The Tank, Light, Mk VI was a British

light tank A light tank is a Tank classification, tank variant initially designed for rapid movements in and out of combat, to outmaneuver heavier tanks. It is smaller with thinner vehicle armour, armor and a less powerful tank gun, main gun, tailored for ...

, produced by

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

in the late 1930s, which saw service during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Development history

The Tank, Light, Mk VI was the sixth in the line of light tanks built by Vickers-Armstrongs for the British Army during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

. The company had achieved a degree of standardization with their previous five models, and the Mark VI was identical in all but a few respects. The turret, which had been expanded in the Mk V to allow a three-man crew to operate the tank, was further expanded to give room in its rear for a wireless set. The weight of the tank was increased to , which although heavier than previous models actually improved its handling characteristics, and an engine was added to the model to increase its maximum speed to . It had the

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coil-spring suspension system, which was found to be durable and reliable, although the fact that the tank was short in relation to its width and that it pitched violently on rough ground made accurate gunnery whilst moving exceptionally difficult. The Mk VI possessed a crew of three consisting of a driver, gunner and commander, who also doubled as the radio operator, between and of armour, which could resist rifle and machine gun bullets, and its armament consisted of one water-cooled .303 inch (7.7 mm)

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

and one .50 inch (12.7 mm) Vickers machine gun. Production of the Mk VI began in 1936 and ended in 1940 with 1,682 Mark VI tanks having been built. Many of those produced were actually variants designed to solve problems found with the original design. The Mk VIA had a return roller removed from the top of the leading bogey and attached to the hull sides instead, and also possessed a faceted cupola.Chamberlain & Ellis, p. 24 The Mk VIB was mechanically identical to the Mk VIA but with a few minor differences to make production simpler, including a one-piece armoured louvre over the radiator instead of a two-piece louvre, and a plain circular cupola instead of the faceted type. The Mk VIC, which was the last in the MK VI series, had the commander's cupola removed and had wider bogies and three carburettors to improve engine performance; it was also more powerfully armed than the other models, replacing the .303 and .50 Vickers machine guns with co-axial and

Besa machine gun The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army"TK" from ''těžký kulomet'' "heavy machine gun"; "vz" from ''vzor'' "Model"). The name ca ...

s. A small number of specialized variations were also built based on the Mk VI

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

. The ''Tank, Light, AA Mk I'' was built in the aftermath of the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

and was intended to act as a counter-measure against attacks by German aircraft. It featured a power-operated turret fitted with four 7.92 mm Besa machine guns; a Mk II was produced which was mechanically similar but had improvements, such as better quality sights for the machine guns and a larger turret for easier access. A variant on the Mk VIB was produced for service with the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

, in which the commander's cupola was removed and replaced with a hatch in the turret roof.

Operational history

When the Mk VI was first produced in 1936, the Imperial General Staff considered the tank to be superior to any light tank produced by other nations, and well suited to the dual roles of reconnaissance and colonial warfare.Harris, p. 275 Like many of its predecessors, the Mark VI was used by the British Army to perform imperial policing duties in

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and other colonies in the

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, a role for which it and the other Vickers-Armstrongs light tanks were found to be well suited. When the British government began its rearmament process in 1937, the Mk VI was the only tank with which the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

was ready to proceed with manufacturing; the development of a medium tank for the Army had hit severe problems after the cancellation of the proposed "Sixteen Tonner" medium tank in 1932 due to the costs involved, and cheaper models only existed as prototypes with a number of mechanical problems. As a result of this, when the Second World War began in September 1939, the vast majority of the tanks available to the British Army were Mk VIs; there were 1,002 Mk VI light tanks, 79 Mk I (A9) and Mk II (A10) cruiser tanks and 67 Matilda Mk I infantry tanks. Of these tanks, only 196 light tanks and 50 infantry tanks were in use by operational units of the army. When the Battle of France began in May 1940, the majority of the tanks possessed by the British Expeditionary Force were Mark VI variants; the seven

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the armoured arm of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 and the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It includes most of the Ar ...

divisional cavalry regiments, the principal armoured formations of the BEF, were each equipped with 28 Mk VIs. The 1st Armoured Division, elements of which landed in France in April, was equipped with 257 tanks, of which a large number were Mk VIB and Mk VICs. The 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, which formed part of the division's 3rd Armoured Brigade, possessed by this time 21 Mark VI light tanks. The British Army lost 331 Mark VI light tanks in the Battle of France of 1940. Several of these vehicles were captured by the ''Wehrmacht'', redesignated as ''Leichter Panzerkampfwagen Mk.VI B 735(e)'' (for Mk VIBs) and ''Leichter Panzerkampfwagen Mk.VI C 736(e)'' (for Mk VICs). They were used for training purposes until the fall of 1942. During 1941 several of these captured vehicles were converted to create self-propelled artillery and supporting vehicles for the 227th infantry division, the first self-propelled artillery in the ''Wehrmacht''. They carried a 105 or 150 mm field howitzer and were designated '' G.Pz. Mk. VI (e)''. In September 1941 the division deployed to Army Group North in Russia where they provided valuable service during the winter 1941–42 battles. The Mk VIB was also used in the

North African campaign The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

against the Italians late in 1940 with the 7th Armoured Division. At this time, the British had 200 light tanks (presumably Mk VIBs) along with 75 cruiser tanks (A9, A10, A13) and 45

Matilda II The Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda, is a British infantry tank of the Second World War.Jentz, p. 11. The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the mac ...

s. An attack by the 3rd Hussars at Buq Buq on 12 December 1940 resulted in its tanks getting bogged down in salt pans and severely mauled. In ten minutes, 13 tanks were destroyed, ten officers and men killed – including the CO – and 13 wounded. The 7th Armoured Division had 100 tanks left on 3 January 1941; this increased to 120 tanks on 21 January, at which time they were used in flanking far into the rear and gathering up scattered Italian troops, sometimes joining or leaving the main attacks to the cruiser and Matilda II tanks. During an engagement at Mechili on 24 January, six Mk VIs were destroyed by newly arrived superior Italian

Fiat M13/40 The Carro Armato M13/40 was an Italian World War II tank designed to replace the M11/39 tank, M11/39 in the Royal Italian Army (1940–1946), Royal Italian Army at the start of World War II. It was the primary tank used by the Italians throughout ...

s for no loss, forcing a retreat until cruiser tanks arrived. The 2nd RTR continued to battle the Italians with light tanks as late as 6 February 1941. Being widely used by the British Army, the tank participated in several other important battles. The Mk VIB made up a significant amount of the tanks sent over to the

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in 1941, mostly with the 4th Hussars. Ten Mk VIB tanks fought with the 3rd The King's Own Hussars during the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (, ), codenamed Operation Mercury (), was a major Axis Powers, Axis Airborne forces, airborne and amphibious assault, amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May ...

. The same armoured unit had previously embarked three MK VIB tanks for the Norwegian Campaign, but they were lost in transit to a German aircraft attack. The tanks also saw limited service against the Japanese in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

Gallery

Image:IWM-ARMY-TRAINING-6-6-light-tank-MkVIA-c1937.jpg, Light Tank Mk.VIA of the 3rd King's Own Hussars Image:IWM-E-16827-light-tank-AA-MkI-19420915.jpg, Light Tank AA Mk I Image:Vickers Light Tank Mark VI.jpg, Light Tank Mk VIB Image:The British Army in France 1940 F4591.jpg, Vickers Light Tank Mk VIC knocked out during an engagement on 27 May 1940 in the Somme sector Image:The British Army in North Africa 1940 E443.2.jpg, Vickers light tanks cross the desert, 1940. Image:The British Army in North Africa 1941a E6822.jpg, The crew of a Light Tank Mk VIB reconnoitring near Tobruk, 28 November 1941 File:Light tank MkV1B.jpg, A Light Tank Mk.VIB from a light tank squadron of the 3rd King's Own Hussars, Oosthaven, Sumatra, Netherlands East Indies, circa. 1942 File:LTD hoofdwerkplaats 81 te Bandoeng Defecte M2 Stuart tanks die worden gebru…, Bestanddeelnr 66-2-2.jpg, Two Light Tank Mk.VIs captured by the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

at a workshop in

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

, 1946

Notes

References

* * * * Duncan, Major-General N W, "Light Tanks Marks I-VI", ''AFV Profile No. 5'' * * * *

External links