Wednesday, 8 July 2015

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.




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