Carden Loyd tankette

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Carden Loyd Tankette
French-Thai War
Winter War
World War II
Production history
Designer
petrol 4-cylinder
22.5 bhp
TransmissionModel T two speed epicyclic
SuspensionBogie, four rubber-tyred wheels each side
Fuel capacity10 Imp. gallons
Operational
range
100 mi (160 km)
Maximum speed 30 mph (48 km/h) on road

The Carden Loyd tankettes were a series of British tankettes of the period between the World Wars, the most successful of which was the Mark VI, the only version built in significant numbers. It became a classic tankette design worldwide, was licence-built by several countries and became the basis of several designs produced in various countries.

Development

The Carden Loyd tankette came about from an idea started, as a private project, by the British military engineer and tank strategist

Sir John Carden and Vivian Loyd and later purchased by Vickers-Armstrongs
. Besides one-man vehicles they also proposed two-man vehicles which turned out to be a more effective and popular idea. Vickers-Armstrongs manufactured and marketed vehicles of the latter type worldwide.

Considered a reconnaissance vehicle and a mobile machine gun position, the Mark VI was the final stage of development of the Carden Loyd series of tankettes.

The Carden Loyd tankette was the prototype for the Universal Carrier.

Production

Production started in 1927 and lasted until 1935. From 1933 to 1935 production was by the

gun tractors
, mortar carriers or smoke projector vehicles.

Service history

In 1929, Poland bought 10 or 11 Mark VI tankettes with a licence and used them for development of their own TK tankette series, which was followed by the Polish TKS tankette.

Czechoslovakia also bought three Mark VI tankettes in 1930 with a licence, and then improved the design, producing 74 Tančík vz. 33 tankettes in the ČKD (Praga) works; the original British construction was evaluated as unusable in modern warfare.

The

Bolshevik Factory in Leningrad started the production of the T-27
tankette, a modernised and enlarged variant of the British design. A total of 3,228 T-27 tankettes were built between 1931 and 1933.

Bolivia purchased between two and five tankettes in 1931. They saw action in the Chaco War, where they proved to be ill-suited for the bush environment.

The

Imperial Japanese Navy Land Forces in Shanghai[2]
and designated the Type Ka Machine Gun Car (カ式機銃車, Ka-shiki Kijūsha). "Ka" is a initial of Carden Loyd (カーデン ロイド, Kāden Roido)

Italy bought a number of Carden Loyd Mark VIs, built a few licence copies designated CV-29, and then developed this design further into the L3/35 tankette.

The Canadian Army acquired 12, in two batches of six, in 1930-31. After being evaluated by

Vickers VI B
light tank in 1938. Until then, they had been the only armoured equipment in the Canadian Army, apart from some armoured cars. Canada never used them in a combat role.

In addition, the Carden Loyd Tankettes were also supplied in small numbers to France, India, Italy, Latvia (18 Mk.s IV in 1935),

French-Thai War. Carden Loyd Tankettes were also used by Chile, the Republic of China,[4] Manchukuo (20 Mk. VI),[5] Finland (Mk. IVs and Model 33s),[6]
Portugal (6) and Ethiopia (3).

The design of the German

German military cooperation with the Soviet Union
.

Carden-Loyd Mk VI, bought by Finland in 1933 for trials. Tankette was in use until 1941.[7]

Reșița works,[8]
but no examples are known to have been built there.

SA F.R.C. 47 mm

Since the Belgian Armed Forces were looking to upgrade their anti-tank capability in the early 1930s, and due to the popularity of the tankette concept, the Carden Loyd Mk VI tankette was chosen as the basis for a first attempt to developing a fully mechanized anti-tank capability. After experimenting with a rather straightforward tractor concept for the Belgian

gun-laying platform. In consequence the 76 mm prototype was rebuilt into the 47 mm-equipped tank destroyer version, but this was not found satisfactory either. Recoil from firing the 47 mm anti-tank gun was too much for the 3-ton vehicle, though less than with the 76 mm version, manning the gun with a two-man team was considered too labour-intensive, the ammunition storage was too small; and, apart from the thin armoured frontal shield, the crew was completely exposed. The added weight of the gun also overtaxed the small engine, and the wear and tear on the whole vehicle was deemed too high.[11] Nevertheless, the experiment provided some valuable experience for the Belgian army. This culminated in the successful T-13 tank destroyer
, whose production started in 1935. The six prototype tank destroyer vehicles were also used operationally.

After being fielded by the elite

Lixhe. They are known to have fired some rounds on the morning of 10 May 1940, the day of the German invasion.[10]

Drawbacks

Due to the suspension design, riding the tankette for 10–20 minutes cross-country caused a headache, while longer journeys often resulted in motion sickness and physical exhaustion. In the Polish TK tankette, the suspension was much improved. Vivian Loyd, who visited Warsaw during the TK's development, called its suspension the best of all vehicles based on his original idea.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Zaloga 2007, p. 7.
  2. ^ Tomczyk 2002, p. 33.
  3. ^ "Zudusī Latvija - Latvijas armija. Mācības". www.zudusilatvija.lv. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  4. ^ Takizawa, Akira (1999–2000). "Chinese Nationalist Armour in World War II". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  5. ISSN 1765-0828
    .
  6. ISBN 951-98057-0-2
    .
  7. ^ https://www.panssarimuseo.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Kevyt-taistelupsv-Vickers-Loyd-Mk-VI_esittelytaulu.jpg [bare URL image file]
  8. ^ Moșneagu et al. 2012, pp. 53–54.
  9. ^ "Belgium's Tank Destroyer Tows Gun on Wheels", Popular Science, vol. 121, no. 4, Bonnier Corporation, p. 24, October 1932
  10. ^ a b "T13 tank hunters". www.tanks-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Les véhicules blindés à l'Armée belge 1914-1974 - The armoured vehicles of the Belgian army 1914-1974", Jacques P. Champagne
  12. ISBN 83-206-0847-3
    .

References

External links

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