Vickers Mk.E type B
(WAK)
The Vickers 6-Ton Tank or Vickers Mark E was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers.
(WAK)
The Vickers 6-Ton Tank or Vickers Mark E was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers.
Historical information
The Vickers 6-Ton Tank or Vickers Mark E was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers.
It was not purchased by the British Army, but was picked up by a large number of foreign armed forces and was licenced with few improvements by the Soviets as the T-26. It was also the direct predecessor of the Polish 7TP tank. By the start of World War II it was the second most common tank design in the world after the Renault FT.
The tank was built in two versions. Type A with two turrets, each mounting a Vickers machine gun. Type B with a single two-man turret mounting a single machine gun and a short-barreled 47 mm cannon OQF 3-pdr Gun.
The Type B proved to be a real innovation, it was found that the two-man turret dramatically increased the rate of fire of either weapon, while still allowing both to be fired at the same time. This design, which they referred to as a duplex mounting, became common on almost all tanks designed after the Mark E.