Medium Tank Mark B

Medium Tank Mark B The machine guns are missing from their mountings which can be seen on the turret and the projections from the track housings.
General characteristics
Length	22 ft 9 in, 6.9 m
Width	8 ft 10 in, 2.7 m
Height	8 ft 6 in, 2.6 m
Weight	18 t
Suspension	unsprung
Speed	6 mph / 10 km/h road km/h off-road
Range	105 km km
Primary armament	7 x .303 in (7.92 mm) Hotchkiss machine guns
Secondary armament	-
Maximum armour	14 mm
Power plant	Ricardo 4 cylinder petrol 100 hp, (75 kW)
Crew	4 : commander, driver, mechanic, machine gunner

The Medium Mark B was a British tank of the First World War developed as a successor to the Whippet, but ultimately unsatisfactory and production was cancelled at the end of World War 1. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units (SI: Système International dUnités). ... The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ... The Hotchkiss machine gun was the standard machine gun of the French Army during World War I. This article is a stub. ... A hoplite wearing a helmet, a breastplate and greaves (and nothing else). ... Gasoline, as it is known in North America, or petrol, in many Commonwealth countries (sometimes also called motor spirit) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

History

The engineer Lieutenant Walter G. Wilson and the industrialist Sir William Tritton had cooperated in 1915 to develop the Mark I, the world's first tank. However, when Tritton decided to build the Medium Mark A "Whippet" , Wilson was left out. The Medium A was designed by Tritton's chief engineer, William Rigby. The Whippet was a successful design and proved effective but suffered from a lack of power, complex steering and unsprung suspension. Wilson, now a Major, decided he could by himself develop a better tank as replacement: the 'Medium Tank Mark B'. He probably started drawing in July 1917. Major Philip Johnson of Central Tank Workshops was impressed when he was shown a wooden mock-up during a visit to Britain late 1917. The prototype was built by Tritton's firm, the Metropolitan Carriage and Waggon Co., and was finished in September 1918. 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A Mark I tank (moving left to right). ... General characteristics Length: 20ft/6. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

It seems that early in the design process Wilson considered building an alternative or parallel Male version fitted with a 2 pounder (~40 mm gun) in the superstructure but he had abandoned these plans by March 1918.

The design by Wilson had elements of both the Mark I and the Whippet; a similar but smaller tracked rhomboid chassis of the former and fixed turret like the latter. A novel feature was the separate compartment in the back, housing the 100 hp (75 kW) engine (a four-cylinder shortened Ricardo design) and behind it the epicyclic transmission. Two fuel tanks at the back held 85 imperial gallons (386 L) of petrol. Other innovations were the ability to lay a smoke screen and the use of sloped armour in the front of the hull. Armament consisted of five machine guns in the superstructure and two in the side doors. These hull doors looked a bit like miniature sponsons. A Mark I tank (moving left to right). ... Sir Harry Ricardo (1885-1974) was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine. ... Sloped armour was developed as a defensive measure by the French SOMUA (Société dOutillage Mécanique et dUsinage dArtillerie) right before the outbreak of World War II. It was a technological response to the trend of fitting increasingly bigger guns on battle tanks. ...

A production of 450 vehicles had been ordered even before the prototype was finished and this number was now increased to 700, to be manufactured at North British Locomotive in Glasgow and later at Metropolitan, Coventry Ordnance Works and the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company. Confusingly the new tank was to have the same name as the Mark A: "Whippet". Almost immediately after having been taken into use, the type fell from grace for two reasons. Firstly the engine compartment couldn't be easily accessed from the fighting compartment. Repair under fire would therefore have been very dangerous. Secondly Tritton had constructed a rival type: the Medium Mark C "Hornet". This other design had superior speed and trench crossing abilities. Wilson had limited the size of the Mark B to that of a single railway flatcar. The end of the war led to cancellation after 102 were produced out of the first order for 450. Of these only 45 were taken into service by the army, the remaining 57 probably going straight to the scrap yard. Glasgows location in Scotland Glasgow (or Glaschu in Gaelic) is Scotlands largest city, on the River Clyde in west central Scotland. ... General characteristics Length: (25ft 10in) 7. ...

After the war the type was quickly phased out in favour of the Mark C. Two vehicles were used by the North Russian Tank Detachment. Both were lost and the Red Army used at least one until the Thirties. The last British unit to have the Mark B in service was 17th (Armoured Car) Battalion during the Anglo-Irish War. Red Army flag The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... An Irish War of Independence memorial in Dublin The Anglo-Irish War (also known as the Irish War of Independence) was a guerilla campaign mounted against the British government in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army under the proclaimed legitimacy of the First Dáil, the extra-legal Irish parliament...

See also