehicles of the Canadian army. The tankettes were never used as combat vehicles in Canada.
  • Greece procured a small number before 1935.
  • The construction of the light German Panzerkampfwagen I was influenced by the Carden Loyd Tankette via the detour of German-Soviet military cooperation between 1927 and 1933.

literature

  • Didrik von Porat: Svenska armens Pansar. Army Museum Stockholm, 1985.
  • Gerhard Förster, Nikolaus Paulus: Outline of the history of the tank weapon. Berlin 1977.
  • Icks, RJ Armor in Profile No. 16 Carden Loyd Mark VI Profile Publishing (1967)

Web links

Commons : Carden-Loyd Tankette  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Robert Jackson (Ed.): 101 Great Tanks , Verlag The Rosen Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 9781435835955 , p. 15 [1]
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Steven Zaloga: Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II , Stackpole Books, 2015, ISBN 9780811714372 , pp. 43-45 [2]
  3. ↑ Roger Ford: The World's Great Tanks: From 1916 to the Present Day , Amber Books Ltd, 2012, ISBN 9781908696014 , p. 31 [3]
  4. ↑ a b Richard Ogorkiewicz : 100 years of evolution , Verlag Osprey Publishing , 2015 ISBN 9781472813053 , p. 80 [4]
  5. ↑ a b The Tank Book: The Definitive Visual History of Armored Vehicles , Verlag Dorling Kindersley , 2017, ISBN 9780241311295 , pp. 40, 46 [5]
  6. ↑ a b Jamie Prenatt: Polish Armor of the Blitzkrieg , publisher Osprey Publishing , 2015, ISBN 9781472808257 , page 20 [6]
  7. ↑ David Fletcher: Universal Carrier 1936-48: The 'Bren Gun Carrier' Story , Verlag Osprey Publishing , 2012, ISBN 9781780968001 , pp. 3-4 [7]
  8. ↑ David Edgerton: Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War , Oxford University Press , 2011, ISBN 9780199832682 , p. 242 [8]
  9. ^ David Fletcher: British Light Tanks 1927–45: Marks I – VI , Verlag Osprey Publishing , 2014, ISBN 9781782003786 , pp. 4-5 [9]
  10. ↑ Jonathan A. Grant: Between Depression and Disarmament: The International Armaments Business, 1919–1939 , Cambridge University Press , 2018 ISBN 9781108636490 , p. 150 [10]
  11. ↑ Alejandro de Quesada: The Chaco War 1932-35: South America's greatest modern conflict , Verlag Osprey Publishing , 2011, ISBN 9781849084178 , p. 34 [11]
  12. ↑ Harald Pöcher: Wars and battles in Japan, which made history: from 1853 to 1922 , Lit Verlag , 2011, ISBN 9783643502674 , p. 28 [12]
  13. ^ Jonathan A. Epstein: Belgium's Dilemma: The Formation of the Belgian Defense Policy, 1932-1940 , BRILL Verlag , 2014, ISBN 9789004269736 , p. 77 [13]
  14. ↑ Leland Ness: Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles , HarperCollins Verlag , 2002, ISBN 0-00-711228-9 . Pp. 214-215 [14]
  15. ↑ Akira Takizawa: Chinese Nationalist Armor in World War II . In: Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942 . 1999-2000. Retrieved July 1, 2013.