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 engi ...

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 t ...

. In response Major Wilson began to design an improved type on his own, the Medium Mark B, 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 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. * Lincol ...

with Armlet & Wortley as subcontractor. The colloquial name of the tank was to be "Hornet", but it seems nobody ever used it.

Description

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, 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.

Operational history

1919 Battle of George Square - tanks and soldiers

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 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 specif ...

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-mi ...

. 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 ...

'' 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