The Medium Mark C Hornet was a British
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
developed during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but produced too late to see any fighting.
Development
In 1917 Sir William Tritton had developed the
Medium Mark A Whippet
The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank of the First World War. It was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.
Development and production hi ...
without involving his former co-worker
Walter Gordon Wilson
Major Walter Gordon Wilson (21 April 1874 – 1 July 1957) was an Irish mechanical engineer, inventor and member of the British Royal Naval Air Service. He was credited by the 1919 Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors as the co-inventor of the ...
. In response Major Wilson began to design an improved type on his own, the
Medium Mark B
The Medium Mark B was a British tank of the First World War developed as a successor to the Whippet, but ultimately unsatisfactory and production was cancelled at the end of the war.
History
The engineer Lieutenant Walter Wilson and the indust ...
, in July 1917. As soon as he became aware of Wilson's intentions, Tritton ordered his chief designer, William Rigby, to design a rival type: the Medium Mark C. The drawings were approved by the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
on 19 April 1918. The prototype was finished in August, a few weeks before the Medium B prototype also in construction at Tritton's own factory. At first 200 tanks were ordered; later this was increased to 600, all to be produced by
William Foster & Co Ltd
William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England often called "Fosters of Lincoln." The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. William Fost ...
at
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
with Armlet & Wortley as subcontractor. The colloquial name of the tank was to be "Hornet", but it seems nobody ever used it.
Description
![MedMarkC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/MedMarkC.jpg)
Superficially, the Medium C looks a lot like its rival, the
Medium B.
It too has the general rhomboid shape of the
Mark I and later heavy tanks combined with a fixed armoured structure, or
casemate
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...
, well forward,
[Crow, Duncan. ''British and Commonwealth Armoured Formations 1919-46'' (Profile Publications Ltd, Great Bookham, no date), p.2.] fitted with ball-mounts for five machine guns. However, Tritton's Medium Mark C was a much longer vehicle. It had a separate engine compartment at the back like the Medium B, but here it was large enough to house a normal 6-cylinder
Ricardo
Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname.
People Given name
*Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugu ...
engine behind a standard epicyclic transmission. Also it was easily accessible from the fighting compartment. The larger engine meant the tank had better speed (about ). The greater length gave it a superior trench crossing ability. A fuel tank holding of petrol allowed for a range of . Overall mobility therefore was much better.
Rigby had taken great care to improve the design's
ergonomics
Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learnin ...
. The commander had a special revolving lookout turret and even a small
map table. There were eleven vision slits. Special stowage boxes were fitted for the personal gear of the crew of four. Speaking-tubes were used to improve communication. The driver had an
odometer
An odometer or odograph is an instrument used for measuring the distance traveled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or car. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two (electromechanical). The noun derives from ancient Gr ...
.
Operational history
![1919 Battle of George Square - tanks and soldiers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/1919_Battle_of_George_Square_-_tanks_and_soldiers.jpg)
In the (likely) eventuality that the
Medium Mark D
Medium Mark D was a British tank developed at the end of the First World War.
It was envisaged as a vehicle to be used in "Plan 1919" an offensive on the Western Front which would use large numbers of heavy and medium tanks to break through the ...
would not be ready for mass production in 1919, the
Tank Corps
An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...
hoped to receive no fewer than 6,000 Medium Cs that year, a third of which would be of the "Male" version, with a long six-pounder gun in the front of the superstructure. Though drawings were prepared, nothing would come of this.
When the war ended all orders were cancelled, with only 36 vehicles nearly finished. These were completed, together with fourteen others built from pre-produced parts, for a total production of fifty. General
J.F.C. Fuller
Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1 September 1878 – 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, known as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising pr ...
considered switching the budget for the development of the Medium D to a further production of Medium C's so as to fully equip all peace-time tank battalions with this better tank, but decided against it. Only the
2nd Tank Battalion
The 2nd Tank Battalion (2nd Tanks) was an armored battalion of the United States Marine Corps which was based out of the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It fell under the command of the 2nd Marine Division and the II Marine Exp ...
received the tank. As it was the most modern
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specifi ...
of the Tank Corps, it was carefully kept from harm: no Medium C's were sent either with the
Expedition Forces against the Bolsheviks in Russia or to the
Anglo-Irish War
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
. The only tanks participating in the 1919 victory parade were four Medium C's. The only "action" the tank ever saw was being deployed to
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in 1919, where they were parked in the Cattle Market, unused, in case they were needed to control rioting in the city, following the rioting known as the ''
Battle of George Square
The Battle of George Square was a violent confrontation in Glasgow, Scotland between Glasgow City Police and striking Glasgow workers, centred around George Square. The 'battle', also known as "Bloody Friday" or "Black Friday", took place on F ...
'' in 1919.
From 1925 on, the Medium C was gradually replaced by the
Medium Mark I
The Vickers Medium Mark I was a British tank of the Inter-war period built by Vickers from 1924.
Background
After the First World War Britain disbanded most of its tank units leaving only five tank battalions equipped with the Mark V and the M ...
and
Medium Mark II. Proposals to use Medium Cs as recovery vehicles were rejected. A single vehicle was used to test a new type of transmission. In 1940 the last remaining Medium C was melted down.
References
*
External links
Great Britain's medium tanks
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
World War I tanks
Medium tanks
Medium tanks of the United Kingdom
World War I tanks of the United Kingdom