The Vickers Medium Dragon was a fully-tracked British field

artillery tractor An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be wheeled, tracked, or half-tracked. Traction There are two m ...

made by

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

(later

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 ...

), produced in various versions from 1922 to 1937. The Medium Dragon towed a wide range of artillery, from 18-pounder field guns to BL 60-pounder heavy field guns. It was developed from the carrier version of a 'Tropical Tank' designed by Lt-Colonel Philip Johnson, using components from the running gear of the

Vickers 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 ...

tank. The Mark I–III versions were purchased and used in quantity by the British Army at the start of its mechanisation of the artillery during the inter-war period. The Mark IV version of the Medium Dragon was effectively a complete re-design, using the running gear from the

Vickers 6-ton The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner", was a British light tank designed in 1928 in a private project at Vickers. Though not adopted by the British Army, it was picked up by several other armed forces, and l ...

tank, neither of which were adopted by the British Army. The Army finally decided in 1935 to purchase only wheeled artillery tractors, and no more were sold in the UK, but the Medium Dragon Mark IV sold well in export versions up to 1937. From Vickers-Armstrongs also made the Light Dragon tractor for towing light artillery, with a similar name but of a completely different design based on the Vickers Light Tank Mk II.

Design and development

NLS Haig - Artillery going through a cutting in the Canal du Nord

Although there had been previous efforts to motorise heavy artillery transport during the First World War, such as the

Holt tractor The Holt tractors were a range of continuous track haulers built by the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California which were named after company founder Benjamin Holt. Between 1908 and 1913, twenty-seven of the first 100 Holt caterpi ...

, the

Gun Carrier Mark I The Gun Carrier Mark I was a British vehicle of the First World War. The gun carrier was designed to transport a 6-inch howitzer or a 60-pounder gun forward soon after an attack to support infantry in advanced positions. Gun carriers were first ...

and the Foster-Daimler Artillery Tractor to tow (in five loads) the

BL 15-inch howitzer The Ordnance BL 15-inch howitzer was developed by the Coventry Ordnance Works late in 1914 in response to the success of its design of the 9.2-inch siege howitzer. The howitzer was cumbersome to deploy, since it was transported in several secti ...

, the vast majority of British field artillery was still

horse-drawn A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by auto ...

. Major-general Sir Louis Jackson, formerly Director of Trench Warfare at 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 ...

, suggested in a lecture he gave in December 1919 that the army should organize the entirety of its transport on the basis of trucks; the infantry, artillery, and engineers should be carried in tracked tractors and cross-country trucks capable of transporting them swiftly and safely across the battlefield. By late 1921 the War Office had begun the process of mechanising the Army's artillery. The ''United Service Gazette'' reported that "The War Office have given instructions for the four batteries of the 9th Brigade,

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the ...

, now stationed at

Deepcut Deepcut is a village in the borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The nearest towns are Camberley, Surrey ( to the north) and Farnborough, Hampshire ( to the west). Deepcut is named after the ...

, in the

Aldershot Command Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the British Army. History After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at Aldershot. To begin the preliminary work a smal ...

, to be "mechanicalised" for the purpose of practical experiments. All the horses of the Brigade, except those of the officers, have been withdrawn and sent to the Remount Department. The personnel of the Brigade are now being trained to drive and to repair the kind of tractors to be used. It is understood that a tractor fitted with caterpillar tracks has been officially recommended for the trials, which are to take place shortly in the Aldershot Command. It is urged in favour of mechanical draught that it is economical in man power since the personnel of a battery might be reduced to approximately one half, when compared with one relying on horse draught." Lt-Colonel Philip Johnson of the Tank Design Department had been involved in tank development since 1918. Early designs after the war included the

Medium Mark D Medium Mark D was a British medium 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 thro ...

, including variants such as an amphibious tank capable of . Another of Johnson's designs was a 'Light Infantry Tank', also based on the Medium Mark D. Johnson visited India in 1922 to see for himself the sort of requirements needed for a tank for the North-West Frontier. The trip resulted in a 7-ton 'Tropical Tank', together with a 'supply' (ie load-carrying) variant. The engine, an

Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...

air-cooled petrol V-8 of 90 hp (67 kW) was installed at the front on the left, with radiator intakes/louvres in the front panel (which were reproduced in the Mark I Dragon). It had rear wheel drive, like the

Medium Mark A Whippet The Medium Mark A Whippet was a medium tank employed by the British in World War I. Developed for fast mobile assaults, it was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any brea ...

and

Vickers Medium Mark II The Vickers Medium Mark II was a British medium tank built by Vickers during the interwar period of the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. The Medium Mark II, derived from the Vickers Medium Mark I, was developed to replac ...

tanks. The 9th (IX) Brigade

took delivery of the supply variant in August 1922: subsequently two more prototypes were built, named the Vickers Dragon Nos. 1 & 2 Artillery Tractor (experimental). While the Light Infantry and Tropical Tanks used a novel tensioned wire rope suspension, the prototype Dragons had conventional coil suspension based on that of the Vickers Medium Mark I, with eleven small road wheels and six return rollers. This system was carried into production. Vickers began a limited production run in 1923, with the delivery of 18 Dragons Mark I, initially towing the Army's main

field gun A field gun is a field artillery piece. Originally the term referred to smaller guns that could accompany a field army on the march, that when in combat could be moved about the battlefield in response to changing circumstances (field artillery ...

, the (84 mm)

QF 18-pounder gun The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the World War I, Fi ...

. During 1923-4 the first two field artillery brigades were completely mechanized. At the same time 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 an armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks and structured under 12th A ...

, which had been placed on a permanent footing in September 1923, acquired its first Vickers Medium Tanks.

Production history

The Medium Dragon was produced in four main versions, Marks I-IV.

Dragon Mark I

11 road wheels, six return rollers, side skirt running the length of the tracks like Johnson's 'Tropical Supply Tank'. The nine crew members sat on three rather exposed forward-facing benches, plus a commander and driver in front. Two were converted by the

Royal Ordnance Factory Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal ...

Woolwich for use by the

RAF Armoured Car Company The RAF Armoured Car Companies were part of Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) based in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan. They were formed to operate with aircraft squadrons to suppress insurrection and maintain peace in the area in the aftermath of W ...

when the RAF took over responsibility and control of

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, Trans-Jordan protectorate and parts of Iraq from 1922. The crew benches were removed, and an armoured body fitted with the turret from a

Rolls-Royce armoured car The Rolls-Royce armoured car is a British armoured car developed in 1914 and used during the First World War, Irish Civil War, the inter-war period in Imperial Air Control in Transjordan, Palestine and Mesopotamia, and in the early stages of the ...

. One was further transformed into a boxy armoured personnel carrier with rifle ports in the sides. Experiments were also made with the Mark I Dragon to use it as a Bridge carrier, with a footbridge. The two detachable steel beams which were carried on the side skirts of the Mark I may have been connected with this. By 1926 a Vickers Medium tank had also been adapted to be a bridgelayer, but with only a light girder bridge, it was found to be of no practical use.

Medium Dragon Mark II

BRITISH MILITARY VEHICLES 1918-1939 KID529

Distinguishing features include 11 road wheels (4 linked twin bogies, two separate wheels at the front, one at the rear), and five return rollers. The side skirt /mud chutes with 7 square holes, two vertical bars linking the side skirt to the main body. Headlights on stalks. Prominent upwards-facing triangular air intake in the centre of the front plate. There was accommodation for eight men sitting sideways inside, plus two on rounded leather? seats at the rear aft of the ammunition boxes, plus a commander & driver at the front. A

Pathé News Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as "British Pathé". I ...

film shows

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

in c1923 watching Army exercises, including his inspection of a Medium Dragon Mk II. The Medium Dragon Mark II* had some minor changes, including re-designed ammunition boxes.

Medium Dragon Mark III

The Mark III appeared in around 1929. The tracks had 11 road wheels (5 pairs flat on the ground and 1 single at the front), and six return rollers. The solid side skirt/mud chutes had four oblong holes. Five vertical bars linked the body to the side skirt. The headlights gained modern-looking faired housings. The air intake appears to be situated on the rh sloping front plate. Squared-off seats aft of the ammunition boxes at the rear of the body. The Mark IIIB had modified mud chutes/sideskirts with three large oval holes and two smaller vertical oval ones at each end. ;Data * Weight: about 9 tons * Engine: air-cooled Armstrong-Siddley, same as in the Medium tanks. * Speed: * Capacity: 11 men * Ammunition: 128 rounds of field gun ammo, stored in outwards-facing boxes with drop-down sides The Mark IIIC had extra armouring apparently protecting the left-hand side crew. The headlight enclosures were squared-off, and the triangular engine cooling intake was turned downwards-facing on rh side front plate. A 1942 US manual on the British Army shows a Medium Dragon Mark IIIC towing a 152 mm

BL 6-inch 26 cwt howitzer The Ordnance BL 6-inch 26cwt howitzer, officially BL 6-inch 26cwt howitzer Mk I on Carriage Mk I, was a British howitzer used during World War I and World War II. The qualifier "26cwt" refers to the weight of the barrel and breech together which w ...

Medium Dragon Mark IV

The Mark IV of c1932 was essentially a complete re-design, incorporating the running gear from the

Mark E: eight road wheels in two sets of paired bogies, quarter elliptical leaf spring suspension, and four return rollers. The side skirts on previous models were removed, leaving the running gear exposed. There was a distinctive shape to the tracks with the top run angled upwards towards the front. Only twelve were sold to British Army in 1935, which adopted the official name of Dragon, Medium, Mark IV: some of these went to France with the BEF at the start of WWII. The UK versions were fitted with an AEC 6-cylinder inline water-cooled diesel engine as fitted to London buses (eg the AEC Q-type). Export versions were powered by an Armstrong-Siddeley Puma 4-cylinder petrol engine developing . In 1935 the Army decided to concentrate on using wheeled vehicles such as the Morris CDSW, and later the

Morris C8 The Morris Commercial C8 FAT (Field Artillery Tractor), commonly known as a ''(Beetle-back) Quad'', is an artillery tractor used by the British and Commonwealth (including Canadian forces), during the Second World War., first published in Classi ...

"Quad" and

AEC Matador The AEC Matador was a heavy 4×4 truck and medium artillery tractor built by the Associated Equipment Company for British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. AEC had already built a 4×2 lorry, also known as the Matador (all AEC lorries ...

, for towing all the army's artillery, and the procurement of tracked artillery tractors was dropped. Nevertheless, Mark IIIC Medium Dragons were still being used in 1942. Vickers exported considerably more Mark IVs (alongside 6-ton tanks) to foreign armies. 23 were sold to China in 1935 and India bought 18 tractors in 1937. In 1932 one vehicle was sold to the German company

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...

; in 1933 Finland bought 20, and the same year 26 Mark IVs in an anti-aircraft version were sold to the Siamese (Thai) Army, armed with a QF 2-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom". According to David Fletcher, the running gear of the Matilda I infantry tank was derived from the Mark IV Dragon. During trials of early Matildas in 1936 the track pins failed constantly until relative height of drive sprocket and wheels were changed, and the rubber-tyred road rollers (which were subject to considerable wear) were replaced with steel ones.

Variants

According to: *Dragon Mk I (1922) : First production vehicles used to tow 18-pdr (84 mm) gun and limber. *Dragon Mk 1 ight tank: Experimentally fitted with a body, and turret of

. *Dragon Medium Mk I ridge carrier: bridge carrier. *Dragon Medium Mk II : 2nd version using components of the Vickers Medium tank. *Dragon Medium Mk II* Modified Dragon II. *Dragon Medium Mk II

adio Adio may refer to: Government * Abu Dhabi Investment Office, a government investments and special projects entity based in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Ca ...

: Experimental signals version. *Dragon Medium Mk III (c1929) *Dragon Medium Mk IIIA : Improved Mark III. *Dragon Medium Mk IIIB : Modified sideskirts and mud chutes. *Dragon Medium Mk IIIC : Revised engine air flow arrangements. *Dragon Medium Mark IV : New version using components of the

tank.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite journal , last=Benson , first=C. C. , title=Mechanisation in Europe , journal=The Coast Antiaircraft Journal , volume=71 , issue=1 , publisher=United States Coast Artillery Association , date=July 1929 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unZ3QR5fD_QC *{{Cite book , title=Making Tracks: British Carrier Story 1914-1972 , last1=Chamberlain , first1=Peter , last2=Ellis , first2=Chris , year=1973 , publisher=Profile Publications , isbn=9780853830870 * {{cite book , last1=Fletcher , first1=David , others=Illustrated by Peter Sarson , title=Matilda Infantry Tank 1938–45 , series=New Vanguard No. 8 , location=Oxford , publisher=Osprey Publishing , year=1994 , isbn=1855324571 * {{cite journal , last=French , first=David , title=Doctrine and Organization in the British Army, 1919-1932 , journal=The Historical Journal , volume=44 , issue=2 , date=June 2001 , pages=497–515 , publisher=Cambridge University Press , doi=10.1017/S0018246X01001868 , jstor=3133617, s2cid=43202707 , url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/12359/1/12359.pdf * {{cite book , last=Suttie , first=William , title=The Tank Factory: British Military Vehicle Development and the Chobham Establishment , chapter=British Tank Development following the First World War , publisher=The History Press , year=2015 , isbn=9780750963510 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhOLBgAAQBAJ&q=Dragon * {{cite book , last=Ware , first=Pat , title=British Tanks: The Second World War , publisher=Casemate Publishers , year=2011 , isbn=9781783038374 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CfzLDwAAQBAJ

External links

Vickers Medium Tank with photo of engine
- Geocities
Medium Dragon Mark IV in the snow, towing a 60 pounder field gunA view looking down into the open interior of a Medium Dragon Mark IV gun tractor from the rear of the vehicleMedium Dragon Mark IVA side view of a Medium Dragon Mark IV gun tractor. Note the open ammunition boxes in the hull sideA rear threequarter view of a Medium Dragon Mark IV gun tractor
*Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HUfbpO1JQc Vickers Artillery tractors Tracked vehicles