British Mk B Tank

[David]

In July 1917 W.G. Wilson began work on a new Medium tank. Although the first medium tank was done by Sir Tritton, the Mk.B was completely Wilson’s work. The first prototype was made in the Metropolitan works in September 1918. Although many experts were impressed with the design, the optimism was false. The Mk.B medium tank was 18 tons, having a crew of four, 14mm armor, and capable of 6.1 mph. The tank was supposedly designed to fix the faults of the Whippet. Wilson decided to have a rhomboid-style hull, with a large fighting compartment. Wilson reversed the layout of the Mk.A by placing the engine at the back of the tank. The engine was a four cylinder version of Ricardo’s engine, which had the power of 100hp. The engine and transmission was in a separate compartment from the crew. The driver of the tank sat at the front in the center. The commander had no cupola for himself, which posed obvious problems commanding the tank. The machine gunners had five positions to choose from in the large fighting compartment, there were also two more machine guns on the hull side doors, which looked like miniature sponsons. This produced a problem of the gunners having to move about the tank from machine gun to machine gun.

Production began at the North British Locomotive plant in Glasgow, which also produced the Mk.C. One hundred and two machines had been completed before production ceased, from the total order of about 700. When the tanks entered Tank Corps service the faults of the tanks started to be seen. The major problem was that the Engine and the transmission were in such a cramped spot it was almost impossible to repair them when the engine is cold, but when it was hot, the conditions were physically unbearable. It would be next to impossible to try to fix the tank when it’s running and is under fire from the enemy.

Although the tanks were made too late for them to participate in WWI, they did fight in the Russian Civil war. Three tanks were sent to the North Russian Tank Detachment in Archangel in August 1919. With them were three Mk.B tanks. One of them fell to the hands of the Bolsheviks, and the tank was apparently in excellent condition well into the twenties. The two others found their way to the Baltic, where they were used by the Latvian Army - see the photo below: (Thanks to Michel Boer for this important information.)