The Mark VI was a British heavy

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 ...

project from 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 ...

Design

After having made plans for the continued development of the Mark I into the Mark IV, the Tank Supply Committee (the institute planning and controlling British tank production) in December 1916 ordered the design of two new types of tank: the Mark V and the Mark VI. The Mark V had to embody the most advanced features that could still be incorporated into the Mark I hull. The Mark VI should abandon the old hull entirely, reflecting only some general principles of the older tank.David Fletcher, 2001, ''The British Tanks 1915 - 19'', The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, p 87 On 13 July 1917, Metropolitan, the firm associated to Sir

William Tritton Sir William Ashbee Tritton, JP, (19 June 1875 – 24 September 1946) was a British expert in agricultural machinery, and was directly involved, together with Major Walter Gordon Wilson, in the development of the tank. Early in World War I he ...

, had a wooden mock-up ready of both models.David Fletcher, 2001, ''The British Tanks 1915 - 19'', The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, p 86 As no design drawings of the Mark VI have survived, the pictures made on that date (and earlier on 23 June 1917 of the still partly unfinished models) form the major source of information. The Mark V design still looked a lot like the Mark I. It had many changes in detail however, including smaller

sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...

s with cylindrical

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

mounts, a lengthened hull, a larger cabin and a machine gun position at the back.David Fletcher, 2001, ''The British Tanks 1915 - 19'', The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, p 86-87 This design was ultimately abandoned due to enormous delays in the development of the Mark IV. The tank eventually taken in production under that name was not the Mark IV, as originally planned, but basically a slightly changed Mark I. When at last in December 1917 the desired new engine and transmission could be built in, it was ''this'' type which became known as the Mark V. The Mark VI design had a completely different hull, which was higher with rounded tracks on the front. It had no real sponsons; the side doors replacing them having protruding machine gun positions. The main armament was a single 57 mm gun low in the front of the hull. The driver is sitting in a square superstructure much further back, the corners of which each had a

. On the superstructure a raised lookout post for the commander was fitted. It is known from a surviving text that the hull was to be compartmentalised with a separate engine room on one side containing also in line the drive gears of both tracks, the drive shaft for the track of the opposite side crossing the hull. Wider tracks (75 cm) were to be used. It was to be protected by fourteen millimetres of armour.

Cancellation of production

When in September 1917 US headquarters in France decided to create a separate American Tank Corps with 25 battalions, among which five were to be Heavy Tank Battalions, Major James A. Drain ordered 600 of the most advanced British tank, being at the time the Mark VI.David Fletcher, 2001, ''The British Tanks 1915 - 19'', The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, p 88 However, this endangered the plans of Albert Gerald Stern, then coordinating allied tank production, to produce a common Anglo-American tank, the Mark VIII. In December 1917 he ordered to halt the project. Not even a prototype was built.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark 06 Tank World War I tanks of the United Kingdom Heavy tanks of the United Kingdom Abandoned military projects of the United Kingdom