Vickers MK.E 6-TON TYPE B [Shanghai - Nanking DLC]

The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner", was a British light tank designed in 1928 in a private project at Vickers. Though not adopted by the British Army, it was picked up by several other armed forces, and licensed by the Soviet Union as the T-26. It was also the direct predecessor of the Polish 7TP tank.

A prototype of the Vickers-Armstrongs 6-Ton (Mark E) light tank was constructed in 1928 in the British Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd factory, as a private venture. Among its designers were famous John Carden and Vivian Loyd. The tank was designed in two variants: a twin-turret Type A (Alternative A), armed with two machine guns, and a single-turret Type B (Alternative B). The novelty in the world was, that Type B tank was armed with a cannon and a co-axial machine gun in the turret (called a "duplex mounting" at that time). Earlier tanks and armoured cars were either armed with only one weapon, like Renault FT family, or with two weapons placed in separate mountings (and sometimes different sides of a turret), which could not be manned by one man at a time. Some tanks also had machine guns in hull sides, which were of little use, but demanded big hull volume and additional crewmen. The duplex mounting, which now seems obvious arrangement, allowed instant change between a cannon or a machine gun fire, depending on a target engaged. Both weapons had common sights and a trunnion axis and could be elevated and traversed together. According to Vickers sales brochures, with the duplex mounting, fire can be opened with Armour Piercing or High Explosive shell from the quick firing gun against the tank or machine gun emplacement, and can be followed immediately by fire from the machine gun without a necessity for relaying. Also thanks to a two-men turret, the commander was not overloaded with tasks, unlike in French tanks from 1930s. With its short-barrel 47 mm cannon, Mark E Type B tank offered quite good firepower, especially with HE shells, but also adequate to fight all contemporary tanks. Despite its armour showed later as inadequate, at the moment of design it was even better, than of a standard British Vickers Medium Mk II tank. It carried a cannon of the same caliber, shorter, but more universal thanks to HE shells. The Mark E was also smaller and faster, than the Medium tank. Its patented suspension was a new design, consisting of two independent sets of double bogies on each side, fitted with cantilever springs. Each suspension unit pivoted on its own axle. It was quite simple, reliable and offered a relatively smooth ride. Manganese steel small-link tracks had a very good durability of 3000 miles.

Due to a wide advertising, in 1930-1940 years these tanks were bought by (in chronological order): USSR, Greece, Poland, Bolivia, Siam, Finland, Portugal, China and Bulgaria. Most customers chose the single-turret version, while the twin-turret one was bought only by the USSR, Poland, and single units by Greece, Bolivia and Portugal. Single tanks were also tested in several other coutries. Most of the exported tanks saw combat service during their lifetime. After all, these tanks also ended up in the British army, because in 1939 the British government took over four Mk.E tanks from Siam's orders, which were then used for training. According to some information, Vickers works in Elswick manufactured 153 tanks Mark E.