Tractor Truck

The album caption for this photograph is Tractor Truck 1936 China

Tractor Truck 1935 Standard (also Cable Laying etc 1935)

Tractor Truck Tipping Body1935, also Metropolitan Water Board 1936

Tractor Truck Turntable and Trailer 1935. Turning Circle 26 ft with Load. Overall Length with Corner extended 26' 6".

Tractor Truck Aero Starter 1935

Tractor Truck Pipe Carrier 1935

The Vickers Carden Loyd Tractor Truck was a commercial design which used a 30 cwt lorry body mated to a fully tracked chassis based on the Vickers 2 ton tractor. The British Army purchased three vehicles for trials but it was deemed unsuitable for service use.

Patrol Tank

The Vickers Carden-Loyd Patrol Tank of 1932 was one of Vickers' commercially designed light tanks for export. Essentially a tankette with a turret  Based on the Carden Loyd Mk VI it had a small rotating turret mounting a Vickers MG in an armoured jacket. There is a photograph of this vehicle on p104 of the Profile British Armoured Fighting Vehicles 1919/40. One of these photographs has been reversed. The Profile picture shows the turret facing to the rear.

The increase in weight due to the turret meant a new suspension was required, including coil springs and a wider centre guide track.There seem to have been two turret types, that shown and a more cylindrical one.This is shown on p63 of Foss & McKenzie's Vickers Tanks. Denmark Finland, Sweden and Portugal all bought one each, but costing over £1,000 at time this did not constitute a commercial success.

In 1933 a cheaper version was offered, with thinner armour and leaf spring suspension, as a Police Tank. It is not clear any were sold. Foss and McKenzie show a contemporary advertisement, reproduced below.

The Command Tank

This photograph appears to be the same as that at p90 of David Fletcher's Mechanised Force.

Vickers had wanted to take some commercial advantage from the British trend to three man, rather than two man machines. Forbidden by the War Office from foreign sales of the Mark VI light tank, they came up with a private venture called the command tank. This allowed for a third crew member who was able to undertake command duties. The hope was to sell three man tanks as section and unit commanders' tanks in units with two man machines. Bigger than it might appear from the photograph, the prototype was developed in 1937. Moving the engine and transmission forward created room for a larger turret mounting Vickers own semi automatic 40mm gun. Suspension had elements of the light tank but strengthened to cope with the additional weight. The turret was similar to that of 6 tonner. Vickers had the tank on test in Belgium in February 1938 when the War Office added it to the Secret List because it had so many features of the Mark VIB. After protests it was released again in July and Vickers even had discussions about building the tank in Belgium for sale to foreign customers but it came to nothing.

Den Bels do a resin model of this in 1/72. There is also a Frontline Wargaming model which I haven't seen which might be of this vehicle.

The information from this post has been taken from David Fletcher's book Mechanised Force.

A11 experimental

A11E1, the prototype of the Matilda Mk I Infantry Tank which saw service in France with the BEF, with its finest hour as part of the counter attack at Arras in 1940.

Initiated in 1934, the same year as the A9 Cruiser, and designed by Sir John Carden assisted by Leslie Little, who took over all of Carden's tank projects after his death in 1936. The A11 and the A9 were the first to be designed with the distinction between Infantry and Cruiser tanks.

Working under severe cost restraints the A11 used the six-tonner suspension, had armour of 60mm and an armament of one .303 or .05 calibre machine gun. It had a crew of two and top speed of 8 mph.Tests suggested the armour would be proof against the British 2 pdr  but might need a greater margin so turret armour was increased to 65mm.

Ultimately a cheap well armoured but slow vehicle with inadequate armament it was designed at a time when the highest annual amount allotted for tank development was £93,750.

In 1934 outline requirements had been issued for two types of infantry tank, both with at least 25mm of armour all round and a speed of 10 mph. The first would be a small tank, mounting a .303 or .5 inch machine gun, inconspicuous and available in large numbers to act as a mobile machine gun post,  and the second a heavy tank mounting the 2pdr high velocity anti-tank gun to deal with enemy tanks and protected machine gun positions.

While it was recognised that the A11 was unsatisfactory (mainly because of the two man crew and limited armament- mechanically it was very reliable) 140 were produced as an interim measure as the infantry Tank Mk 1. They formed the major part of the two infantry tank battalions in France in 1940 while production of the A12 Matilda Mk II was built up. The A11 went out of service after Dunkirk.

Suspension was derived from the Medium Dragon Mk IV. It was produced in the numbers it was because this could be done quickly to bulk up the tank force. The fact that it was not produced after Dunkirk reflects the dead end nature of the design, or rather fact that the task for which it was designed did not really exist.