Carden-Loyd tankette

Carden Loyd Tankette
A Carden-Loyd tankette Mark VI in a Swedish museum
Type	Tankette
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
Used by	see text
Wars	Chaco War, French-Thai War, Winter War, World War II
Production history
Designer	Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd.
Manufacturer	Vickers-Armstrong
Produced	1927–1935
No. built	450
Specifications (Mark VI)
Weight	1.5 long tons (1.5 t) "battle weight"
Length	8 ft 1 in (2.46 m)
Width	6 ft 6.5 in (1.994 m) over tracks
Height	4 ft 0 in (1.22 m)
Crew	2
Armour	6–9 mm (0.24–0.35 in) face-hardened
Main armament	0.303 inch Vickers machine gun with 1,000 rounds
Engine	Ford Model T petrol 4-cylinder 22.5 bhp
Transmission	Model T two speed epicyclic
Suspension	Bogie, four rubber-tyred wheels each side
Fuel capacity	10 Imp. gallons
Operational range	100 mi (160 km)
Speed	30 mph (48 km/h) on road

The Carden Loyd tankettes were a series of British pre-World War II tankettes, 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 several different countries.

The Carden Loyd tankette came about from an idea started, as a private project, by the British military engineer and tank strategist Major Giffard LeQuesne Martel. He built a one-man tank in his garage from various parts and showed it to the War Office in the mid-1920s. With the publication of the idea, other companies produced their own interpretations of the idea. One of these was Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd, a firm founded by 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 started in 1927 and lasted until 1935. From 1933 to 1935 production was by the Royal Ordnance Factories. Some 450 were made in all. The British Army used at least 325 Mark VI tankettes (a value of 348 is also given) in several variants, mostly as machine gun carriers, but also as light gun tractors, mortar carriers or smoke projector vehicles.

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.