View source for Medium Mark A Whippet

{{Lead too short|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox weapon
| name               = Medium Mk A ''Whippet''
| image              = Whippet.jpg
| image_size         = 300
| caption            = Whippet ''Firefly'' of F Battalion in The Museum of the Army in Brussels (original colours)
| type               = [[Medium tank]]
| origin             = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
<!-- Service history -->| service            = 1918–1945
| used_by            = [[United Kingdom]]<br />[[Russian State]]<br />[[Soviet Union]]<br />[[German Empire]]<br />[[Weimar Republic]]<br />[[Empire of Japan]]
| wars               = [[World War I]] <br /> [[Anglo-Irish War]] <br /> [[Russian Civil War]] <br /> [[World War II]]
<!-- Production history -->| is_vehicle         = yes
| is_UK              = yes
| manufacturer       = [[William Foster & Co.|Fosters of Lincoln]]
| designer           = [[William Tritton]]
| number             = 200 by 14 March 1919
| length             = {{Convert|20|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}
| width              = {{convert|8|ft|7|in|2|abbr=on}}
| height             = {{convert|9|ft|m|2|abbr=on}}
| weight             = {{convert|14|LT|t|abbr=on}}
| production_date    = 1917–1918
| suspension         = None
| speed              = 13.4 km/h (8.33 mph)<ref name="WILL222">''First World War&nbsp;– The Tank: New Developments''&nbsp;– Willmott, H.P., Dorling Kindersley, 2003, p. 222</ref>
| vehicle_range      = 
| primary_armament   = 4 × 0.303-inch (7.7mm) [[Hotchkiss M1909 Benet-Mercie machine gun|Hotchkiss machine guns]]
| secondary_armament = 
| armour             = 14 mm (0.55 in) maximum
| engine             = 2× [[J. Tylor and Sons|Tylor]] Twin 4-cylinder side-valve JB4 [[gasoline engine|petrol engine]]
| engine_power       = 2x 45 hp (33 kW)<ref name="WILL222"/>
| pw_ratio           = 6.4 hp/tonne
| transmission       = 4 forward speeds and 1 reverse
| crew               = 3-4
| ref                = Fletcher<ref>Fletcher (2001) p116</ref>
}}

The '''Medium Mark A Whippet''' was a [[medium tank]] employed by the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] in [[World War I]]. Developed for fast mobile assaults, it was intended to complement the slower [[British heavy tanks of World War I|British heavy tanks]] by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.<ref name="trewhitt">{{cite book |last=Trewhitt |first=Philip |title=Armoured Fighting Vehicles |year=1999 |publisher=Dempsey Parr |isbn=1-84084-328-4}}</ref>

Although the track design appears more "modern" than the British Tanks [[Mark I (tank)|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 bus]]es were in a forward compartment, driving one track each.

== Development ==
On 3 October 1916 [[William Tritton]], about to be knighted{{Efn|He was knighted in February 1917{{sfn|Fletcher2001|p=74}}}} for developing the [[Mark I tank|Mark I]], proposed to the [[Landships Committee|Tank Supply Committee]] that a faster and cheaper tank, equipped with two engines like the [[Flying Elephant]], should be built to exploit gaps that the heavier but slow tanks made,{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=2}} an idea that up till then had been largely neglected.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=1}} This was accepted on 10 November and approved by the [[War Office]] on 25 November. At that time the name for the project was the ''Tritton Chaser''. Traditionally, the name ''Whippet'' (after the fast-running [[Whippet|dog breed]]) is attributed to Sir William himself.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=3}} Actual construction started on 21 December. 

The first prototype, with a revolving turret taken from an [[Austin armoured car]]&nbsp;– the first for a British tank design, as [[Little Willie]]'s original turret was fixed&nbsp;– was ready on 3 February 1917 and participated (probably without one) in the [[tank trials day]] at Oldbury on 3 March.{{sfn|Stern|1919|p=106}} The next day, in a meeting with the French to coordinate allied tank production, the [[Commander-in-Chief]] of the British forces [[Douglas Haig|Field Marshal Haig]] ordered the manufacture of two hundred vehicles, the first to be ready on 31 July. Although he was acting beyond his authority, as usual,{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=4}} his decisions were confirmed in June 1917. The production model had the turret replaced with a fixed armoured structure and the fuel tank was moved from the rear of the vehicle to the front.{{Sfn|Fletcher|2001|p=115}}

The first production tanks left the factory in October and two were delivered to the first unit to use them, [[6th Royal Tank Regiment|F Battalion of the Tank Corps]]<ref>as such these tanks received names starting with "F"</ref> (later 6th Battalion), on 14 December 1917. In December 1917 the order was increased from 200 to 385 but this was later cancelled in favour of more advanced designs, the [[Medium Mark B]], [[Medium Mark C]] and [[Medium Mark D]].{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=5}}

== Design ==
When driving in a straight line the two engines were locked; turning the steering wheel gradually closed the throttle for the engine of one track and opened the throttle for the engine driving the other.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=7}} The two engines were joined at their cross-shafts, from which the final drive to the tracks was by chains to sprockets on either side. When steering the clutches joining the cross-shafts were released, one engine sped up while the other slowed down, the turn being on the side opposite to that of the faster running engine. The steering effect could be increased by use of the brakes on one engine or another. This arrangement had the advantage over that of earlier tanks of being controlled by one man only, but called for great skill on the part of the driver, because one or both of the engines could be stalled if care was not exercised.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tanks for the Memory|url=http://glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/tanksfor.htm|publisher=Gloucestershire Transport History|access-date=24 March 2010}}</ref> Although in theory a simple solution to give gradual steering, in practice it proved impossible to control the speeds of the engines, causing the vehicle to take an unpredictable path. Drivers grew wary and stopped the vehicle and locked one track before every turn; this caused many track breaks, as the movement became too abrupt.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} Nevertheless, the vehicle could easily negotiate shell craters. Crews that believed that treads had to be as long as the hull, as with the heavy tanks, were surprised to see the Whippet, with shorter tracks, successfully exit holes.<ref name="Littledale1918">{{Cite magazine |last=Littledale |first=Harold A. |date=December 1918 |title=With the Tanks – I. Anatomy and Habitat |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1918/12/with-the-tanks-i-anatomy-and-habitat/646627/ |magazine=The Atlantic |pages=836–848 |access-date=2023-10-30}}</ref>

The fuel tank was in the front of the hull. The sides featured large mud chutes which allowed mud falling from the upper treads to slide away from the tank, instead of clogging the track plates and rollers.

Armament was four [[.303 British|0.303-inch (7.7mm)]] [[Hotchkiss machine gun|Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns]], one covering each direction. As there were only three crewmen, the gunner had to jump around a lot, though often assisted by the commander. Sometimes a second gunner was carried in the limited space, and often a machine gun was removed to give more room, as the machine guns could be moved from one mounting position to another to cover all sides.

== Combat history ==
[[File:The German Spring Offensive, March-july 1918 Q9821.jpg|thumb|Whippets of 3rd Battalion at Maillet-Mailly on 26 March 1918. Some, in action earlier in the day, were the first Whippets to be used. (Infantry are of the [[New Zealand Division]].)]]

Whippets arrived late in the First World War, at a time when the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]], recovering from the [[Third Battle of Ypres]] in Flanders, was quite inactive.<!--Cambrai?--> They first went into action in March 1918 and proved very useful to cover the fighting withdrawal of the infantry divisions recoiling from the German onslaught during the [[German spring offensive]]. Whippets were then assigned to the normal Tank Battalions as extra "X-companies". In an engagement near [[Cachy]], a Whippet company of seven tanks wiped out two German infantry battalions caught in the open, killing or wounding over 400.{{sfn|Jackson|2010|p=12}} That same day, 24 April, one Whippet was destroyed by a German [[A7V]] in the world's second tank battle, the only time a Whippet fought an enemy tank.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldwar-1.co.uk/medium-mark-a-whippet-british-tank/ |title=Medium Mark a Whippet British Tank – World War 1}}</ref><ref>https://www.pressreader.com/uk/history-of-war/20180809/282402695193350 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>

The Whippet was, a British tank veteran wrote, "the big surprise" of the [[Royal Tank Corps]]. Crews used their vehicles' speed to attack troops in the rear. They were so successful that by summer 1918 civilians "seemed to talk in terms of whippets", not knowing of heavy tanks' importance in breaking through fortifications and barbed wire.{{r|Littledale1918}} British losses were so high however that plans to equip five ''Tank Battalions (Light)'' with 36 Whippets each had to be abandoned. In the end only the [[3rd Tank Brigade]] had Whippets, 48 in each of its two battalions (3rd and 6th TB). Alongside Mark IV and V tanks, they took part in the [[Battle of Amiens (1918)|Battle of Amiens]] (8 August 1918) which was described by the German supreme commander, General Ludendorff, as "the Black Day of the German Army". The Whippets broke through into the German rear areas causing the loss of the artillery in an entire front sector, a devastating blow from which the Germans were unable to recover. During this battle, one Whippet&nbsp;– ''Musical Box''&nbsp;– advanced so far it was cut off behind German lines. For nine hours it roamed at will, destroying an artillery battery, an [[observation balloon]], the camp of an infantry battalion and a transport column of the German 225th Division, inflicting many casualties. At one point, cans of petrol being carried on ''Musical Box'''s roof were ruptured by small-arms fire and fuel leaked into the cabin; the crew had to don gas masks to survive the fumes. Eventually, a German shell disabled it and as the crew abandoned the tank, one of them was shot and killed and the other two were taken prisoner. “Musical Box” was captured by the Germans, however it was retaken by the British later on in the war. The tank survived the war, and although most likely scrapped post war, 2 other Whippet tanks that saw extensive action are in Museums; A347 Firefly and A259 Caesar II,<ref>{{cite book |title=Fighting Tanks&nbsp;– An account of The Royal Tank Corps in action 1916–1919 |last=Wilson |first=G. Murray |year=1929}}</ref>

The Germans captured fewer than fifteen Whippets, two of which were in running condition.<ref>{{cite book |title=The German A7V Tank and the Captured British Mark IV Tanks of World War I |last1=Hundleby |first1=Maxwell |first2=Rainer |last2=Strasheim |year=1990 |publisher=Haynes |isbn=978-0-85429-788-7}}</ref> They were kept exclusively for tests and training purpose during the war, but one of them saw action afterwards with the [[Freikorps]] in the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]]. The Germans gave them the designation ''Beutepanzer A''.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=8}}

[[File:Mk.A Whippets in Japanese service.jpg|thumb|left|Japanese Whippets]]

After the war, Whippets were sent to Ireland during the [[Anglo-Irish War]] as part of the British forces there, serving with [[17th Royal Tank Regiment|17th Battalion]], Royal Tank Corps.<ref>Crow, Duncan. ''British and Commonwealth Armoured Formations 1919–46'' (Profile Publications Ltd, Great Bookham, no date), p.2.</ref> Seventeen were sent with the Expedition Forces in support of the [[White movement|Whites]] against Soviet Russia. The [[Red Army]] captured twelve, using them until the 1930s and fitted at least one vehicle with a French 37&nbsp;mm ''[[Puteaux SA 18|Puteaux]]'' gun. The Soviets, incorrectly assuming that the name of the engine was "Taylor" instead of "Tylor" (a mistake many sources still make) called the tank the ''Tyeilor''. A few (perhaps six) were exported to Japan, where they remained in service until around 1930.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=9}}<ref>Crow, p.2</ref>

Whippets were used by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] in [[Manchukuo]] and during [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Zaloga |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Zaloga |date=2007 |title=Japanese Tanks 1939–45 |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]]}}</ref>

== Variants ==
[[File:FastWhippet.jpg|thumb|The fast Whippet-Mark V hybrid constructed by Johnson]]

Major Philip Johnson, the unofficial head of Central Tank Corps Workshops in France, as soon as he received them began fitting one of the Whippets with [[leaf spring]]s. Later, in 1918, he fitted this vehicle with sprung track rollers, [[Walter Gordon Wilson]]'s epicyclical transmission from the [[Mark I tank#Mark V|Mark V]] and a {{convert|360|hp|kW|abbr=on}} V12 [[Rolls-Royce Eagle]] aero-engine. A top speed of about {{convert|30|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} was reached. This project made Johnson the best qualified man to develop the later fast [[Medium Mark D]], which looks like a reversed Medium A. Other experiments included the fitting of a large trailing wheel taken from an old Mark I tank and attaching a climbing tail, in both cases attempts to increase trench-crossing ability.{{sfn|Ellis|Chamberlain|1972|p=6}}

For a time it was assumed that after the war some Whippets were rebuilt as [[armoured recovery vehicle]]s, but this was not the case.

The [[Medium Mark B]], a completely different design by [[Walter Gordon Wilson|Wilson]], also had the name "Whippet". For a time it was common to describe any of the lighter tank designs as a Whippet, even the French [[Renault FT]]. It had become a generic name.

The German ''[[LK I|Leichter Kampfwagen]]''&nbsp;– developed from December 1917&nbsp;– being also a turret-less tank with the engine in front resembled the Whippet, but was a smaller vehicle with thinner armour.

== Surviving vehicles ==
Five Whippets survive:

* A259 ''Caesar II'', [[Bovington Tank Museum]]. This is the tank in which [[Cecil Harold Sewell]] won the [[Victoria Cross]].
* A347 ''Firefly'', [[Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History]], Brussels. This tank, part of B-Company, is still in its original paint and markings. It still carries battle damage from when it was hit on 17 August 1918.
* A231. [[Base Borden Military Museum]], Ontario, Canada
* [[U.S. Army Armor & Cavalry Collection]] (census number unknown).
* [[South African Army College]], Pretoria, [[South Africa]]. This tank was originally dispatched to South Africa to put down labour unrest.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
Image:Whippet2.jpg|Rear of A347, Royal Museum of the Army, Brussels (2005)
Image:Whippet tank Base Borden Military Museum 3.jpg|A231. Base Borden Military Museum, Ontario, Canada (2015)
Image:Whippet tank interior Base Borden.jpg|Interior of tank at Base Borden Military Museum (2015)
Image:Mark A Whippet 1.jpg|United States Army Ordnance Museum (2007)
</gallery>

== See also ==
* {{anl|History of the tank}}
* {{anl|Tanks in World War I}}
* {{anl|Comparison of World War I tanks}}
* {{anl|Light tanks of the United Kingdom}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Chris |last2=Chamberlain |first2=Peter |year=1972 |title=Medium Tanks Marks A to D. |publisher=Profile Publications |place=Great Bookham}}
*{{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=David |date=2001 |title=The British Tanks 1915-1919 |publisher=Crowood Press |location=Marlborough |isbn=1861264003}}
* {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Robert |title=Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles |year=2007 |publisher=Parragon Publishing |isbn=978-1-4054-8664-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Robert |title=101 Great Tanks |year=2010 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4358-3595-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Stern |first=Albert G. |title=Tanks 1914-1918: the log book of a pioneer |place=London |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1919 |url=https://archive.org/stream/tankslogbookofpi00ster#page/106/mode/2up}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Mk A Whippet}}

* http://www.spartacus-educational.com/FWWwhippet.htm
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130605102151/http://www.tankmuseum.org/ixbin/indexplus?_IXSS_=_IXMENU_%3DVehicles&_IXACTION_=SUMMARY&%3Atext=%22The%2BTank%2BStory%22%2Bin%2Bmus_current_location_Section%2Bindex%2Bmus_text_location&_IXMAXHITS_=12&_IXSESSION_=Mv6BnCVMhlt&%24%2Bwith%2Bmus_catalogue=.&_IXFPFX_=templates%2Ffull%2Ftvod%2Ft&%3Amus_administration_name=VEH&_IXFIRST_=27&_IXSPFX_=templates%2Ffull%2Ftvod%2Ft&_IXMAXHITS_=1&submit-button=summary&_IXSESSION_=Mv6BnCVMhlt&_IXMENU_=top The Bovington Medium Mark A Whippet]
* [http://svsm.org/gallery/whippet Photo gallery at svsm.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819234130/http://svsm.org/gallery/whippet |date=19 August 2017}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060307125118/http://www.landships.freeservers.com/whippet_info.htm MK A "Whippet" at Landships.com]
* {{cite web |access-date=2024-03-31 |publisher=National Film Archiv of Japan |title=側防機關銃巣撲滅演習 於八柱作業場 大正十三年六月十日 (Side defense machine gun nest eradication exercise at Yabashira Workshop June 10, 1924); film about anengineer exercise to neutralise a machine gun bunker using a Whippet tank) |url=https://filmisadocument.jp/films/view/85}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator -->

{{WWI tanks|style=wide}}
{{WWI British AFVs}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:World War I tanks]]
[[Category:Medium tanks of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:World War I tanks of the United Kingdom]]