Vickers A1E1 Independent

Last updated

Vickers A1E1 "Independent"
IWM-KID-109-Vickers-Independent.jpg
The Vickers A1E1 in 1925
TypeTank
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Production history
Manufacturer Vickers
No. built1
Specifications
Mass33 long tons (34  t; 37 short tons)
Length24 ft 11 in (7.59 m)
Width8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
Height8 ft 11 in (2.72 m)
Crew8

Armour 13–28 mm (0.51–1.10 in)
Main
armament
QF 3 pounder gun (47 mm)
Secondary
armament
4 × 0.303 Vickers machine gun
Engine Armstrong Siddeley V12 petrol
370 hp (280 kW)
Transmission4 forward, 1 reverse
Suspension coil spring bogies
Operational
range
95 miles (153 km)
Maximum speed 20 mph (32 km/h)

The Independent A1E1 is a multi-turreted tank that was designed by the British armaments manufacturer Vickers between the First and Second World Wars. Although it only ever reached the prototype stage and only a single example was built, it influenced many other tank designs.

Contents

The A1E1 design can be seen as a possible influence on the Soviet T-100 and T-28 tanks, the German Neubaufahrzeug tanks, and the British Medium Mk III and Cruiser Mk I (triple turret) tank designs. The Soviet T-35 tank was heavily influenced by its design. [1]

Design

The Independent was a multi-turret design, having a central gun turret armed with the 3 pounder (47 mm) gun, and four subsidiary turrets each armed with a 0.303 inch Vickers machine gun. The subsidiary turrets were mounted two at the front and two to the rear of the turret (about halfway along the hull). The gun of the left rear turret was able to elevate to engage aircraft. The tank was designed to have heavy firepower, self-defence capability, and superiority to enemy weapons. It had a crew of eight, the commander communicating with the crew through an intercom system. The Independent was never used in combat, but other armies studied it and a few adopted designs derived from it. [2]

History

The A1E1 at The Tank Museum (2008) Bovington 022 Independent 1.jpg
The A1E1 at The Tank Museum (2008)

Planning for the A1E1 began in December 1922 when the General Staff of the British Army drew up a specification. This was for a turret-less tank with at least 9 feet (2.7 m) of trench crossing ability. [3] On receiving the specification Vickers began design work on a vehicle that followed the General Staff's ideas and also a multi-turreted design of their own. [3] The two designs were offered to the General Staff which opted for the Vickers multi-turreted design. An order for a prototype was formally placed on 15 September 1926 but some work appears to have begun before this date. [3]

The tank was largely designed by Walter Gordon Wilson; its 35.8-litre (2,180 cu in) V12 air-cooled engine was designed by Armstrong Siddeley. It also incorporated a new hydraulic braking system which had to be specially developed due to its weight and speed. The prototype was delivered to the War Office in 1926, and displayed to the premiers of the Dominions that year. [4]

In 1928, the rear of the tank was modified to strengthen it. [3] At the same time, a new design of brake-block was fitted. [3] The transmission was also heavily reworked. [5]

The tank was the subject of industrial and political espionage, the plans ending up in the Soviet Union, where they may have influenced the design of the T-28 and T-35 tanks. In 1933, a British army lieutenant, Norman Baillie-Stewart, was court-martialled and served five years in prison for providing the photographs and specifications of the Independent (among other secrets) to a contact in the German intelligence service. [6] [7]

The Independent remained in experimental use until it was retired in 1935 due to being worn out. During the Second World War the tank was set up to act as a static pillbox or defensive position to protect Bovington Camp in the event of a German invasion. [8] As part of this it was fitted with a working 3-pounder taken from a Vickers Medium Mark I to replace the gun it had been originally fitted with (which probably never worked). [8] It is now preserved at the Bovington Tank Museum [9] although the interior of the tank is currently inaccessible due the presence of high levels of asbestos. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T-35</span> Soviet heavy tank of the 1930s

The T-35 was a Soviet multi-turreted heavy tank of the interwar period and early Second World War that saw limited service with the Red Army. Often called a land battleship, it was the only five-turreted heavy tank in the world to reach production, but proved to be slow and mechanically unreliable. Most of the T-35 tanks still operational at the time of Operation Barbarossa were lost due to mechanical failure rather than enemy action. It was designed to complement the contemporary T-28 medium tank; however, very few were built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matilda II</span> British Army tank of World War II

The Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda, is a British infantry tank of the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valentine tank</span> British infantry tank

The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during World War II. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in eleven marks, plus various specialised variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production. The many variants included riveted and welded construction, petrol and diesel engines and a progressive increase in armament. It was supplied in large numbers to the USSR and built under licence in Canada. It was used extensively by the British in the North African campaign. Developed by Vickers, it proved to be both strong and reliable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cromwell tank</span> British WWII cruiser tank

The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War–era military leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine high speed from a powerful, reliable engine and reasonable armour. The intended dual-purpose high-velocity gun could not be fitted in the turret, so a medium-velocity dual-purpose gun was fitted instead. Further development of the Cromwell combined with a high-velocity gun led to the Comet tank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comet (tank)</span> British cruiser tank

The Comet tank or Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of the Second World War, during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The Comet was developed from the earlier Cromwell tank with a lower profile, partly-cast turret which mounted the new 77 mm HV gun. This was a smaller version of the 17 pdr anti-tank gun firing the same 76.2 mm (3") projectiles, albeit with a lighter charge, and was effective against late-war German tanks, including the Panther and Tiger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger</span> British WWII cruiser tank

The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was a British tank of World War II. It mounted the QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun on a chassis derived from the Cromwell tank to add anti-tank firepower to the cruiser tank units. The design compromises made in fitting the large gun onto the Cromwell chassis resulted in a tank with a powerful weapon and reduced armour. However, the extemporised 17-pounder Sherman Firefly conversion of the US-supplied Sherman proved easier to produce and, with delays in production, only 200 Challengers were built. The Challenger was able to keep up with the fast Cromwell tank and was used with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tortoise heavy assault tank</span> British assault gun design/prototype

The Tortoise heavy assault tank (A39) was a British heavy assault gun design developed during the Second World War, but never put into mass production. It was developed for the task of clearing heavily fortified areas such as the Siegfried Line and as a result favoured armour protection over mobility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covenanter tank</span> British WWII cruiser tank

The Cruiser tank Mk V or A13 Mk III Covenanter was a British cruiser tank of the Second World War. The Covenanter was the first cruiser tank design to be given a name. Designed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as a better-armoured replacement for the Cruiser Mark IV, it was ordered into production in 1939 before pilot models were built. Problems with the design became apparent only after production was under way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matilda I (tank)</span> Infantry tank

The Tank, Infantry, Mk I, Matilda I (A11) is a British infantry tank of the Second World War. Despite being slow, cramped and armed with only a single machine gun, the Matilda I had some success in the Battle of France in 1940, owing to its heavy armour which was proof against the standard German anti-tank guns. However, it was essentially useless in an attacking sense, as its weak armament made it toothless in combat against enemy armour, and the tank was obsolete before it even came into service. The Battle of France was the only time the Matilda I saw combat. The tank was cheaply built as the British government wanted each of the tanks to be built on a very restricted budget in the build-up to the Second World War. It is not to be confused with the later model Tank, Infantry Mk II (A12), also known as the "Matilda II", which took over the "Matilda" name after the Matilda I was withdrawn from combat service in 1940. They were completely separate designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TOG2</span> British WWII super-heavy tank prototype

The TOG2, officially known as the Heavy Tank, TOG II, was a British super-heavy tank design produced during the early stages of World War II for a scenario where the battlefields of northern France devolved into a morass of mud, trenches, and craters as had happened during World War I. When this did not happen, the tank was deemed unnecessary, and the project terminated. A development of the TOG I design, only a single prototype was built before its termination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valiant tank</span> British assault tank prototype

The Tank, Infantry, Valiant (A38) was a British tank design of the Second World War that only reached the prototype stage. It was intended to meet a specification for a well-armoured, light-medium tank, for use against Japanese forces in the South-East Asia theatre. The prototype demonstrated that the design was a failure and this sole example produced was retained by the School of Tank Technology as a lesson to its students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light tanks of the United Kingdom</span> Light tank

The Light Tank Mark I to Mark V were a series of related designs of light tank produced by Vickers for the British Army during the interwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marmon-Herrington armoured car</span> Armoured car

The Marmon–Herrington armoured car was a series of armoured vehicles that were produced in South Africa and adopted by the British Army during World War II. They were also issued to RAF armoured car companies, which seem never to have used them in action, making greater use of Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars and other types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vickers Medium Mark I</span> British medium tank

The Vickers Medium Mark I was a British tank of the Inter-war period built by Vickers from 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Willie</span> British prototype armoured tank

Little Willie was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the autumn of 1915 at the behest of the Landship Committee, it was the first completed tank prototype in history. Little Willie is the oldest surviving individual tank, and is preserved as one of the most famous pieces in the collection of The Tank Museum, Bovington, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark V tank</span> British WWI tank

The British Mark V tank was an upgraded version of the Mark IV tank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T-100 tank</span> Soviet heavy tank prototype of the 1930s.

The T-100 was a Soviet twin-turreted heavy tank prototype, designed in 1938–39 as a possible replacement for the T-35 heavy tank. The T-100 was designed by N. Barykov's OKMO design team at S.M. Kirov Factory No. 185 in Leningrad. The T-100 was originally conceived with three turrets and was eventually built with two. It was in competition with a similar design, the SMK, but neither was adopted and instead a single turret version of the SMK was ordered as the KV-1. All three prototypes were tested at the same time in the Battle of Summa during the Winter War with Finland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medium Mark III</span> British medium tank prototype

The Medium Mark III was a medium tank developed by the United Kingdom during the Interwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanks in the Japanese Army</span>

This article deals with the history and development of tanks of the Japanese Army from their first use after World War I, into the interwar period, during World War II, the Cold War and modern era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medium Mark D</span> Weapon

Medium Mark D was a British medium tank developed at the end of the First World War.

References

  1. "British Forces - Land Warship - Vickers A1E1 Independent". www.ww2incolor.com.
  2. Tomczyk 2002, p. 7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Fletcher, David (2016). British Battle Tanks: World War One to 1939. Osprey. pp. 159–161. ISBN   9781472817556.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 May 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. David Willey (2 March 2024). Bigger Isn't Always Better: A1E1 Independent. Tank Chats Reloaded. The Tank Museum. 13:45-14:13 minutes in. Retrieved 3 March 2024 via YouTube.
  6. "Norman Baillie-Stewart Is Dead; Briton Jailed for Aid to Germans; Passed Secrets on Armoured Vehicles Known as 'Officer in Tower'", The New York Times, 8 June 1966(subscription required)
  7. Suttie, William (2015). "3, Vehicle Testing in the Interwar Years". The tank factory : British military vehicle development and the Chobham establishment. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN   978-0-7509-6122-6. OCLC   899703041.
  8. 1 2 David Willey (2 March 2024). Bigger Isn't Always Better: A1E1 Independent. Tank Chats Reloaded. The Tank Museum. 16:36-17:21 minutes in. Retrieved 3 March 2024 via YouTube.
  9. Fletcher (2014)
  10. David Willey (2 March 2024). Bigger Isn't Always Better: A1E1 Independent. Tank Chats Reloaded. The Tank Museum. 17:38-17:46 minutes in. Retrieved 3 March 2024 via YouTube.

Bibliography