The Medium Mark A Whippet was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
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 ...
of 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 ...
. 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 history
On 3 October 1916
William Tritton
Sir William Ashbee Tritton, Justice of the Peace, JP, (19 June 1875 – 24 September 1946) was a British expert in agricultural machinery, and was directly involved, together with Walter Gordon Wilson, Major Walter Gordon Wilson, in the develop ...
, about to be knighted for developing the
Mark I
Mark I or Mark 1 often refers to the first version of a weapon or military vehicle, and is sometimes used in a similar fashion in civilian product development. In some instances, the Arabic numeral "1" is substituted for the Roman numeral "I". " ...
, proposed to the
Tank Supply Committee
The Landship Committee was a small British committee formed during the First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now called the tank. Established in Febru ...
that a faster and cheaper tank, equipped with two engines like the
Flying Elephant
The Flying Elephant was a proposed super-heavy tank, planned but never built by the British during World War I.
Development
After the last order for an additional fifty Mark I vehicles in April 1916, it was not certain that any more tanks were t ...
, should be built to exploit gaps that the heavier but slow tanks made, an idea that up till then had been largely neglected. This was accepted on 10 November and approved by the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
on 25 November. At that time the name for the project was the ''Tritton Chaser''. Traditionally, the name ''Whippet'' (after the fast-running
dog breed
A dog breed is a particular strain of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing around 450 globally ...
) is attributed to Sir William himself. Actual construction started on 21 December. The first prototype, with a revolving turret taken from an
Austin armoured car
The Austin Armoured Car was a British armoured car produced during the First World War. The vehicle is best known for its employment by the Imperial Russian Army in the First World War and by different forces in the Russian Civil War.
In ad ...
— the first for a British tank design, as
Little Willie
Little Willie was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the autumn of 1915 at the behest of the Landship Committee, it was the first completed tank prototype in history. ''Little Willie'' is the oldest survi ...
's original turret was fixed — was ready on 3 February 1917 and participated (probably without one) in the
tank trials day at Oldbury on 3 March. The next day, in a meeting with the French to coordinate allied tank production, the
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces
Field Marshal Haig ordered the manufacture of two hundred vehicles, the first to be ready on 31 July. Although he was acting beyond his authority, as usual, his decisions were confirmed in June 1917. The first production tanks left the factory in October and two were delivered to the first unit to use them,
F Battalion of the Tank Corps (later 6th Battalion), on 14 December 1917. In December 1917 the order was increased from 200 to 385 but this was later cancelled in favour of more advanced designs, 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 ...
,
Medium Mark C
The Medium Mark C Hornet was a British tank developed during the First World War, but produced too late to see any fighting.
Development
In 1917 Sir William Tritton had developed the Medium Mark A Whippet without involving his former co-worker Wa ...
and
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 ...
.
Description
This
armoured fighting vehicle
An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured car ...
was intended for fast mobile assaults. Although the track design appears more "modern" than the British Tanks
Mark I
Mark I or Mark 1 often refers to the first version of a weapon or military vehicle, and is sometimes used in a similar fashion in civilian product development. In some instances, the Arabic numeral "1" is substituted for the Roman numeral "I". " ...
to V, it was directly derived from ''
Little Willie
Little Willie was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the autumn of 1915 at the behest of the Landship Committee, it was the first completed tank prototype in history. ''Little Willie'' is the oldest survi ...
'', the first tank prototype (itself directly taken from the track design of the
Holt tractor
The Holt tractors were a range of continuous track haulers built by the Holt Manufacturing Company from California (U.S.), which was named after Benjamin Holt.
Between 1908 and 1913, twenty-seven of the first 100 Holt caterpillar track-type tr ...
), and was unsprung. The crew compartment was a fixed, polygonal turret at the rear of the vehicle, and two engines of the type used in contemporary
double-decker bus
A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...
es were in a forward compartment, driving one track each.
Steering
When driving in a straight line the two engines were locked; turning the steering wheel gradually closed the throttle for the engine of one track and opened the throttle for the engine driving the other. The two engines were joined at their cross-shafts, from which the final drive to the tracks was by chains to sprockets on either side. When steering the clutches joining the cross-shafts were released, one engine sped up while the other slowed down, the turn being on the side opposite to that of the faster running engine. The steering effect could be increased by use of the brakes on one engine or another. This arrangement had the advantage over that of earlier tanks of being controlled by one man only, but called for great skill on the part of the driver, because one or both of the engines could be stalled if care was not exercised. Although in theory a simple solution to give gradual steering, in practice it proved impossible to control the speeds of the engines, causing the vehicle to take an unpredictable path. Drivers grew wary and stopped the vehicle and locked one track before every turn; this caused many track breaks, as the movement became too abrupt. Nevertheless, the vehicle could easily negotiate shell craters. Crews that believed that treads had to be as long as the hull, as with the heavy tanks, were surprised to see the Whippet, with shorter tracks, successfully exit holes.
Other features
The fuel tank was in the front of the hull. The sides featured large mud chutes which allowed mud falling from the upper treads to slide away from the tank, instead of clogging the track plates and rollers.
Armament
Armament was four
0.303-inch (7.7mm) Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns, one covering each direction. As there were only three crewmen, the gunner had to jump around a lot, though often assisted by the commander. Sometimes a second gunner was carried in the limited space, and often a machine gun was removed to give more room, as the machine guns could be moved from one mounting position to another to cover all sides.
Variants
![FastWhippet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/FastWhippet.jpg)
Major Philip Johnson, the unofficial head of Central Tank Corps Workshops in France, as soon as he received them began fitting one of the Whippets with
leaf spring
A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it ...
s. Later, in 1918, he fitted this vehicle with sprung track rollers,
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 ...
's epicyclical transmission from the
Mark V Mark V or Mark 5 often refers to the fifth version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk."
Mark V or Mark 5 can specifically refer to:
In technology In military and weaponry
* B ...
and a V12
Rolls-Royce Eagle
The Rolls-Royce Eagle was the first aircraft engine to be developed by Rolls-Royce Limited. Introduced in 1915 to meet British military requirements during World War I, it was used to power the Handley Page Type O bombers and a number of oth ...
aero-engine. A top speed of about was reached. This project made Johnson the best qualified man to develop the later fast
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 ...
, which looks like a reversed Medium A. Other experiments included the fitting of a large trailing wheel taken from an old Mark I tank and attaching a climbing tail, in both cases attempts to increase trench-crossing ability.
For a time it was assumed that after the war some Whippets were rebuilt as
armoured recovery vehicle
An armoured recovery vehicle (ARV) is typically a powerful tank or armoured personnel carrier (APC) chassis modified for use during combat for military vehicle recovery (towing) or repair of battle-damaged, stuck, and/or inoperable armoured f ...
s, but this was not the case.
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 ...
, a completely different design by
Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
, also had the name "Whippet". For a time it was common to describe any of the lighter tank designs as a Whippet, even the French
Renault FT
The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to ...
. It had become a generic name.
The German ''
Leichter Kampfwagen'' — developed from December 1917 — being also a turret-less tank with the engine in front resembled the Whippet, but was a smaller vehicle with thinner armour.
Combat history
![The German Spring Offensive, March-july 1918 Q9821](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/The_German_Spring_Offensive%2C_March-july_1918_Q9821.jpg)
Whippets arrived late in the First World War, at a time when the
British Expeditionary Force, recovering from the
Third Battle of Ypres
The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...
in Flanders, was quite inactive. They first went into action in March 1918 and proved very useful to cover the fighting withdrawal of the infantry divisions recoiling from the German onslaught during the
German spring offensive. Whippets were then assigned to the normal Tank Battalions as extra "X-companies". In an engagement near
Cachy
Cachy () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
Cachy is situated on the D168 road, some southeast of Amiens and near to Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux () is a commune in the Somme de ...
, a Whippet company of seven tanks wiped out two German infantry battalions caught in the open, killing over 400. That same day, 24 April, one Whippet was destroyed by a German
A7V
The A7V was a heavy tank introduced by Germany in 1918 during World War I. One hundred chassis were ordered in early 1917, ten to be finished as fighting vehicles with armoured bodies, and the remainder as ''Überlandwagen'' cargo carriers. Th ...
in the world's second tank battle, the only time a Whippet fought an enemy tank.
The Whippet was, a British tank veteran wrote, "the big surprise" of the
Royal Tank Corps
The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as t ...
. Crews used their vehicles' speed to attack troops in the rear. They were so successful that by summer 1918 civilians "seemed to talk in terms of whippets", not knowing of heavy tanks' importance in breaking through fortifications and barbed wire. British losses were so high however that plans to equip five ''Tank Battalions (Light)'' with 36 Whippets each had to be abandoned. In the end only the
3rd Tank Brigade had Whippets, 48 in each of its two battalions (3rd and 6th TB). Alongside Mark IV and V tanks, they took part in the
Battle of Amiens (8 August 1918) which was described by the German supreme commander, General Ludendorff, as "the Black Day of the German Army". The Whippets broke through into the German rear areas causing the loss of the artillery in an entire front sector, a devastating blow from which the Germans were unable to recover. During this battle, one Whippet – ''Musical Box'' – advanced so far it was cut off behind German lines. For nine hours it roamed at will, destroying an artillery battery, an
observation balloon
An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War ...
, the camp of an infantry battalion and a transport column of the German 225th Division, inflicting many casualties. At one point, cans of petrol being carried on ''Musical Boxs roof were ruptured by small-arms fire and fuel leaked into the cabin; the crew had to don gas masks to survive the fumes. Eventually, a German shell disabled it and as the crew abandoned the tank, one of them was shot and killed and the other two were taken prisoner. “Musical Box” was captured by the Germans, however it was retaken by the British later on in the war. The tank survived the war, and although most likely scrapped post war, 2 other Whippet tanks that saw extensive action are in Museums; A347 Firefly and A259 Caesar II,
The Germans captured fewer than fifteen Whippets, two of which were in running condition. They were kept exclusively for tests and training purpose during the war, but one of them saw action afterwards with the
Freikorps
(, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...
in the
German Revolution of 1918–1919
The German Revolution or November Revolution (german: Novemberrevolution) was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a dem ...
. The Germans gave them the designation ''Beutepanzer A''.
![Mk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Mk.A_Whippets_in_Japanese_service.jpg)
After the war, Whippets were sent to Ireland during 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 ...
as part of the British forces there, serving with
17th Battalion, Royal Tank Corps. Seventeen were sent with the Expedition Forces in support of the
Whites
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as " ...
against Soviet Russia. The
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
captured twelve, using them until the 1930s and fitted at least one vehicle with a French 37 mm ''
Puteaux
Puteaux () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the heart of the Hauts-de-Seine department, from the centre of Paris. In 2016, it had a population of 44,941.
La Défense, Paris's business district hosting the ...
'' gun. The Soviets, incorrectly assuming that the name of the engine was "Taylor" instead of "Tylor" (a mistake many sources still make) called the tank the ''Tyeilor''. A few (perhaps six) were exported to Japan, where they remained in service until around 1930.
Whippets were used by the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
in
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...
and during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Surviving vehicles
Five Whippets survive:
* A259 ''Caesar II'',
Bovington Tank Museum
The Tank Museum (previously The Bovington Tank Museum) is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about north of the village of Wool and west of the major port of Poole. The collecti ...
. This is the tank in which
Cecil Harold Sewell won the
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
.
* A347 ''Firefly'',
Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History
The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History (french: Musée Royal de l'Armée et d'Histoire Militaire, often abbreviated to MRA, nl, Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en de Krijgsgeschiedenis, KLM) is a military museum that occupi ...
, Brussels. This tank, part of B-Company, is still in its original paint and markings. It still carries battle damage from when it was hit on 17 August 1918.
* A231.
Base Borden Military Museum
Base Borden Military Museum is a military museum located on the grounds of CFB Borden, in Borden, Ontario, Canada. Combining four separate museums, it has numerous items, equipment and vehicles from all eras of Canadian military history, including ...
, Ontario, Canada
*
United States Army Ordnance Museum
The United States Army Ordnance Training Support Facility (formerly known as the U.S. Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center and U.S. Army Ordnance Museum) artifacts are used to train and educate logistic soldiers. It re-located to Fort Lee ( ...
(census number unknown).
*
South African Army College
The South African Army College is a training unit of the South African Army.
History
Origin of military training in South Africa
South African military training can be traced back to 1786 when the Militere Kweekskool was established by the ...
, Pretoria,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. This tank was originally dispatched to South Africa to put down labour unrest.
Image:Whippet2.jpg, Rear of A347, Royal Museum of the Army, Brussels (2005)
Image:Whippet tank Base Borden Military Museum 3.jpg, A231. Base Borden Military Museum, Ontario, Canada (2015)
Image:Whippet tank interior Base Borden.jpg, Interior of tank at Base Borden Military Museum (2015)
Image:Mark A Whippet 1.jpg, United States Army Ordnance Museum (2007)
See also
*
History of the tank
The history of the tank begins with World War I, when armoured all-terrain fighting vehicles were introduced as a response to the problems of trench warfare, ushering in a new era of mechanized warfare. Though initially crude and unreliable, tan ...
*
Tanks in World War I
The development of tanks in World War I was a response to the stalemate that developed on the Western Front. Although vehicles that incorporated the basic principles of the tank (armour, firepower, and all-terrain mobility) had been projected ...
*
Comparison of World War I tanks
*
Light tanks of the United Kingdom
The Light Tank Mark I to Mark V were a series of related designs of light tank produced by Vickers for the British Army during the interwar period.
Between the First and Second World Wars, the British produced a series of similar light tanks. ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
External links
*http://www.spartacus-educational.com/FWWwhippet.htm
The Bovington Medium Mark A WhippetPhoto gallery at svsm.org
{{Authority control
World War I tanks
Medium tanks
Medium tanks of the United Kingdom
World War I tanks of the United Kingdom