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Concept
Carden Loyd tankette
Summary
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.
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.
Official source
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