Vickers A1E1 Independent
| Vickers A1E1 Independent | |
|---|---|
at the Bovington Tank Museum |
|
| General properties | |
| crew | 8th |
| length | 7.59 m |
| width | 2.67 m |
| height | 2.72 m |
| Dimensions | 34 t |
| Armor and armament | |
| Armor | 13-28 mm |
| Main armament | 1 × 47 mm cannon (QF 3 pounder gun) |
| Secondary armament | 4 × 7.7 mm MG (0.303 Vickers) |
| agility | |
| drive |
Armstrong Siddeley -V 12 280 kW (370 hp) |
| Top speed | 32 km / h |
| Power / weight | |
The Vickers A1E1 "Independent" was a 1926 British heavy tank .
history
While the heavy tanks of the Mark series were still characteristic of the British armed forces during the First World War , no new heavy model was added to the equipment in the twenties.
In his book "The Tanks in the Great War" published in 1920, JFC Fuller had developed the theory that in a later war the tanks would operate similarly to warships.
Based on this theory, the A1E1 "Independent", as a kind of "land warship", was developed and built by Vickers in the years 1925–1926 . It was a multi-tower combat vehicle, armed with a 47 mm cannon in the main tower and four machine guns, each housed individually in smaller turrets. Small tanks ( tankette ) aimed. The “Independent” was also a very expensive vehicle for its time, so the test model built remained a one-off. A mission in a conflict did not take place.
The preserved vehicle can be viewed today in the Tank Museum , Bovington (GB).
aftermath
Although the "Independent" was only an experimental model, its development abroad was followed very closely. He influenced the development of the new construction vehicle with three towers in what was then the German Empire. In the Soviet Union, the T-28 with three turrets and the T-35 with five turrets were built based on his model . In Great Britain itself tanks with three turrets each were later developed and built in series, these were the Vickers Medium Mark III and the Cruiser Tank Mk. I (A9) .
literature
- Gerhard Förster, Nikolaus Paulus: Outline of the history of the tank weapon. Berlin 1977.
