 |
| Medium Mk A Whippet | |
|---|---|
 Whippet Firefly of F Battalion in The Museum of the Army in Brussels (original colours) | |
| Type | Medium tank |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1918–1945 |
| Used by | United Kingdom Russian State Soviet Union German Empire Weimar Republic Empire of Japan |
| Wars | World War I Anglo-Irish War Russian Civil War World War II |
| Production history | |
| Designer | William Tritton |
| Manufacturer | Fosters of Lincoln |
| Produced | 1917–1918 |
| No. built | 200 by 14 March 1919 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 14 long tons (14 t) |
| Length | 20 ft (6.10 m) |
| Width | 8 ft 7 in (2.62 m) |
| Height | 9 ft (2.74 m) |
| Crew | 3-4 |
| Armour | 14 mm (0.55 in) maximum |
Main armament | 4 × 0.303-inch (7.7mm) Hotchkiss machine guns |
| Engine | 2× Tylor Twin 4-cylinder side-valve JB4 petrol engine 2x 45 hp (33 kW)[1] |
| Power/weight | 6.4 hp/tonne |
| Transmission | 4 forward speeds and 1 reverse |
| Suspension | None |
| Maximum speed | 13.4 km/h (8.33 mph)[1] |
| References | Fletcher[2] |
The Medium Mark A Whippet was a medium tank employed by the British in World War I. Intended for fast mobile assaults, it was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.[3]
Although the track design appears more "modern" than the British Tanks Mark I to V, it was directly derived from Little Willie, the first tank prototype (itself directly taken from the track design of the Holt tractor), and was unsprung. The crew compartment was a fixed, polygonal turret at the rear of the vehicle, and two engines of the type used in contemporary double-decker buses were in a forward compartment, driving one track each.