The Forge of Weyland

[Astrodragon]

1st September 1934, Office of General Montgomery-Massingbird, GIGS.



General Massingbird looked up at the knock on his door. It opened to reveal his aide, who was carrying a message of some sort.

"What's the problem?"

The aide looked down at his paper, then placed it on the general's table.

"We have a problem with the autumn exercise with the Experimental Armoured Force, Sir. It seems that General Burnett-Stuart has had an accident."

Massingbird took the paper, giving it a quick read.

"Hmph. Should have looked where he was going before letting a car run into him."

"Yes sir. Fortunately it's not serious, but he'll be in hospital for a while while his leg mends. He was going to Umpire the exercise, but that looks like being impossible now."

Massingbird looked at the paper again. It wasn't any more helpful on a second look.

"Could we postpone the exercise Sir?"

Massingbird tapped the paper thoughtfully. "No, everything is set up and we don't know how long Burnett-Stuart will be away for. I'll need to find a replacement for him."



10th October 1934



"Well, gentlemen, we have the result of the exercise in, and now its time to decide what they've shown us. General Kennedy, let's have your thoughts first."

"Thank you Sir. As you know, we failed to stop the Experimental Armoured Force completely, although we did manage to slow them down and inconvenience them. When it comes down to it, the mobility and protection of the tanks makes it very difficult for an infantry formation to stop with our current weapons. While we tried to put down obstacles, these weren't sufficient to channel the tanks into areas where we could deal with them - we simply don't have a mobile enough antitank weapon."

"General Lindsay?"

"I agree with those conclusions, Sir. My staff and I feel that while the infantry and its support were well handled, and indeed some of their actions caused us problems, in the end our mobility and protection allowed us to outflank them where necessary, and once we were behind them we obviously had the advantage."

"So should we assume our infantry can't handle an armoured attack? And if so, where does that lead us?"

General Kennedy stirred.

"I don't think its quite as simple as that Sir. First, the exercise was of necessity limited in scope - the EAF never really had to break though us, they managed to outflank us. This would be more difficult in an attack on a broad defensive line, as some sort of breakthrough would need to be attained before they can get into our rear areas. My staff and I have discussed this at some length, and we've reached some interesting conclusions.

First, while we admit the latest exercise shows that once a mobile formation gets past the defence line it is very dangerous indeed, we feel that the next exercise should see what happens when they have to get past the defence first. In war, a convenient weak spot might not occur, and we need to see what happens when it doesn't. Secondly, while some of our improvised defences such as mines and roadblocks were partially successful, we need some way of stopping tanks other than field guns - they are just too slow and clumsy against the mobile units."

He looked over at Lindsay. "Yes, I know evasion of defence and exploitation is what you do, and this exercise shows it works, but I feel it's only part of the solution. We need to prove how you get into that happy position when you can't just drive around it."

Lindsay looked thoughtful. "It's actually not an invalid point. Granted our philosophy is build around NOT meeting the enemy strength, but bypassing it and rendering it useless. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to see what happens if we have to break though a defensive crust first. The enemy won't always defer to our wishes."

Kennedy nodded. "I also would like to see how we can improve the infantry defence. While we can't match your mobility, it's never going to be affordable to have the Army consist of tank formations, so the infantry needs to develop tactics to do something about them. After all, our potential opponents can use tanks too, and I'm sure they will be looking at ways to negate ours."

"So, gentlemen, you're getting ideas about another exercise?"

Kennedy smiled as he took some papers out of the folder in front of him. "Yes Sir. First, I think the next exercise should force the EAF to not bypass the entire defence. We should assume there are more formations on our flanks. This doesn't mean they can't try and evade us as much as possible, but there shouldn't be open flanks making it easy. Second, my men need better ways of slowing and stopping them. The mines and blocks showed some promise, We'd like to work on those. In addition, though, we need a way of stopping the tanks." He took a photograph and placed it on the table. "This is the Belgian 47mm anti-tank gun. We took a look at one a few years ago. Now it's not perfect - it's quite heavy, and something a bit lighter would be better - but it can kill any of the tanks we currently have, and its a lot more mobile and hideable than a field gun. If we had something like this, we could make life a lot more difficult for the attackers"

"These things aren't cheap, you know. And we've have to get a license and so on."

"I realise that, Sir. What my staff are suggesting is we ask the suppliers here if they can build us something similar, ideally a bit lighter. If possible it should defeat the tank from the front at a not suicidally-short range, and if its small and easier to conceal, its a danger to tanks from the flank. Having such a defence would also make a big improvement to the men's morale - it's hard facing tanks when you know you can't stop them, and having a defence - even if it's not perfect - would avoid things like the 'tank panic' we saw in the Great War."

Lindsay had been looking at the picture with a slightly unhappy look. "Sir, while it's true we need to practice ways of dealing with these weapons, our tanks aren't really designed to ignore them. Machine guns and splinters, yes, but not a powerful gun. On the other hand..." he tapped the picture "we do need to start thinking about them, and an exercise will help show how useful they are and if so what changes we need to our tank designs to counter them. Might I suggest that the next exercises are broken into two parts. First, we have a similar aim to this year, but this time facing anti-tank guns, or at least assume we are. Second, we use the lessons learn to adapt our tactics to them and see what changes."

There was a general nodding of heads. "Very well, these seem very sensible aims. I suggest the two of you get on with working out what to do and how to do it, and what changes you need to make. We won't have any real guns for the infantry, but we can give them mockups. Let's see what happens next year."

 

[Astrodragon]

December 1934, Vickers.


"So, do you have any solutions for us?"

"Well, actually, we have a number of possible solutions, perhaps I should lay them down and then we can discuss them?"

The Army men exchanged a few glances, then agreed.

"Now, we are currently producing the 3pdr tank gun. While this is approximately the same calibre as the Belgian gun you wanted to compare against, it has a much lower muzzle velocity, and so less penetration against armour. It would require a redesign, and based on the penetration figures you gave us, it might be more than needed against tanks, at least in the near future.

Second we have a 2pdr gun, being developed by the Woolwich arsenal. This is being developed for use as an antitank weapon, and while it has less penetration than the 47mm, our initial calculations show it should go through 30mm of plate at around 1,000 yards. It won't stop a Char B at this range, but anything else currently in service it can handle. It's going to be lighter and more mobile than the 3pdr which is obviously important to the infantry who need to carry it around.

Third is a anti-tank rifle being developed privately by Captain Boys. This isn't as capable as a proper gun, or course, but as it's basically a large rifle, it's going to be a lot more portable and a lot cheaper. He's expecting 20mm penetration at over 500 yards. Probably a bit underpowered against a medium tank, but it will do the job against an armoured car or light tank."

The Army team spent some minutes going over the paperwork on the various guns before exchanging some looks. Happy from the infantry representative, more worried from the RTC man.

"The 2-pdr does look like it will do the job the exercises suggested, and as you said it's already in development. The Boys - well, taking out the lights and armoured cars is helpful to blind the reconnaissance and give the infantry some warning. If they are both going ahead, we can allow the troops to use mock-ups against the tanks." He turned and smiled. "That's going to make your chaps life more difficult, Frederick."

Colonel Frederic Pile grimaced. "I'm afraid it will, but then overcoming this is a big part of next years exercise. We know other nations are developing similar weapons, after all. Although I'm afraid it's already looking like we need better-protected tanks. Which means getting more money to build them." That comment got a new series of unhappy nods, and even a few sympathetic ones from the Vickers team. "I'm afraid the 6-tonners just aren't going to be up to it. Even the anti-tank rifle is highly dangerous to it, and while we may use them as reconnaissance vehicles, it's looking more and more like they can't play an active part in any opposed attack."

"Well, gentlemen, when you decide what you need Vickers as always will be happy to design you a suitable tank. We have been having thoughts on some, so just let us know and we'll make you want you want."

Pile nodded. "While we have some ideas, we won't really be able to decide until after the exercises. We need to see what sort of losses are taken, and what thickness of armour would have been useful. Also, while the weapons are good for the infantry, what about us? As I understand it, the 2pdr will be an anti-tank gun that's better than our current 3pdr, but won't have any HE capability. We've found the 3pdr quite a useful gun, but if we are looking to increase our tanks protection, it's likely so will our potential enemies, so we are going to need something better."

This time it was the Vickers representatives who exchanged glances.

"Well, Colonel, a new gun would be an ideal solution, but of course developing one will cost money. However... what we could do is take the 2pdr when it's done, and build the same gun in a 3pdr version. We'll likely have to make a few changes, but it will be much cheaper and faster than developing a new gun from scratch. It will be longer than the 3pdr you have already, of course, but not too much so. And it can fire the existing 3pdr shells as a bonus."

"Well then gentlemen, let's sit down and thrash out some details, so we know what we're getting into."

************

December 1934, Experimental Armoured Force


"So, Frederick, how did it all go?"

Colonel Pile took a moment to collect his thoughts before replying to Lindsay.

"A bit of a curate's egg, sir. I have to agree with General Kennedy in principle, the infantry need better weapons if they are to have a reasonable chance against armour, and it's clear other countries are working on acquiring this capability to use against us. Now while I still think our aim to find a weak point and exploit it at speed is completely correct, it's also true that the enemy might not leave one sitting there for us to use. My thinking is that we may need to look at a two-phase battle - the first to open up a weakness, the second to break though it and exploit it. That gives us some equipment problems though. I know we've all had worries about just how useful the light tanks are, the meeting only confirmed that. They really will have no place at the forefront of an attack against determined opposition. There may be an exploitation role for them, but we only need a limited number. What we really will be needing are heavier tanks, with at least 30mm or frontal armour, based on what Vickers told us about the 2pdr design. Anything less well protected will suffer terribly against the new light anti-tank guns.

However none of our current tanks are so protected except the Independent, and we know the treasury considers that way too expensive. So we are going to need some new tank designs. Vickers indicated that are thinking about some possibilities, but we really need to analyse the exercise results carefully then tell them precisely what we need."

"Hmm. However our current aim is to use the faster light tanks to seize crossings and other choke points for the slower heavier tanks. It worked well for us in the previous exercises, will that still work against better-armed troops?"

"I'm not really sure yet, Sir. I think that should be one of the things we use the exercise to test. Of course, ideally a fast but better protected tank will do the job, but a fast heavy tank isn't going to be cheap. Since it's probably the treasury will balk at anything that costs more than a light tank, we need to get our needs very well defined and supported."

General Linday looked around his staff again. "Very well, so the next thing is to see what we need to improve apart from the tanks. Assuming the opposition will have better weapons and tactics this time."

"Well, sir, what we did notice was that the mounted infantry we used in support was very useful, we didn't have enough of them. We need more suitable vehicles, all of them need to be mobile this time. Also I think we might more infantry over all, if we can't just scare them off with our tanks. More engineers, for the mines and obstacles, and more artillery for suppression fire. We'll need all that to crack open the defence, once that's done we can take them from the flanks are rear easily enough. The second infantry battalion was very useful, if we make that a full part of the force, and dig up more tracked transport, I think we can handle the job. Having them as mobile as our usual support will go a long way towards giving us the numbers we look like needing. I'd like more Birch guns as well, they can keep up much better and if we have to sort out anti-tanks guns we'll need that speed. Sadly we have all there are, so I think that when we look at better tanks some more self-propelled guns are on the list as well."

"I think we can make the case for borrowing more Dragons and half-tracks for the exercise from other units, to bring us up to what we think we need. That won't make us popular of course, but we'll give them back afterwards."

"How are we going to handle the assumption that the light tanks are too vulnerable?"

"How about trying some armoured cars in that role? They won't be less vulnerable, but they are fast, so perhaps the extra speed and surprise will make up for. We may need to work out the sort of armament they should carry, depending on what they run into."

"Very well, I think we have enough now we can start planning in more detail. Let's get down to that, then we'll need to see what training we need to change in the new year."

 

[Astrodragon]

Spring 1935, Salisbury Plain, 1st Infantry Division

"Well, Sergeant, how did you find your new wooden wonder?"

Sergeant Smyth gave his lieutenant a grin as he nodded at the men currently struggling to connect the metal and wooden mockup of an anti-tank gun to their truck.

"Oh, it's a bitch to carry, Sir, it weighs half a ton after all. And it's an awful lashup! But according to the umpires we killed two of those light tanks with it when they came up to annoy us, which makes lugging it around worthwhile."

"Ah, so you'd like a real one, Sergeant?"

"Very much so, Sir! Being able to stop those damn tanks when they try and overrun us makes it all worthwhile. I hear B Company got one of their heavy tanks with one as well, when it ran into our minefields."

The lieutenant smiled as he watched the cursing men finish with the gun. That didn't worry him at all, it was the sort of cursing that showed that the men were in good spirits and indulging in the normal routine of swearing at the job while getting on with it. They were in better spirits this time than after last Autumn's exercise, being able to hit back had done wonders. He wondered how long it would be before they would actually get a real anti-tank gun for the company.

******************

August 1935, Royal Tank Corps

General Lindsay looked around at his senior officers, none of whom were looking terribly cheerful.

"So, gentlemen, let's have your thoughts on the exercise results."

Colonel Pile was the first to speak.

"Well Sir. I'm afraid that to a considerable extent we did poorly. No way to get around that. In the first exercise, they used mines again, as well as those mocked-up light guns, and took a heavy toll on the light tanks. As a result we never really managed to grab the choke points we wanted - we only got one of the five we had gone for - and while we managed to exploit that successfully, on its own it wasn't enough. Thanks to the minefields, they even managed to take some of our mediums in the flank, and the umpired adjudged we'd lost some of them too. In the second phase, we did better. We still had issues getting past them, but this time we held the lights back as soon as they got shot at, so at least we didn't lose as many. Once we had a breakthrough, we used the lights to exploit it. That worked well, except at one point where some clever bugger had left an anti-tank gun with some of the rear echelon, and it took out a couple of the lights before we overrun them.

We also tried using some armoured cars in place of light tanks as one of the exploitation groups. That actually worked better than I'd expected. They did have issues, a few times they got stuck in ground the lights could handle, but they were faster and we didn't get as many breakdowns. Their speed did let them get deeper and cause more chaos, but the cars we have aren't good enough to do the job we need properly."

Lindsay nodded. "Thank you Frederick, that was basically my thinking as well. It's a blow that they seem to have learned to upset our exploitation tactics, but I don't want to abandon them. When they work, they are devastatingly effective at a low cost. What we need to do is to work out how to make them work against decent opposition."

Major Martel coughed politely.

"I have had some ideas, Sir, and we've discussed some of them. May I present them?"

"Of course you may, that's what this meeting is about. Let's hear them and we can see how they stand up."

"Thank you Sir. Well, we basically have two options. Either abandon our tactics of exploiting a weak spot and then attacking the enemy in the rear, or go up against them like a bull at a gate. Obviously the first one is much better, but against decent opposition, where we can't go around them and they aren't silly enough to leave holes in their defence, we may need to emulate the bull, at least in part."

Lindsay gave his subordinate a thoughtful look. "Go on, then. Which part of the bull do we need?"

A chuckle ran through the group, and Martel continued.

"I think we need to train our men to do two things. First, as before, exploit a weakness. It's what wins the battles, and after all not every opponent will be as effective as the 1st Division was, or have settled in a position we can't outflank. Second though, when we can't do that we need to attack them, hold and overwhelm them - not overall, but in enough places we can break through and exploit."

"That's a logical conclusion, but one problem remains - how do we overwhelm them when it costs so many tanks?"

"We talked about that, Sir. There are a number of issues. First, the light tanks are useless except for the reconnaissance and exploitation phases. I'm not even sure if they are ideal for that, a good heavy armoured car would seem just as suitable, except in very poor terrain. Second, our tanks aren't fast enough or protected well enough. A faster medium will close up faster, allowing them less time to coordinate their defence and strengthen the areas we are attacking. A tougher tank will allow us to break them locally without suffering too many casualties. Now ideally we want a tank that can be both these things, but this may not be possible at the moment. So one idea is we split the Brigade into a medium and heavy component. The heavies go in and break the defence, then the mediums carry through and exploit. The mediums need enough armour to at last have a chance against the new guns - it looks like we'll need an inch or so of armour - and the heavies probably twice that. Of course, either tank can do some of both jobs, so the heavy needs a reasonable speed, and the medium some decent protection. Looking at the exercise results, this would have resulted in at least two more penetrations, and with far less losses."

"So, we need new tanks? How about the light tanks?"

Martel shrugged. "As expected, the lights have no part in an attack, their role needs to be exploitation. I'd like to see a design for a good heavy armoured car as well, we aren't the only force that could use one, and it might be easier to get them for other divisions than tanks. It's not just the tanks, though. What the defence showed was that we need infantry as well as tanks to break down the opposition. An all tank force simply won't handle it. We need men on foot to help, then they can hold the opening while our faster elements stream though." He grimaced. "We also need a way to do something about mines. It looks like everyone's forgotten how effective they could be in the Great War, more Sappers are definitely needed. And the men need to be mobile. Our usual troops are mounted on half tracks and Morrises, we borrowed some Dragon artillery tractors and got the additional infantry as mobile. It's not just about the men at the front, we need to get support and supplies up, and lorries just wont do it in an operation. Oh, and we need more Birch guns. If we are going to make a hole and exploit it, speed is still a very important thing, and for this type of work they are a lot faster. Towed guns are useful, but better for defence than attack. Basically while the tanks are the cutting edge of our attack, the rest of our force needs to be mobile and if possible protected against fire. If not as well as the mediums, at least against machine guns and similar light stuff. That would also cut down infantry casualties, they wouldn't have to cover so much ground under fire, and that not only saves lived but effectively gives us more infantry."

"We're going to have to get new equipment, that won't make the Treasury happy."

"Nothing we do makes them happy."

Lindsay chuckled. "True. So, your conclusions are logical. Now I want you to work out the specifications for what we need, and check that, with the new kit, we could have done the job properly. Then we'll need to talk to Vickers and Woolwich again.

*********************

 

[Astrodragon]

October 1935, Vickers

Sir John Carden took a sip of his tea as he reflected on the notes he'd made on the army report. It had certainly made interesting reading, and as the man who would be suggesting solutions to the tank issues raised, he wanted to make sure he understood it all. The report hadn't just covered tanks, of course. The meeting he would be attending later would be covering all the aspects that Vickers would be interested in, and as the Empire's largest and most versatile arms manufacturer, that was pretty much all of them. He'd already got some ideas about the tanks, and the rest of the report, and the conclusions the Army had made was useful to help put that into context. Knowing the problems the tanks were likely to face meant he could propose tanks that would actually solve those problems. Maybe the treasury would even agree to pay for them!

Turning back to the notes on the tanks, he also got out his designs for the A9 and A10 tanks he'd been working on. Looking at the specification for the medium tank - one that for some reason someone in the Army had stuck the title of 'cruiser' tank, it was clear to him that neither of the specifications would be good enough.

The new requirement was for a tank of around 14 tons, equipped with a 2pdr gun (a 3pdr version being considered much better if it would be available), at least two machine guns, a crew of five with a three man turret, and capable of a speed of at least 25mph on the road - 30 being preferable, and at least 15mph on rough ground. In addition they wanted protection from the new 2pdr gun, which meant at least 30mm of frontal armour, and as close to that as possible elsewhere. He compared that to the designs for the A9 and A10, and shook his head. Both were in the weight class required, but that was about all of the requirement that was met. The A9 was close enough to the speed needed - it should manage 25mph, and he had intended for it to carry the 2pdr. If they got the go-ahead to make the 3pdr version, the change wouldn't make a huge difference in weight or size. The main issue here was the armour. It carried a maximum of 14mm, and even with the two frontal turrets removed a 2pdr would go straight through it. The A10 had its own problems. Leaving off the two frontal machine gun turrets - someone in the Army, he thought, had finally shown some sanity - had allowed the armour to be thickened, perhaps not quite enough, but it was a respectable 30mm on the front. However it was coming in at over 2 tons heavier than the A9, and as a result speed had dropped to 16mph. That wasn't going to be able to exploit much, which the Army report mentioned was its main purpose.

No, he'd need a clean sheet on this one, although the good parts of the A9 and A10 could be used where possible. His initial problem was with the power unit. Given the weight of the A10, a tank protected as required was going to come in more like 16 tons than 14, and that meant a much more powerful engine than the 150hp in the A10. Possible something of around twice the power, which meant more weight and fuel, but there was no other way of getting the required speed. So the first job would be to source a suitable, affordable engine, and then see how much armour they could put on while keeping a reasonable speed. He looked at the A10 deign again. While thicker armour would be needed to stop a 2pd shell at reasonable range, sloping the armour to improve the effective thickness would help. There would still be the problem of the driver's vision and the bow machine gun, but sloping as much as possible would make the weight problem easier to handle. He'd strongly suggest they go ahead with the 3pdr version of the new gun; the 2pdr had come along very well, but as the gun weight wasn't nearly such an issue for the tank, the bigger gun would be a better fit. And they could use the existing 3pdr HE ammunition; he'd noted in the report that it was anti-tank guns that had been the biggest problem, and being able to engage them at a longer range than the machine gun would mean the armour would be that much more effective.

Well, if he could design a suitable cruiser tank, that should also help with some of the other things they wanted. A more modern Birch gun he could see the need for, and the new cruiser could share its chassis and propulsion, easing development and later on maintenance. It was pretty much how they'd made the original guns, but hopefully they could do a better job. He noted with relief there was no longer a requirement for the gun to have an AA capability, giving it such a high angle of engagement had made things hard. He made a note to ask how the RA were getting along with the 18pdr replacement, if they were going to build one it only made sense to design around the new gun - ideally of course, to handle both, since it was likely the 18pdr would be around for some time.

Some of the other needs interested him, although they probably wouldn't be directly his problem. An infantry carrier of some sort, better than the improvised version, with bullet and splinter protection? That would be an interesting challenge. Not so much to build one - the existing Medium Dragon would handle all that with fairly minor modifications - but building one cheaply. Cost was a specific issue, and that made sense - they would need quite a few of these, and the total cost would ramp up fast. The half-tracks seemed to have been found wanting in their track durability, and there was concern - justified in his mind - about whether it was possible for a half-track to handle the weight of protection needed.

The final part of the report also looked like it would be his problem, though not immediately. They had talked about the need for a heavier tank to engage the defence and break it open to be exploited by the cruiser. However they wanted to hold that requirement while they had discussions about other uses for the tank, and exactly what capabilities it would need. Once the medium tank had been worked out, they would be coming back with a requirement for the heavy breakthrough tank. Apparently the design requested by General Elles was considered not to meet the revised requirements, and a new specification was being held up until he'd approved the concept.

One thing he already knew he wanted though was control over the development without the War Office sending someone along at regular intervals to muck about and change things. He would agree a design, then they could come and look at it when it was done! They'd agreed that for the A9 and A10 designs, he wanted the same freedom for the new designs.

All in all, it looked like the next few months would be interesting.

 

[Astrodragon]

October 1935, War Office


While they had been watching Italy quite closely for some months now, the sudden attack on Ethiopa came unexpectedly. The Italians had concealed the surprise attack behind a shield of diplomacy, and now it was up to the War Office to come up with some ideas as to possible responses if such were deemed necessary by their political masters.

So far, the Italian advance wasn't lightning-like, but the number of troops involved was worrying. Initial estimates were that something on the order of 200,000 men were involved, as well as considerable air support and even tanks. The politicians were mainly worried about the safety of the Suez Canal first and foremost, but the security of the British Colonies in Africa was also worrying the Colonial Office.

British strength in Egypt itself was very limited - two Brigades, one of which was defending the Canal, a small amount of field artillery, and a Brigade of cavalry. It was obvious that in the event of a determined attack by Italy, they couldn't hope to hold without serious reinforcements. The problem was that these really weren't available - even stripping the Home defences to the bone, they would be barely sufficient. Worse, they'd have to actually get them there, and Italy was unfortunately in the way of the direct route.

The position of the other two services was a little better. The RAF had some squadrons in the area, although flying old aircraft at least they were familiar with the conditions, and had a basic support structure. Getting more aircraft out would be a problem if they couldn't go through the Mediterranean Sea, but it might be possible to fly them part of the way. Since fuel came from Persia, this should be safe unless the Italians could dominate the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The problem here was that these were very close to the Italians, and while they had few naval forces in the area, British tankers and supply ships would be in range of Italian aircraft once they had completed their conquests.

The Navy had a somewhat different worry. While confident they could reinforce the Mediterranean fleet easily, and then either sink or neutralise the Italian navy, they had longer-term issues. The Italian navy was quite powerful and modern, and would certainly inflict losses, and then there would be the longer term problem of blockade. The Navy was worried not so much about losses, but the problem of replacing them, with Japan and Germany both increasing threats. As they pointed out, it took two to four years to replace ships, and any substantial losses to Italy would leave them in a vulnerable strategic position for that time.



The main conclusion of the meeting was to suggest some reinforcement of Egypt, while urging an increase in effort for a diplomatic solution. This would play for time while they at least revised plans for what could be done when Italy finished their conquest - give the balance of forces, the only real obstacle to Italy winning was the local conditions. Ideally they could agree something with France - the French had a considerable force in North Africa, and that would take the pressure off the British in Egypt. It wasn't lost on the Army representatives that the defence of what was seen as a critical route to the Empire seemed to be dependent on the French.

The Government weren't terribly happy about what they saw as the negativity of the Armed Forces, but it was pointed out to them that the major problem was that Italy was a modern Great Power, with ample men already on the ground in the area, and that Army funding had been cut to the bone. If they wanted Egypt to be defendable, they needed to assign a stronger force there, as well as build up defensive positions to the west. Building such defences would take time, and they couldn't just send all the troops from Britain, without mobilisation they just didn't have the men. At least the Army had done studies about how to defend Egypt, although the force necessary for complete confidence would be scarily high in terms of the available Army, but if the politicians agreed at least a start could be made.

In the end, the decision was for the Army and RAF to make plans for the minimum force that would do the job, while the Foreign Office tried to calm things down and the Italians took and digested Ethiopia. Realistically nothing more could be done quickly. The Navy would make some minor changes in the disposition of its ships to allow a fast reinforcement if it seemed necessary. The RAF would send two squadrons out. These were the Hawker Harts that had been involved supporting the EAF exercises; it was hoped that their familiarity in supporting the Army would be useful if things actually blew up on the frontier, and a couple of squadrons was obviously 'just an exercise'.It was considered unwise to send troop to Egypt immediately, the Foreign Office considered this provocative, and apparently had hopes that some secret diplomatic initiative would solve the problem. The military men were dubious of this, but their current orders were clear. The Army did arrange to send a small group to examine the actual state of things in Egypt and report back.

 

[Astrodragon]

November 1935, Cairo.

General Sir George Weir looked at the man London had flown in to help advise him on how to defend his command against a possible Italian invasion, and wasn't terribly impressed. He already knew how to handle his Infantry and Cavalry, and he doubted that Percy Hobart could impart some magical revelations about tanks that would change his mind.

"Brigadier Hobart. I don’t know what you’ve come here for, and I don’t want you anyway. The Italians are on the other side of the desert, they aren't going to get a big Army through that without massive preparations."

"With respect, Sir, while that might have been true 30 years ago, the advent of the truck and the tank mean that's an outmoded argument."

"Hmph! I should have known you'd be straight on about tanks!"

"The Italians do have quite a few of them, Sir. Granted, they are light tanks with limited capabilities, but they are armoured and carry machines guns, which are quite effective against our men and horses in the open desert. Trucks allow them to build up supply dumps far more quickly than in the past, and so they could be in a position to mount an attack much sooner than our old estimates predict."

"So they sent you here to tell me all about tanks, then?"

"Not quite, Sir. My brief is to take a look at the conditions, and our estimates of the Italian strength, and then suggest ways we can negate their own tanks while using ours to defeat any attempted invasion. I'm not here to directly advise you, we only have a few light tanks in Egypt, and their purpose is reconnaissance rather than direct combat." Hobart felt it would be best not to mention that the machine-gun armed Vickers tanks weren't much better combat machines than the Italian tankettes. However he looked forward to getting a look at the actual battlefield - the possible battlefield, he reminded himself, at the moment the Italian army was only a potential threat - and determining how his tanks could defeat them. As the Inspector of the Royal Tank Corps, he knew what the state of British armour was all too well, and this was going to be an interesting challenge. Whether his advice would be welcome to the Cavalry types that seemed to infest Cairo he didn't know, though he was pretty sure he could answer that question, but his actual report was to the War Office.

"Well then man, I suppose you'd better be about it! See my orderly when you want transport out to the desert, he will arrange everything."

***********************************

November 1935, War Office

General Sir Hugh Elles was not a happy soldier. He was convinced that the way forward for tank design was a tough, heavy tank to aid the infantry in breaking through a defence, and had written up a suitable specification. This new demand from the RTC wasn't to his liking, but still, he thought he should at least listen to their arguments, even if he thought they wouldn't convince him.

"Very well, gentlemen, please show me how my thoughts on an infantry tank were incorrect."

Major Martel, who'd been selected as the spokesman for the new designs, managed to hide a wince. This was obviously going to be an uphill struggle.

"Well Sir, to start with we don't disagree with your suggestion that we need a heavy tank to aid the infantry and help them break though a defence with fewer losses. Indeed,. Some of the new weapons coming through have shown that our old tanks simply aren't tough enough. Our suggestions differ in the way we go about it, not the need to do so."

Elles gave him a look, but nodded to the man to continue.

"Well Sir, we've done a number of exercises against well-led infantry assumed to be equipped with the new anti-tank weapons we are building for ourselves, after all we know our potential enemies are developing the same types of guns. The earlier design" - Martel was careful not to say 'your design' - had heavy armour, which is certainly needed, but only had a 2-man crew and machine gun armament. While fine as a mobile pillbox against infantry, the new guns outrange it. True, heavy enough armour will allow it to attack them, but things like the tracks are still vulnerable, and its slow speed has led the boffins to work out they'd most likely get disabled before closing the enemy as needed. The new weapons show that the design needs to be updated."

He took some sketch plans from his briefcase, and passed them over to the General.

"As you can see, Sir, we retain the heavy armour, but it's a much bigger design. This allows us to have a crew of five, which as you remember was determined to be the ideal tank crew size. It also allows it to keep in touch by radio, so the infantry can help direct it to where it's most needed. Finally, as well as a couple of machine guns, it carries a cannon to destroy enemy guns and emplacements from a distance. While it will still be vulnerable to a heavy enough gun, it will take care of the lighter pieces, and there won't be too many heavy guns available."

"Elles looked over the plans. He was somewhat perturbed - while he had felt his own design would be the ideal way of doing the job, using a much smaller and cheaper tank, Martel had raised some good points. He hasn't considered the new light anti-tank guns, because they hadn't been around long - indeed, they were only coming into British service next year.

"And how will that work for the RTC?"

"Well, Sir, it actually meshes quite well with our current doctrine. As you will remember, we've always been aiming to exploit weak points, or to outflank, then attack the enemy's rear, it's a very decisive tactic. However we've found that when the defence knows what it's doing, the new guns would make us take heavy losses. So we are thinking out mixing some of these heavy tanks into the Brigade, and if we can't find any holes, use them to make some. We've done a lot of study on this, and it seems to work. And using the same heavy tank will reduce the cost."

"Yes, this is going to be an expensive beast, isn't it? We won't get as many of them."

"That's true, Sir, but we've looked at all our results and tests very carefully, and a smaller tank just won't do the job any longer. Sir John Carden agrees with us, and he's told us that if we were to decide on the heavier design, he has some ideas which he thinks will please us."

General Elles sat back for a moment and thought. He didn't want to just abandon his own design - he was only human after all - but everything Martel had said made sense, as long as the data from the tests was correct. Of course, Martel was angling for a solution that worked for the RTC as well, but that was expected. Given that a tank designer with the prestige of Sir John agreed, he found it difficult to naysay it just because it clashed with his earlier ideas. He had great respect for Sir John, the man was a genius when it came to tank design.

"Very well, Martel. You haven't convinced me yet, but I'm prepared to listen a bit more. Take this tank, and get Sir John to come up with a design, then he can come and sell it to me. If he does, we'll go ahead and build one."

"Thank you Sir, I'm sure Sir John will be happy to do that. I'll get onto him straight away, and when he's ready we will talk again?"

"Yes, Martel, do that. But make sure you have a good design, I won't be fobbed off with a poor one!"

 

[Astrodragon]

10th December 1935, War Office

General Montgomery-Massingbird stood to welcome his guest.

"Sir John, I'd like to thank you for coming here at such short notice. I'm afraid current affairs are giving us little time to arrange things in a leisurely fashion right now."

Sir John Carden made light of it, even though he'd been somewhat annoyed when he'd received the General's request; he'd been due to attend a meeting in Brussels yesterday, but the War Office had pre-empted it. He just hoped he'd been called in for something important.

"That's perfectly all right, Sir Archibald, I realise you wouldn't have dragged me in for something trivial."

"Certainly not, Sir John, let us get down to the reason for this meeting. As I'm sure you are aware, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia has given us concern as to the defences of Egypt and the Suez Canal."

Sir John Carden nodded. "I have been following the issue in the papers, yes. Just how can I be of help?"

"Well, we've done a number of assessments, and one of the things that has been mentioned is the idea of using a mobile armoured force to drive off an Italian attack. While we have the 6th Battalion of the Royal Tank Corps out there, it only has two understrength armoured car companies - useful for reconnaissance, but hardly able to hold off a determined attack." Sir Archibald smiled. "As you know, the Italians have light tanks, based on one of your own designs. So we thought you would be the ideal person to advise on the best counter to them."

Sir John looked slightly embarrassed - being told your own designs were now possible a threat wasn't quite what he'd had in mind when he'd made them, however he did know all their strengths and weaknesses.

"Well, Sir Archibald. The Italians have a light tank based on our Carden Lloyd tankette they've been building for a few years, and they recently introduced an updated model, the L3/35. I'm not sure if they are in service yet. The L3/33 is a very light tank, indeed tankette serves it better. It has some protection against rifle fire and carries a light machine gun, so it's a danger to infantry. The 35 model is a little heavier, but the armour is about the same. The main difference is it has two machine guns rather than one. Both are reasonably fast, they can do about 25mph, but they have quite short range. Not that useful in a large desert I would have thought."

"Well, our initial thought was that a proper armoured Brigade would be the thing - it's not a huge commitment in terms of numbers, but it would certainly outmatch the Italians, and if we back it up with some permanent defensive works, we would be safe from anything other than a major attack. But there is a problem with that. While our medium tanks would certainly deal with these tankettes, we don't have many of them. All we have is in the one Brigade here at home. We've talked with the Vickers management, of course, but they tell us it will take a fair time to build more, then of course there is the support we would need for them. "

"And you brought me here to suggest a solution."

"In a way, Sir John. The obvious immediate problem is to deal with the Italian tankettes. While the new 2pdr gun can certainly do that, it's only just coming into production, and it will be a while before we can get them properly into service. Also, there is the issue of mobility -as you yourself pointed out, the desert is rather large. Our tank experts need to know if we can put a gun on the Mk V instead of the machine gun? As long as the Italians are only armed with machine guns, it should be protected sufficiently, and something like the 3pdr we have on the mediums will nicely settle any Italian forays. As the tanks will be far more mobile than infantry, they can protect a much larger area."

Sir John looked thoughtful. "I'd have to do some research on that Sir Archibald. The heavy machine gun on the MkV is capable of penetrating the Italian tanks, but it's rather marginal, and it would be a pretty even match against their new L3/35. A heavier gun would certainly give us a good range advantage in combat. I assume that it's a fair urgent need, so we can only look at existing guns?"

"We'd certainly prefer that. If there is nothing suitable, we might be able to consider the 2pdr, but a gun already in production would be much better."

Sir John nodded, already thinking about some possibilities.

"I will take a look at our designs and see what's available that might work. Also an idea of how long it would take to convert an existing Mk V, I assume that would be helpful?"

"Indeed it would, Sir Jon, and thank you for your time."



As Sir John was leaving the office, he was surprised to see one of the general's aides approach him, carrying a sheet of paper and with a very odd expression on his face.

"Sir John? We just got a report we felt you should know about."

He held out the paper, which Sir John took, still unclear as to what was going on. When he read through the note, he understood.

'A Savioa-Marchetti S.73 aircraft of Sabena airlines crashed today near Tatsfield, Surry while on a flight from Brussels to Croydon. There were no survivors. The cause of the accident is yet to be established.'

Sir John felt a cold chill down his spine, as he read it again, just to be sure. If not for this sudden meeting, he'd have been on that very aircraft. He nodded his thanks to the aide as he left, still in thought. The irony hadn't escaped him; to be brought in to discuss ways of beating Italian tanks, and avoiding being killed in the crash of an Italian aeroplane.

 

[Astrodragon]

January 1936, Vickers Engineering. (part 1)

With the way international relations seemed to be deteriorating, and the consequent possibilities for Vickers in arms sales, a number of meetings of the various areas of responsibility had been arranged for the start of the year. The one that most concerned Sir John Carden was the armoured vehicle meeting.

He'd been giving considerable thought to the problems of meeting the specifications the Army had been coming up with, the main problem being that the army had unreasonable ideas about just what could be built within the weight limits they specified. He'd decided that he was going to use the license they'd agreed to on his designing the new Cruiser and infantry tank to show them what they needed to do the jobs they asked for, rather than let them just waste time trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot. Hopefully they would agree to adjust the requirement to something more believable.

The first item up for discussion was the request from the Army to look into putting a cannon of some sort on the MkVI light tank. This was seen as actually fairly easy; a version of their light tank had been sold to Latvia with such a cannon, and the Russian T-26 was a turreted light tank based on their original design. The Latvian order was due to be delivered next year, and they hadn't actually built any yet, but the design of the turret was done and in fact they'd built a wooden mock-up to check everything would fit. So it was really just a matter of working out the maximum size gun that would fit, then seeing what the Army wanted that would fall inside that parameter. The light tank was pretty easy to produce, and some of Vickers associate firms could build them as well as Vickers themselves. Whether such a tank was any use of not, a number of the experts had disputed, but giving the Army a cost for them probably wouldn't hurt.

Given the limited size, and the fact they wanted an urgent fix, gun discussion had centred on models already available. This had come down to three possibilities. First, the current low velocity 3pdr. As this was the current fitting for the medium tanks, some spares were available, and the production line was still active. Second was the new 2pdr gun. This was a better anti-tank gun, but they weren't sure if the army would be happy to have the initial production diverted, which is what would be needed. The third option was the COW gun. While lighter than the other two, and with inferior penetration, it was still more than capable of killing a tankette. While this gun wasn't being used by the army, they had a few models available, and the production line could be re-opened. The gun was clip fed, which might be a useful addition allowing a burst of rounds against an evading target. One advantage of this gun was the engineers could fit it in place of the 0.5" machinegun, although this would make the turret cramped. Realistically the slowest part of any modification would be the turret, so whichever gun was chosen availability wouldn't be an issue.

The other decision they needed the army to make was if they wanted to convert existing models, or build new. 22 of the Mk V were being built, and they would soon be delivering the Mk VI - orders for 51 of this tank had already been placed. They could modify existing Mk V's, although the Army weren't plentifully supplied. One other possibility that had been raised was a version of the 6-tone Vickers tank. This had been made in a version with a turret, and successfully sold abroad, although the British Army hadn't bought any. They still had the plans, and if new build tanks were required they could offer this as an alternative.



Once the easy questions had been got out of the way, discussion turned to a more contentious topic - the proposed Cruiser and Infantry tanks. Sir John and his team had been looking seriously at these for some months, starting from the A9 and A10 designs, neither of which would fill the new requirements.

The initial and biggest problem was the engine needed. The current bus engines weren't up to driving even the cruiser tank at anything like the speed required, and the heavy infantry tank was even worse. The problem was that the Army was quite keen on some designs soon, so a long wait would be unacceptable if they suggested a custom-built engine. Given the small numbers the Army tended to order in, this would likely be too expensive anyway.

So Sir John and his team had started to look around, and hold conversations with various people about what engines were actually available, or could be modified or put into production at a relatively low cost. Based on the weights expected and the performance the Army wanted, Sir John had estimated they would need something delivering 300 - 400hp. A diesel might be a better option, assuming they had a choice, as it would power a tank more efficiently and me more economical on fuel. A big engine would require a correspondingly large fuel tank.

The first option was to use two of the existing bus engines together. None of the engineers really liked the idea. Yes, two coupled diesel engines would give somewhere around 350hp, depending on which engines they started with. But there was the issue of the cost and complexity of all the mechanicals necessary to do that coupling, the loss of efficiency, and the high maintenance cost. Such a solution was considered to be a fallback one if they couldn't find a more suitable one.

The engines that did produce the sort of power output they needed were normally aircraft engines or marine diesels. Aircraft engines, while light and usually small, were expensive, and rather fragile by tank standards. Marine engines were robust, but heavy and often large, things that were of less importance in a ship that in a tank.

Sir John had had some interesting conversations with his friend Harry Ricardo. He'd designed the diesels used in the WW1 tanks, as well as pioneering many modern diesel developments, and he'd wanted to get his input. He knew that Ricardo had modified one of Rolls-Royces Kestrel aero engines to run as a diesel for the 'Flying Spray' car, which was soon to make an effort at some land speed records. He was particularly interested in this as the car and engine had been designed for endurance records rather than pure short-term speed, so would be more likely to stand up to use in a tank. Ricardo had modified an old Kestrel Rolls-Royce had let him have, reducing the capacity and adding sleeve valves while turning it into a diesel. Ricardo told him that yes, he saw no reason why the engine shouldn't work as a tank engine. With the modifications he'd made, the output had been reduced from around 500 to 340hp, but he felt that while the un-supercharged petrol version would in theory get close to 500hp, there would be big issues with the low-quality pool petrol used in the Army. Part of the reduction in performance had been caused by the reduction in the valve bore size to allow for the insertion of a sleeve valve. If a little more power was needed, he thought it would be possible to increase the bore a little to retain the old volume even with a sleeve valve, which would give around 380hp, although this would mean new machinery to make the engine. The aero engine wasn't cheap, a standard Kestrel was about £2,000, but he felt that but leaving off all the unneeded parts, and possible replace some parts with lower cost, heavier alternatives would allow this to be reduced. The problem was production. Rolls-Royce was very busy with the production of their aero engines, and realistically a new production line would have to be set up, perhaps elsewhere with Rolls-Royces cooperation.

The next engine to be looked at had been the engine used in one of the Medium Mk III prototypes. Initially a 180hp engine had been fitted, but this had shown to be underpowered, and in the third prototype a Thornycroft 6V 500 hp, a slow revving marine engine had been fitted. This would certainly provide the power necessary, maybe even more than necessary, although the engine was rather heavy. It was noted that it would be worthwhile to see if the weight and cost could be reduced even if this reduced the power. Even with a reduction in power, this engine was a good candidate for the heavy infantry tank.

The final promising engine was a version of the Paxman R-series marine diesel. Ricardo had mentioned this to him, as the way they were built allowed customisation of the number of cylinders. They had a number of advantages; they were built in a robust form (they supplied a version for the Navy to use in Submarines) that were resistant to shock, which would be a valuable trait for a tank engine. They could be produced to give around 500hp. The main issues would be weight and cost. Ricardo was very familiar with the design - they used the Comet head he'd designed in some of their engines- and he pointed out that setting up for a series production run would likely reduce the costs considerably.

While there were obvious problems with all the likely candidates, the problem now looked solvable. A decision was taken to investigate the three promising candidates more fully, and costs estimated for a run of either 250 or 500 engines. Even if the Army didn't want them all, the foreign market would likely be interested in more powerful tanks, and if not they could sell them for marine use. This was to be done as soon as possible so a decision could be made on usage. For his part, Sir John liked the look of the diesel Kestrel, if production could be arranged. Given its origin of Rolls-Royce and Ricardo, he felt reliability, a constant problem with high powered engines, wouldn't be an issue. 340hp should drive his idea of a Cruiser tank nicely, and one of the higher power engines would be a good fit for his Infantry tank idea. Given the much heavier weight the infantry tank was likely to be, he was starting to think that a common engine, while good for production, wouldn't be the best technical solution.

 

[Astrodragon]

January 1936, Vickers Engineering. (part 2)

Having settled on the actions concerning engines, the next points were settle quickly. The suspension and steering were going to be the responsibility of Sir John and his department, and he already had ideas on how he was going to tackle them. The last part of the discussions was on the possible armament of the new generation of tanks.

Currently there was only one gun being used on British tanks, the low-powered 3pdr. While this had been adequate before the armour thickness of tanks had started to rise, it had been obvious for a while that it was no longer adequate. Over the last couple of years Woolwich and Vickers had been developing a new high-velocity 2pdr gun. Initial tests had shown it was capable of penetrating 30mm or armour at over 500 yards, and even at 1,000 yards it could nearly penetrate. Given the thickness of armour they were working on, 30mm was the assumption of the protection of an enemy tank. While the initial results were promising, a better long range penetration was considered desirable, and now the gun was starting to come off the production line, effort was going to be put into improving the shells.

When the 2pdr had been proposed as the new infantry weapon, the conversations the Vickers team had had with the EAF officers indicated that while they liked the idea of a better 'hole-puncher', they would miss the HE capability of the new gun, as no HE rounds were currently envisaged. Although it had been suggested that HE would be helpful against enemy AT guns, this wasn't seen as a major issue. Although firing off a round or two might kill the AT gun, they expected that it would more likely be a diversion while they pulled back slightly and brought artillery fire down. They liked the old HE rounds more for the effect on soft-skin and rear element targets that were the main aim of their penetration and avoidance attacks. Given that it was expected that new enemy tanks would have thicker armour, Vickers had suggested that once the 2pdr was ready, a larger 3pdr version could be made fairly easily based on the 2pdr design. This would still allow the old HE to be used, but would give them an edge in tank-on-tank combat. There had been no problems in the upgraded size, and a version was now being tested, and was showing considerable improvement over the 2pdr. The 2pdr was still seen as a better infantry weapon, the 1935 exercises had show a low weight was very helpful, but this was far less of a problem for a tank gun,

While this gave Carden a good gun for the new tanks, he wanted to discuss other, larger weapons. He was looking to make a tank that could be upgraded to a larger gun when that became necessary - while not cheap, replacing the gun was a lot cheaper than building a whole new tank. He was particularly interested in the Army's concept of a tank directly supporting infantry, and aiding in the breakthrough. The 3pdr wouldn't be the ideal gun for this, what seemed to be needed was a large calibre gun firing HE. This would be used directly against targets like machine gun, anti-tank guns and fixed defences such as pillboxes. While of course artillery would also be available, exercises had shown that being able to respond instantly was very useful, as small or individual targets could be taken out and bypassed quickly, especially if the artillery was otherwise engaged. The large calibre would give the gun the ability to fire an effective smoke round, either in support of an infantry attack or to allow the armour to retreat to a holding position while the artillery was called in. While the RTC weren't embedded in the 'Charge It!' philosophy of the old Cavalry units, they did realise that speed in attack caused more progress and fewer casualties to their own side. It also helped cause confusion and disarray, things most helpful in their aim of forcing open a weak point to exploit.

While no-one had any real disagreements about the need for a large calibre gun, there were lots of arguments about what exactly the gun should be. What they needed was a gun that could fire a good HE shell, as well as a good smoke round. While not seen as a major role, a few AT rounds, just in case, was also seen as a useful addition.

The first suggestion was the QF 3" howitzer. This was a low-velocity weapon, firing a 14lb shell. While the shell weight was considered adequate for HE and smoke, there was concern that the low m/v meant it would be useless against tanks or pillboxes. However the gun was available, although there were worries about what the Royal Artillery would say about tanks carrying what they would see as 'one of OUR guns'! There was concern that this was quite an old design, and that there might be resistance to putting an 'old' gun in a 'new' tank.

From the point of view of effectiveness, the current 18pdr, which was going to be replaced shortly by a 25pdr, would be ideal. It had all the types of round needed already in production, and ammunition would be common to that used by the artillery. The problem was the recoil length. No-one had ever envisaged using this gun inside a turret, and unless a way could be found to considerably shorten the recoil length, the size of turret needed to accommodate it would be prohibitively large and heavy, not to mention needing a bigger tank to carry it.

The long recoil of most of the large calibre candidates was the biggest argument against using one of them. However after some rather heated discussion, one of the engineers working on the naval guns came up with a possible solution. Vickers had been working on a new 6pdr gun for the Royal Navy, to replace the older version. It had gone into production in 1934, so a few could easily be made for testing. The gun itself weight just over 1,000lb, which was rather heavier than they had considered, but it was pointed out that it could be lightened a bit - weight was less of an issue for naval guns than robustness. Of course, a 6pdr round wasn't big enough for the sort of shell they were looking for, so it was suggested they bore it out to 3.3" so it could take modified 18pdr ammunition. Secondly, they could reduce the barrel length - the naval gun had a m/v of 2,400fps, which was actually higher than ideal. The naval version was 45 calibres long, and reducing this to something around 30 would make it easier to machine, reduce the weight, and allow the use of a less powerful HE shell that would allow more HE to be included. While the navy did have an HE shell for the gun, the usage and requirements of the navy for their HE rounds were somewhat different. Something around 1,500fps might be suitable, and even with the lower velocity, an AT round of this size would have significant penetration - a few hurried calculations suggested that it would be at least as good as the new 3pdr, although the more curved trajectory would probably make it less accurate. Since using the gun against tanks wasn't seen as the primary purpose, this should be acceptable. Furthermore, the gun only had a recoil of 12", which shouldn't be too hard to fit into a turret.

For his part, the idea interested Sir John. While the current 3pdr was a good tank gun, once they had the infantry tank in production other nations would surely follow their example, and the 3pdr wouldn't be good enough at any sort of range. When that happened, a larger gun would be needed in the anti-tank role, and the full length version of the 6pdr would probably do very nicely. He was a believer in making tanks that could be upgraded where feasible, and if a turret could take the bored out 6pdr, it could also handle the original gun. A 3.3" round would make a very satisfactory support weapon, assuming of course the Army were interested. From the talks he'd had with them, he thought they could be persuaded, and he started making notes on using this gun in his infantry tank design.

 

[Astrodragon]

19th January 1936, Mechanisation Committee, War Office



The committee hadn't originally intended to meet so early in the year, but the issues over Italy in Africa had meant an urgent response for the idea of getting armour reinforcements to Egypt had pushed things forward. They also had a report from Vickers about the ongoing design of future tanks to consider.

The most urgent issue was Egypt. As the tank men had pointed out before, while there were tanks available in the UK that could be redeployed, that was all there was - the Army wasn't well equipped. What made that problem worse was that many of the tanks were old, and while maintaining them in the UK, and making them available for training and exercises was one thing, sending them out to the desert and keeping them going there - with very little in the way of maintenance facilities - was a nightmare that would likely result in inoperable and immobile tanks scattered all over Western Egypt rather than a fast, deadly mobile force.

While that wasn't what the senior officers wanted to hear, the tank men were quite adamant about the problem. Certainly they could send them out as a deterrent, but it would be a paper force, and it would also severely limit training in the Home command. Their preference was one of the Vickers suggestions for modifying their light tanks. From a support point of view, this was much easier to handle. They already had support available, and they were familiar with operating them in various parts of the world. The light tanks available were far less worn out than their mediums, and Vickers were already building more for an existing order.

After considerable discussion, the committee decided on a course of action. Vickers would modify some of the Army's existing light tanks, and some of the new ones under construction, to take the COW gun. They'd looked at the issue of the space in the turret the new gun would need, and while not ideal it was felt to be adequate. This would have the advantage of being a fast modification. Vickers had also said that if they got the order now, they could build either a version of their Mk VI with a turret modified to take either the current 3pdr or the new 2pdr guns, or build some of their 6-ton tank with the same armament choices.

The armament decision came down, after some argument, on the existing 3pdr. This was available immediately, and the men were familiar with it. It would be better to use the first production run of the 2pdr to supply the infantry, who lacked any real defence against even light tanks. The Army had never ordered the 6-ton tank, but it had sold well abroad, and Vickers had noted in their report that issues raised initially by the Army had been solved or proven to be not critical. They could build 24 of these this year, again assuming a quick decision on the order. On paper, the tank men admitted this would be a better tank for the role envisaged, although it would mean supporting a different tank. Vickers had one available that they could use for familiarisation and training, which would help matters. Given the time constraints, they recommended to ask for immediate funding for 24 of these tanks, as well as money to do the conversions to the COW gun.

While no-one felt that this would actually solve the Italian problem, at least the failure of the diplomatic moves after the revelations before Christmas had made some sort of military reinforcement more acceptable to the Treasury. Fortunately it did seem that the difficulty of actually conquering Ethiopia - something the Foreign Office had assumed would be simple, a different view to that taken by some of the Army people who'd actually seen the country - meant that it was unlikely anything would threaten Egypt in the immediate future, and the French had made some noises about providing help, or at least making sure the Italians had to keep an eye on their own Western frontier. Still, getting some extra funding from the Treasury was never to be ignored. There was also the issue of improving the frontier defences, as well as infantry and air force reinforcements, but these were questions for a different meeting. What the tank men did point out - quite firmly- was that this proved the need for a new medium tank to be quite urgent.

 

[Astrodragon]

20th January 1936, Mechanisation Committee, War Office

Having dealt with the Egypt issue on the preceding day, the committee then turned to the subject of a specification for new tanks. This time they had been joined by a team from Vickers led by Sir John Carden, armed with plentiful notes and diagrams of their proposed solution to the medium tank required.

Sir John started by pointing out that it proved impossible to meet the original specifications for the A9 and A10 tanks, now termed cruiser tanks. The A9, which managing the requisite speed, was far too thinly armoured. The A10, while being better protected - although still not to a level the team had been happy with - was far too slow. The Vickers men blamed in the main the unreasonably low weight allowed, and also an insufficiently powerful engine and gun. Sir John's reputation had allowed him to be allowed to re-specify a tank that he thought would meet their needs, and permission, if the design went ahead, to develop it without interference, a degree of trust not given to any other tank designer.

Laying out diagrams of the intended tank, Sir John and his team then went into the details of the design. This was based on their initial thoughts on a better A9/A10, which they had been working on for some time, with regular talks with the tank brigade officers. They were calling this the A10*.

First, they had left aside the question of the weight, until they had a design which would meet the army needs. The two initial priorities were the gun, and the thickness of the tank armour. The new 3pdr gun had been selected as the weapon; this had considerably better penetration that the old 3pdr, and would be in production soon, well in time to fit into a new tank. The 3pdr could penetrate some 50mm of armour at 500 yards, 38mm at 1,000 yards and 25mm at 1,500 yards. Talks with the tank men had indicated that the chance of a shot at any longer range would be minimal in Europe, although possibly better in somewhere like the desert. This would be sufficient to kill any of the existing tanks they were likely to face, most of which only had around 15-20mm of protection. The next generation of tanks were expected to carry 30-40mm, at least on the front, and the gun should still be effective out to around 1,000 yards.

Obviously it would be ideal if their tank could fire on others at a range they could penetrate, while staying safe behind their own armour. The older specification had mentioned 30mm, but the Vickers team thought this might be a bit thin, given that there was a steady improvement in anti-tank guns. The new French Souma tank was thought to have at least 40mm of protection, although not as good a gun as their own 3pdr. This was felt a good tank to choose as one to be able to beat, and while the new A10* could kill the French tank at around 800 yards, based on the performance of its own gun, if they protected their tank with 40mm of armour the Souma would need to close to more like 100-200 yards to have a decent chance. This would allow a good time to fire at the enemy while remaining relatively safe. The tank men were quite happy with this idea.

Taking 40mm as the starting point, Vickers had then worked out the weight the tank would likely be. They had assumed a 5-man tank, with a 3-man turret as specified before. Their estimate was that the tank would be around 17 tons in weight. There was some discussion from the Army men about this - their original thoughts had been for a tank around 13 tons, but Sir John pointed out that such a weight simply couldn't give the necessary performance. He continued with the need for the tank to be reasonably fast, in order to satisfy its role of exploitation. The team suggested the Diesel Kestrel that they thought would give enough power that even a heavy tank like this would be nimble enough. Harry Riccardo had estimated that a production version would provide over 300hp, and with this they were expecting a speed of over 25mph on the road, maybe as high as 30mph, although this was more dependent on the suspension that pure power. An off-road speed around 20mph was forecast. The use of a diesel, while needing its own fuel rather than pool petrol, offered advantages, not least a good range of action without needing an oversized fuel tank. The Army were worried that a modified aero engine would be too expensive, but the Vickers team pointed out that there were simply no commercial engines in the right power range. The other options were either to link together two bus engines - which, while probably a bit cheaper, would be much more mechanically complicated with the associated reliability and maintenance issues - or have a custom engine built. While a custom engine would probably be an ideal propulsive solution, it would take at least a year, and be expensive for the numbers of tanks the Army normally ordered. The Kestrel had the advantage that they could get a couple from Rolls-Royce for development, and while a dedicated production line would be needed, this could easily be set up and running before they needed the engines.

Sir John was asked if reducing the armour would allow a cheaper engine, but he pointed out that this was exactly the reason the original A9 specification had proven inadequate. His design did use sloped armour as much as possible, to increase the effectiveness of the armour, and Vickers had also decided on welding the tank. They felt that as long as a reasonable number were ordered - including tanks needed for training, an armoured brigade would need about 150 tanks - the advantages of welding would make the initial setup costs worthwhile. Vickers had experience of welding in their shipyards, and certainly welding the demonstration tanks would be no problem. The Army took more time going through the detailed plans, but the tank men at least were very happy with what Vickers would be offering. The senior officers were a bit less sanguine - they could see a lot of non-technical issues that they'd have to deal with, but overall it did look like a very good tank that would keep them in the forefront of tank design. Vickers had suggested that, with a good sized order, they could produce the tank for about £12,000 apiece. Vickers also thought they could deliver such an order in about 12-15 months from it being placed - if they did get this contract, they were thinking of building a proper tank factory, they were confident that the way things were going internationally that would be very useful, and they might even get government support - the aircraft side of their business was already looking at expansion and the new 'Shadow Factories', and they didn't see any reason why the same thinking could not be applied to tanks.

All in all, both sides felt it had been a most productive meeting. Vickers and Sir John had got their technical points across, and the Army had been reasonably positive, especially the men who would actually have to fight in the tanks. Of course, there were a number of little technical issues that Sir John hadn't emphasised - after all, one wouldn't want to overburden the Army men with too much detail about the technicalities - but these could be dealt with once an order was agreed. For their part, the Army promised to discuss it further and come back to Vickers as soon as possible. They did ask when a prototype could be produced ready for evaluation, and were pleasantly surprised when told this would be 9 months at the most, and one in mild steel rather than armour could cut a couple of months off that; what they didn't realise, and the Vickers men didn't tell them, was that considerable work had been done on the old A9/A10 specifications that could be used or adapted to the new tank, so they weren't actually starting from a blank sheet of paper.

While originally the meeting had also intended to discuss the proposals for a heavy infantry tank, after going through all the issue regarding the Cruiser tank, this was postponed for a later meeting. At the moment the Cruiser was seen as the highest priority tank.

 

[Astrodragon]

February 4th 1936, War Office.


While the Army high command were busy trying to get some tanks available for Egypt, the initial hopeful air had been to a considerable extent demolished by some reports on the state of the tanks, both at home and abroad. The tanks held at home, it stated, were basically all old and worn out. While it had been possible to get them into an acceptable stated for exercises on Salisbury Plain, the idea of sending them abroad was described as a 'disaster waiting to happen'. There weren't even enough tanks available for a proper training regime. It was pointed out that the availability of working tanks, even in the summer exercises, had gone down over the last 3 years as they wore out. Not only that, but the current tanks were not suitable for the way the Royal Tank Corps intended to use them.

The situation in Egypt was little better. Again, the armour there was old, except for some more modern light tanks. The armoured cars supporting them were even older, many dating back to the Great War. The infantry had no anti-armour weapons apart from a few field guns, and the cavalry was still tied to its horses. Even the modern tanks had some issues with reliability, and the track life was much shorter than considered necessary.

The Army read these with considerable disquiet. While they felt some of it might be exaggerated, much of it was provably true, and the initial reports of the state of the armour in Egypt certainly didn't contradict this. Something had to be done.

After some fractious meetings, they settled on a plan, implemented in a number of stages.

First, the contract to Vickers for modifying light tanks and building some new 6-tonners was expedited. In addition, Vickers was also tasked to renovate the existing tanks as far as was practicable. At least if they were going to send reinforcements to Egypt they could make sure they worked!

Secondly they needed to improve both the usage and maintenance of the tanks already in Egypt. To this end, Percy Hobart was relieved of his duties in the Tank Brigade and sent out to Egypt to command the Desert Force and make sure its training in all respects - not just in combat - was greatly improved.

Next was the need to upgrade a Cavalry Regiment to armoured cars and light tanks. The possibility of using the Regiment already in Egypt was considered, but while everyone - even the Cavalry - accepted that mechanisation was the way forward, there were areas in the Middle East where horses still had some advantages. The decision was to mechanise one of the regiments at home, then send it out to Hobart. The 6th battalion of the Royal Tank Corps would then be re-equipped with the new tanks, and the Cavalry regiment would then the reconnaissance detachment. Percy Hobart would remain in command, at least until he was confident with the state of the units. As it was expected this would take considerable time, a replacement for his role in the RTC at home would be needed.



While this took care of the immediate issues, there remained the one of how actually useful the light tanks were in combat. The modifications that Vickers were making weren't really a solution, but a patch. The problem needed to be addressed properly, as they were well aware that building and training armoured units was an expensive and time-consuming process. There was another reason for moving fast; at the moment, the Treasury was more amenable than usual due to worries about the safety of the Suez Canal, but no-one knew how long this would last if a peaceful solution with Italy appeared.

One solution had already been suggested by the RTC as a result of their exercises. The cavalry, when motorised, still had a role in reconnaissance and disruption behind enemy lines, indeed this was their traditional role, just modernised to remove the horse. They had suggested that this might actually be done better with armoured cars that with light tanks. The reasoning was, that for these roles speed was more important than fighting ability. Indeed, one rather cynical tank officer had pointed out that NOT giving the recon element much in the way of guns would actually encourage them to do that job rather than get seduced into shooting up things. The suggestion had been first a light, unarmed car, protected just against rifles, fast and purely tasked for reconnaissance. The second recommendation had been either a heavy armoured car or a light tank, armed so as to disrupt and kill the rear element, helping sow confusion and panic. There were advantages to both the light tank and armoured car in this role, although if it could be given decent mobility on poor ground, am armoured car might well be the better choice. It would certainly be cheaper to buy and more economical to maintain.

The problem was, of course, that neither vehicle existed in the British Army. The need for such elements in the desert had pushed the matter forward, and after some consideration, two specifications were drawn up and sent out to some of the firms they thought might be interested. The first specification was for the light armoured car - this would carry a light machine gun, just in case, and a radio; the second was for a heavy armoured car, weighing about 5-6 tons, carrying a machine gun and either a 2pdr or the old 3pdr, and as well armoured as could be done on the chassis, and again with a radio. Both were to have good speed, and a range in excess of 200miles. It was hoped that if a satisfactory response came from the firms, these vehicles could be introduced faster than new tanks. In the meantime, they did have the old armoured cars and light tanks, and better training would improve their effectiveness.

 

[Astrodragon]

7th March 1936, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland

Not long after dawn on March 7, 1936, nineteen German infantry battalions and a handful of planes entered the Rhineland. By doing so, Germany violated Articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles and Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty of Locarno. The men reached the river Rhine by 11:00 a.m. and then three battalions crossed to the west bank of the Rhine. At the same time, Baron von Neurath summoned the Italian ambassador Baron Bernardo Attolico, the British ambassador Sir Eric Phipps and the French ambassador André François-Poncet to the Wilhelmstrasse to hand them notes accusing France of violating Locarno by ratifying the Franco-Soviet pact, and announcing that as such Germany had decided to renounce Locarno and remilitarize the Rhineland

The Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin claimed, that Britain lacked the resources to enforce her treaty guarantees and that public opinion would not stand for military force anyway. The British Chiefs of Staff had warned that war with Germany was inadvisable under the grounds that the deep cuts imposed by the Ten Year Rule together with the fact that rearmament had only begun in 1934 meant that at most Britain could do in the event of war would be to send two divisions with backward equipment to France after three weeks of preparation. Additionally, fears were expressed in Whitehall if Britain went to war with Germany, then Japan, which since 1931 when Japanese had seized Manchuria from China had been making claims to be the only power in the Far East, might take advantage of the war to start seizing Britain's Asian colonies.

As far as the Empire was concerned, any reaction was made more difficult by the opposition by The Union of South Africa and Canada, both of whom were completely opposed to any idea of military action, and indeed both stated that if this occurred they would stand aside and not take any part in it. Domestic reaction was equally negative, the prevailing opinion being that Germany was only marching into its own territory.

France, while more inclined to action, was in the midst of an economic crisis, and the huge overestimation of the German forces by French Intelligence made them feel they would need to mobilise in order to take on the Germans. As such expenditure would precipitate an economic crisis, in the end little as done but for diplomatic protests.

**************


Later, the talks between the Army and the Government talked at length about what should be done in order to forestall such events in the future. While there was a case for Germany taking back her own territory, the military men wanted to know what would happen the next time, and if we were to continue to be helpless. The next such event might be of far more importance, and they pointed at the aggressive Italian action not far from the vital transport link of the Suez Canal. While no-one was suggesting a massive increase in the Army, something had to be done to recover from previous neglect.

For their part, the Government was unwilling to provide for any major increase in the size of the Army, suggestion that this would be a provocative act towards Germany and Italy. For their part the Army wondered what the point was of not being in a position to take action if such was necessary. As was often the case, a compromise was suggested that didn't really please either party. The Army was not going to be increased in size, but improvements were to be funded which would make them more efficient. Mechanisation would continue, in fact it would be accelerated, and the long-sought for improvements in equipment would be better funded. The RAF would continue its planned expansion and acceptance of new equipment; the navy would continue its replacement of old or obsolete ships. While the Army already had a mechanisation program in place, they were authorised to examine if it could be sped up, as long as it wasn't too expensive, of course.



{The first section of this post is an edited version of a small part of the Wiki article on the occupation of the Rhineland, Remilitarization of the Rhineland - Wikipedia. The rest is original}

 

[Astrodragon]

13th April 1936, Vickers Engineering.

The visit to Vickers, led by Martel as the Assistant Director of Mechanisation, was intended to discuss the ideas the Vickers design team had for the new Infantry tank as well as their progress on the A10*. The visit had started with a look at the plans and the wooden mock-up of the A10* prototype. Martel and his team were impressed by how fast the mock-up had been put together, although Vickers did feel obliged to point out that this was partly because they'd managed to absorb quite a lot from the abortive A9 and A10 work. Even in wood, the tank looked impressive, the sloped armour giving it a look of smooth modernity. The lack of rivets was commented on, and Vickers confirmed they were intending to use welding. This would both reduce the weight of the tank, and allow the smooth slopes of the armour to fit together much more easily. Martel was impressed with the spacious turret - well, spacious by tank standards - and the only real negative comment was the lack of a bow machine gun, or any of the small machine gun turrets that had adorned the A9 and some of the previous tanks. The Vickers team explained that the machine gun turrets were heavy, really too small for the operators, and compromised the tanks protection. They did agree to consider adding a single machine gun, perhaps manned by the radio operator when necessary, but Martel noted that they didn't seem awfully convinced by the need. The point had been made that this tank's main purpose was to fight other tanks and exploit weak areas, rather than attack troops, and so a coaxial machine gun was really all it needed.

The Army was also a bit worried about the proposed use of an aero engine. While it would provide a good power output, they were concerned about issues like cooling. Vickers explained that they had retained the services of Harry Riccardo as a consultant; his work on fitting the engine to a racing car had included the need to cool the engine in a land role, and he was confident that a modified version of the racing car solutions would provide sufficient cooling. While this was reassuring, some of the Army men were still unconvinced, wondering if a large bus engine would be better - it would also be cheaper. Vickers were unwilling to compromise the performance of the new design, but did point out that they were intending to build a mild steel prototype before the 'real' armoured one; if the Army wished to cover the additional cost, once they had done the preliminary work with the mild steel tank and moved on to a full armoured model, they could put a specified engine into the first prototype so performance could be compared.



After a short break for tea, the meeting restarted, this time with the addition of Sir John Carden, who was leading the team designing an infantry tank. No specification had been issued by the Army, although the intended use had been discussed, so this was the first time they had seen the detailed design in full.

As this tank was intended to both support the infantry and break through a defence when necessary, it needed considerably more protection than the cruiser tank. The Army had decided that they needed it to be immune to current anti-tank guns, and this meant an armour thickness of around 60-70mm. Vickers suggestion was 60mm on the sides and rear, and 70 on the front, armour being sloped as much as possible to increase its effective thickness. This would make it proof against their own 3pdr gun except at very close range. They were concerned about the weight of armour - their estimate of the weight was 24tons - and so suggested they go with their initial figures; once a prototype was complete, the armour thickness could be revisited if necessary.

The next surprise for Martel was the intended gun. While he fully understood the arguments for a large HE shell in its intended role, the use of a bored-out 6pdr was unexpected. After a short presentation, he understood why they had gone with this gun - while they were still building a prototype, it seemed a safe enough development of the naval gun, and the addition of a small number of AP shells would, they agreed, be a useful thing to have just in case. There was more consternation at the fact the gun would not balance internally, so the current Army usage of the gunner as the elevation method wouldn't be possible. Sir John explained that the weight of the gun made it simply too heavy for a man to elevate on his shoulder, so in addition to the power traverse, a powered elevation mechanism would be fitted. This also allowed more space in the turret, something considered very useful to help the three-man turret crew load the large shells. Granted this would mean firing on the move wouldn't be practicable, but fighting other tanks wasn't this main objective for this vehicle, and it's heavy armour would it was hoped give the crew more time to stop and return fire. While Martel understood the reasoning, he was rather thankful that Percy Hobart was off in Egypt - he'd originally been intended to be part of this discussion, and his view on firing on the move were rather rigid.

In addition to the main gun, they were intending to fit two machine guns - one coaxially with the main gun, the other mounted forward. Again they had abandoned the idea of sub-turrets, but with a much greater expectation of an anti-infantry role a second machine gun was considered important. The radio operator would double as the hull machine gunner.

The suspension was different from that on the Cruiser mock-up they'd examined earlier. That, apparently, had a new suspension designed by Sir John, but he considered it probably too light for the heavier tank, and had gone back to a revised Horseman suspension. The big shock was the engine that was going to be put in. While the 340hp of the diesel engine in the cruiser had looked formidable, Vickers were proposing a 500hp diesel engine for this tank. They explained that this was to make it much more mobile. Early infantry support tanks had moved not much faster than the men on foot. While this was all very well when attacking a trench line, the experiments and exercises of the EAF had shown that if the tank was to do its role of aiding in an exploitation breakthrough, something a lot faster would be needed. It would also be helpful to the infantry; tanks were expensive, so a limited number would be available, and making them more mobile allowed them to move between support tasks much more efficiently. They were initially going to put the diesel Kestrel in to see how it moved, but were allowing space for the larger Thorneycroft model. Eyebrows raised again when they calmly stated they expected a cross-country speed of around 20mph, and somewhat faster on the road. These were speeds associated with a cruiser-type tank a few years ago!



By the time they left, Martel had a lot to think through. Both the tanks were looking very good on paper, now he had to decide if they would be translated into an equally good metal tank. There was also the issue of how fast Vickers could produce them. While he had faith in Sir John and the rest of the teams, if something went wrong they would be in a very unfortunate position. He decided to recommend they put out two specifications, based on what they'd been shown, one for a cruiser tank and one for an infantry tank. He would recommend Vickers got funding for one of each type, while they placed the specifications with a few other heavy engineering companies. Vickers were one of the biggest engineering groups in the world, but putting all the Army's eggs into one basket wasn't a good idea.

 

[Astrodragon]

11th May 1936, Vulcan Foundry


"So, gentlemen, no doubt you've all seen the specification we want for our new infantry tank."

There was some nodding of heads among the engineers, so Martel continued.

"Now it's fairly straightforward. We need it to be armoured to withstand current anti-tank guns, which we consider is about 70mm of armour all around. It needs to mount a cannon as well as at least two machine guns. A crew of at least four is needed, five would be better if you can fit them in. Engine and suspension we leave up to you, but we need a speed of at least 12mph cross country and 16mph on the road. Faster would be nice, but not at the expense of protection. We are probably looking at a weight of around 25 tons, lighter would be better. It needs to carry a radio, and we want a range of at least 120miles. Any questions?"

There had been a few worried looks as they full specification was read out, but Vulcan had after all decided to bid for this tank.

"Is there any requirement on how the tank has to be constructed?"

"Not as long as it meets the specification."

"Ah, that's good then. We were intending to do most of this with castings - we have experience in that field, and that will make a very strong tank, which is what you're after."

"That's exactly what we're after. We realise you haven't actually designed a tank from scratch, so I've arranged for Woolwich to give you a hand at getting started - lend you a few engineers, advice, that sort of thing. We are expecting you to use an existing gun, so you don't have to worry about more than fitting it in."

"That would be very helpful. We build good railway engines, we are keen to build a good tank for the Army."


13th May 1936, War Office.


Martel got back to his desk to find some new documents for him to take action on. Mainly concerned with trying to strengthen the position in Egypt. Even though the Italians seemed to have finally won in Ethiopia - their forces had entered the capitol on the 5th, and two days later King Victor Emmanuel III had been proclaimed Emperor. While there would probably be some continuing acts of resistance, it was basically all over now. The Foreign Office had as usually been on at them to know why they weren't sending out reinforcements, ironic since up until the invasion they had been urging restraint and non-provocation. As usual, once it was too late they wanted a miracle.

Actually the news on that front wasn't all bad. A letter from Vickers explained they were nearly ready with the first 12 of the modified light tanks, and suggested they be inspected next week. Assuming everyone was happy with them, they could then arrange for them to be shipped out. A second batch, this time of new-built tanks, would be ready in another few months. The 6-tonner order would take a bit longer, but it was progressing according to timetable.

Martel wondered if this would help, given that the Italians could if they wished now turn their attention on Egypt, but so far Intelligence considered this unlikely, their opinion being that Mussolini would first absorb his new conquests. Well, it wasn't as if they could speed up the new tanks, Vickers was actually a bit ahead of the timetable they'd given them.

Many of the other documents were from the men actually at the sharp end. He read through the first few and sighed - it looked like Percy Hobart wasn't getting any less vitriolic as he aged. His report on the state of the armour included such things as 'out of date', 'worn out', 'lack of trained men, particularly in the workshops', and so on. The only good point was he reported on what he was going to do to improve the situation, but as he pointed out, without new tanks that wasn't much. He marked up some of the correspondence for further dissemination, and turned to a less miserable topic, the description of the proposed Summer Exercise of the mechanised force. While Martel wasn't responsible for it, he had a deep interest in following up the lessons learnt in 1934 and 1935.

This year the aim was going to be different. They actually had less armour available, the stock had been slowly deteriorating and as yet the only new tanks were some light ones, which they already knew were of little real use. As the last two years had been working on the offensive use of the armour, this year they were going to look at two things. First was the use of a tank battalion in support of an infantry force. This would be to simulate the infantry tank concept that had come out of earlier exercises. The infantry force would be a Brigade, with all its usual support, and they would be attacking a stronger defending force. The light tanks would be assumed to be the heavy infantry tanks. There would actually be two parts to this test - the second would reverse the roles, with the stronger infantry force attacking. While the tactics were of course secret, Martel had, unofficially, chatted with his old friends still in the unit about it. They were intending to use the mobile armour to simulate a mixed force of infantry and cruiser tanks - the infantry tanks would help the defence, and if possible channel the attack where they wanted it to go, then the cruiser tanks would counterattack, if possible when the attack had bogged down.

Martel was looking forward to seeing the exercise - he'd got onto the staff for this, and the idea of using the armour in a number of different ways appealed to him. The enemy never co-operated, and having the ability to act flexibly depending on circumstances would be very useful. He just wished they had the real cruiser and infantry tanks they were still hoping for, somehow a light tank didn't quite look like a massive armoured juggernought. Once the exercises and the analysis had been done, he was going to press for a definition of what the new armoured force should look like - they needed a lot more than just tanks to build the flexible and powerful unit that he knew the Army needed.

 

[Astrodragon]

28th September 1936, War Office


While General Martel loved getting out and away from his office, especially when it involved actually seeing tanks working, it did tend to mean having a lot of outstanding paperwork to read through. His staff was efficient, but there were things he both needed and wanted to keep an eye on personally. Now he was the Assistant Director of Mechanisation, he had the authority to propose what sort of tanks would be needed and how they should be developed. While he'd had both interest and input previously, it had been less authorative.

His first task was to go through the report on the RTC Summer exercises. He'd witnessed these before his trip to Russia, but he wanted to see what had been learned in detail.

First, the use of simulated heavy infantry tanks to support and infantry led attack had proved quite successful. Not all the attacks had worked, but considering the defence was most of a division, the fact that some of them had was an encouraging start. The summary was that heavy tanks were very useful at breaking up infantry positions, even if they were defended by anti-tank guns, and that while the support tanks certainly needed plenty of smoke shells, there had been times when HE had played a useful part at supporting the infantry. While an infantry attack would always be slower than a motorised one, the use of the tanks to speed up the actual attack was very helpful. The other thing that had helped was that part of the RTC supporting infantry had been in some of the spare Dragons. Their ability to bring infantry units up quickly, protected from light fire, had made then more effective, as well as having them suffer notably less casualties that the men only on foot. The commander of the defending force had made the point that they needed more anti-tank guns - where they had them, the tanks had far less freedom of action, and if possible could they have some Dragons too, please? Martel shook his head at that - he could understand the request, but the Infantry would have to wait in line, they didn't even have a design for a suitable, cheap carrier for the RTC yet. He made a note to see about that - while money was always tight, surely a little could be spared to investigate the possibilities.

The second half of the exercise had used the RTC elements in support of the defence. They had certainly helped, units with supporting tanks had inflicted more damage and fallen back in better order, but not as much as had been hoped. The attacking force had been quite versatile in its use of its own anti-tank guns; one unit, which had somehow (everyone had thought it best not to ask exactly how) got hold of a couple of half-tracks and used them to bring their 2pdrs up fast across poor ground. This had enabled them to knock out some of the defending tanks. As a result a request had been made to investigate some sort of light vehicle, preferably equipped with tracks, that could be used for this purpose.

The tanks had been more effective in leading a counterattack - again, their speed and protection had made life a lot harder for the defending infantry. While there had been casualties, they had been lower than a traditional infantry assault, and low casualties were always good. There was a long list of suggestions and recommendations from all units concerned, and he put them aside for further consideration. What was becoming obvious was that tanks on their own only really worked well after a breakthrough had occurred. The earlier ideas of an all-tank force simply didn't work; even at a minimum the tanks needed artillery and engineer support, and having infantry take over some of the work was cheaper than yet more tanks. He made a note for some meetings to discuss the makeup of the projected Mobile Force that was being proposed. They would need to incorporate the lessons of the last few years exercises into that.

His final note was to have a word about the RAF support. As in previous years, the RAF had provided some squadrons, equipped with Hawker Harts, to support the attacks and do reconnaissance. The ground commanders had been happy with their support, but there was worry expressed about whether the RAF would continue to supply the necessary squadrons. The RAF was just gearing up for a massive re-equipment effort, during which the Harts would be retired, and there didn't seem to be a specific replacement for them. The Army needed to talk to the airmen about this, the idea that the RAF would go its own way and ignore them was very worrying to them. It also implied that without dedicated air support the RTC should include some sort of mobile AA. This had actually been demonstrated some years ago, on a Dragon tractor, and Vickers had sold some abroad.



The second thing he had to write was his report on the Russian exercises he'd been an observer at. They had proved an eye-opener, and thanks to General Wavell he had been able to talk to some of the Soviet officers as well as watch the exercises. The sheer number of tanks had been a shock; while the Russians had always favoured large armies, the exercise had involved comfortably more tanks than existed in the British Army. And it wasn't just the number of vehicles, the performance of the tanks was equally impressive. The features that had most caught his attention were speed and firepower.

Some of the tanks had been using a new type of suspension, one that he was unfamiliar with. Some discrete questions had revealed that it wasn't a Russian design at all, but one bought from an American, a Mr Christie. Just how the Russians had got the rights past the US State Department wasn't mentioned. However it wasn't just the suspension that gave the tanks their impressive performance, but the 500hp engine they'd fitted. Derived from an aero engine, he's been told, and he made a mental not to apologise to Sir John Carden about doubting his ideas for using them. Together they had sped a tank along at over 30mph, and he'd been told they could go even faster if needed. This was getting on for twice the speed of a British tank, and if the Russians could do it, so coule other potential enemies.

The other point had been the armament. The Russians were arming some of their tanks with a 76mm gun, and while they'd been coy about its performance, looking at the length of the gun he was certain it would kill any current British tank, and even the new cruiser Vickers were developing would be at risk. He sighed - it looked like another apology was in order, this time to the Vickers ordnance department. He'd thought their suggestion of a 6pdr modified to take an 18pd shell really far more than was needed, but if they were going to face tanks armed with 3" guns, something would have to be looked at. At least it didn't look like unfriendly powers in Europe were going that route, at least not yet, but the situation needed to be kept under observation.

He thought again about the Christie suspension. Surely if the Russians could copy it, Britain could too, and it seemed to be the answer to the fast tanks the Army wanted. He started to draft a note suggesting discrete enquiries to find out if Mr Christie would like to show his tank off in Britain.

 

[Astrodragon]

5th October 1936, MEE, Farnborough

Vickers had completed the first prototype of the A10* tank, in mild steel, some weeks ago. It had been tested by them, and while there were some outstanding issues, they felt it ready for the Army testing team to do an evaluation. Meanwhile they were close to finishing the final prototype (this time using proper armour), and hoped to incorporate any changes that these initial tests proved necessary.

For their part the Army was equally anxious to get their hands on the new tank. After the Italian war in Africa, and the German move into the Rhineland, the fact that Britain had no modern tanks apart from some light models had made the introduction of a new model something that was being actively pushed by the RTC and its supporters.

So the Vickers team had taken their tank to the MEE in Farnborough for its first real test. The results, while not terrible, had revealed some faults. The first impressions had been very favourable - the welded tank with its sloped armour looked sleek and dangerous. They had been happy with the internals; the turret was fairly spacious (by tank standards), and while they had comments about the layout, the Vickers men had nodded and said they would take all those on board.

There were some comments when they saw the power unit - Rolls-Royce had delivered a handful of Kestrels to be modified to diesel type, enough to allow the development and testing of the prototypes. Certainly the power output was impressive, it was over twice what the Medium tanks used. The problems started when they started to test the tank. On rough ground, the new 'lubricated' tracks had a nasty tendency to slew and come off. The same happened on tight corners. As one of the testing team pointed out to Vickers, a tank who's tracks came off was rather useless in combat.

When the tracks did stay on, the speed was impressive. Even though the tank came in at 18 tons - worryingly close to the limit of the RTC's bridging equipment - the 320hp provided by the diesel Kestrel powered it along splendidly. They had clocked it at 31mph on the road, before the tracks came off again. It wasn't just the tracks, they noted that at anything close to this speed the ride was quite rough, and certainly too poor to allow any sort of sensible shooting while on the move.

The testing had lasted some days, the final day in the presence of Vickers senior designers, including Sir John Carden. The Army had been quite clear about the problems, but at least Vickers seemed to be taking them on board. Sir Jon told them that he thought he understood the suspension issue, and already had a solution in mind - while Vickers own testing had shown some issues, they'd wanted to get the Army feedback early on. He also felt that the issue of the tracks could be improved, and hoped that suspension improvements would help that particular issue, although he also promised that his team would work on making sure the tracks stayed on.

All in all, the conclusion was the A10* had the potential to be a very good tank, once the suspension and track problems had been corrected. Vickers explained that the next visit would be with the second prototype (in proper armour steel this time), and they would work on the faults before it arrived. They would also look at the minor points that the testing team would like improved, but didn't know if there would be time for them all to be done. The Army were not terribly worried about all of these - small issues occurred with all new tanks, and were normally sorted out before production. They were happy with Vickers suggestion that if they were to prioritise them, they'd work on that while improving the track and suspension.

It was hoped that the second prototype would be ready for testing in the New Year, and Vickers intended to refit the mild steel one with a more conventional engine, as requested. This would allow speed and performance to be compared, though the Vickers men seemed to think that their initial ideas would prove the winner.



27th October 1936

General Sir Hugh Ellis had read both Martel's reports on the Russian tanks, and the Farnborough report on the new A10* prototype. He was also thinking about Martel's request to get hold of one of Christies tanks - ideally accompanied by Christie - for inspection and evaluation. The idea of a new suspension was of interest, as there were obviously issues with that on the Vickers prototype. Granted, they felt these were solvable, but a second string to their bow wouldn't hurt. Granted, Carden was regarded as a miracle worker when it came to these things, but you couldn't just assume he could produce on on demand.

Nuffield Mechanisation and Aero was a new player in the game of upgrading the mechanisation of the British Army. The points in its favour was that it was a new, modern company, backed by Lord Nuffield. Morris Motors, the company providing the industrial power behind the new venture, were well known for mass production of motor vehicles, but they had no experience of anything as massive as a tank Sir Hugh considered their lack of experience in that area, and decided that the Tank Design Team at Woolwich might offer assistance in getting them up and running. That would also help reduce the mutterings about the Army using Vickers for new tank designs rather than themselves.

Now, he thought, if they could get a copy of Christies tank, would Nuffield be interested in making a tank based on it? It would basically be to the A10 design, and the Christie suspension seemed to off considerable speed, which was always wanted in a cruiser tank. Ideally that suspension would allow something a bit less expensive than the aero engine Vickers were suggestion for their solution. He would have a quiet word with Nuffield, and suggest that this might be a fruitful match. Even if the Christie scheme came to nothing, a second solution to the cruiser tank requirement would allow some useful comparisons.

 

[Astrodragon]

3rd November 1936, State Department, Washington D.C.


Walter Christie was not a happy man. He'd been preparing to talk with some people with the British Delegation about getting one of his early model tanks over to Britain - apparently some of their Army men had seen them in action in Russia, and were keen on evaluating one. They'd also said that if one wasn't available, they would be interested in purchasing the right to build some prototypes based on his designs, and if they worked out a much bigger contract would be forthcoming.

All had seemed bright and positive until he'd got a request - no, dammit, he thought, a poorly disguised order - to attend the State Department. No reason had been given, but as the US Army had been pretty much ignoring his designs, he suspected it wasn't good news.

He was quite correct. While the functionaries who'd dealt with him - idiots, both of them, they likely wouldn't recognise a good tank design if they fell over it - had dressed it all up in fancy, prissy language, it all boiled down to this.

His designs, no matter how he tried to pass them off as experimental vehicles, were tanks. Weapons of war. When he tried to get them to accept they were just vehicle designs, they pointed out the rather large fleet of Russian tanks using his suspension and designed accordingly. As an American, he was forbidden to export or aid in the export of war material. Hence he would not be permitted to supply the British with anything, nor would he be allowed to license any of his patented work. No matter how he argued, they refused to budge. And yet they still had no intention of actually using his work themselves!

When he made noises about how he was a free American and they couldn't stop him visiting Britain, he got oily smiles and it was pointed out that behaviour like that would result in a court case against him. While they didn't actually say so - a more slimy pair of bureaucrats he'd never met - it was obvious that the government would drag him through court until either they won or he was bankrupt.

He left fuming. All that interest in his work, thrown away. He wasn't even allowed to speak to the British any longer, they had loftily informed him that 'it would all be taken care of'.


6th November, War Department.


"So, Martel, it looks like the US Government objects to us getting hold of Mr Christie's designs, and has taken steps to stop him supplying us with anything."

Gifford Martel was as unhappy as his boss. He couldn't blame general Ellis, he'd been quite supportive of his request about the Christie designs, after reading the reports on the Russian exercises.

"I don't suppose there's any other way of getting hold of them?"

Ellis shook his heads. "Doesn't look like it. It seems their government has been rather firm, if he tries to slip us anything they will take it that he's breached their laws. The only other source is Russian, and to be honest I don't see much chance of getting hold of a sample tank from the Communists, do you?"

"It does seem unlikely, Sir. It's such a shame, I've spoken with Lord Nuffield and he was keen on using Christie's work in a new tank design he would put to us. We need more companies involved in designing and making tanks for us."

"Well, I don't see why we can't still use Nuffield and his companies. Looking at our future requirements, we are going to be needing tanks, and fairly soon. I think we should offer him the A10 specification and see what his chaps can come up with."

"I suppose that's better than nothing, Sir. Of course, it's likely to be a different beast, and a lot slower than we were hoping for."

"That's true, Gifford, but at least we will be able to see what he comes up with. We need a fast, mobile tank that doesn't weigh so much it breaks all our bridging gear, so dig out that old specification and we'll see what he makes of it. While you're at it, check with the intelligence people on their latest estimates of those new German tanks, if we're going to re-issue the A10 spec we should make sure of the current threat."

 

[Astrodragon]

12th November 1936

Report on the usage of armoured cars, and the re-equipping of the non-motorised Cavalry Regiments

Exercises with armoured and mobile forces have shown that the traditional roles of the cavalry still remain; however it is obvious that the horse can no longer be used in these roles. It is therefore recommended that we continue with the mechanisation of the cavalry as soon as practicable. This will allow the regiments to become familiar with their new equipment, and become practiced in its use. Two regiments will remain, at least for the time being, as horse cavalry, to be used in areas of the Empire where the horse still has logistical advantages, and potential opposition is not heaviuly armed.

In order to fulfil their role, the cavalry needs two types or armoured car or light tank. There is ongoing discussion of whether the heavier vehicle should be an armoured car or a light tank, both have advantages and disadvantages. We therefore recommend the following actions,

First, that tenders are put out for a design of a light armoured car, or scout car. This only needs protection against rifle and light machine guns, as its intended role is reconnaissance, not combat. It needs a crew of two; three men would also be acceptable. The vehicle must carry a radio, and for self-protection a mountable LMG such as a Bren gun. It needs good speed, a minimum of 40mph on road, and 50mph would be preferred. It also needs good rough-terrain performance, so as not to be road bound. A minimum operational range of 200 miles is required. The engine may be either diesel or petrol; if petrol, then it must run on standard Pool petrol.

Second, that tenders are put out for a heavy armoured car. This is to supplement the scout cars, and do the role of attacking and disrupting the enemy rear and communications as well as scouting. A crew of three is recommended. It should have protection against rifle fire and splinter, as well as light anti-vehicle weapons. A minimum of 15mm is suggested, although heavier frontal protection would be a benefit. The car will carry a turret-mounted gun; at a minimum the 37mm COW gun. The ability to fit the 2pdr gun would be a beneficial option. The car will also mount a light machine gun. It must carry a radio. It needs a reasonable speed, a minimum of 30mph on the road, and 40mph would be beneficial. It also needs good rough terrain capability. A minimum operational range of 200 miles is desirable. The engine may be either diesel or petrol; if petrol, then it must run on standard Pool petrol.

Third, that we put out a requirement for a light tank with a similar performance to the heavy armoured car. To reduce delivery time and cost, we suggest using an existing model as the basis for the design. While we hope to get a lower-cost armoured car with similar performance, this will serve as a benchmark of what can be supplied.



We need to re-equip 18 cavalry regiments. The usual allowance is about 40 usable vehicles per regiment; allowing for spares, and other uses, we have found this needs 60 vehicles per regiment. Allowing for training, this means we need to provide some 600 scout cars and 600 heavy armoured cars/light tanks. Cost is therefore of major importance, as is ease and cost of maintenance. A reliable vehicle is needed, both in use and to help the cavalry transition to motorisation. It is expected that we will be providing each division with a cavalry regiment, with a number being held in reserve to be allocated where additional needs are seen. Because of their mobility, we desire mechanised formations to have one regiment per brigade.

It has been suggested that we start by ordering a significant number of light tanks, to start filling the heavy vehicle requirement as soon as possible. While a simple solution, it has significant problems.

First, even a light tank is considerably more costly than an armoured car. Exercises have shown that with improvements in tank and anti-tank guns, they are no longer usable as tanks, thus they will only equip the cavalry. It takes longer to build a tank than an armoured car, so waiting while we get a useful design from industry doesn't waste as much time as might be thought. We expect the manufactures to come up with a design within three months, and then hope to make a quick decision on manufacture; we are looking at the transition taking some three years, so we will need about 400 vehicles a year. This will probably need the design to be built by more than one manufacturer.

Even assuming a rapid response, we do not see the first vehicles arriving for a year. We therefore suggest a purchase is made of the Morris CS9 armoured car. The prototype has been inspected and tested, and while the car does not meet many of the requirements as set forth earlier, it will be a useful intermediate step and allow the units to start to become familiar with mechanisation. We suggest a purchase of about 100 cars is made; this will allow two regiments to be equipped, plus some spares and an allowance for the training units.

 

[Astrodragon]

24th November 1936, Vickers

Vivian Lloyd re-read the specification Vickers had recently received from the Army. It was an interesting idea, one that his contacts had told him had been considered for some time after the 1935 exercises. He'd chatted about the concept with his colleagues, and particularly with his friend Sir John Carden, as the idea and concepts were rather similar to those they'd had in mind when they designed their initial Carden-Lloyd carriers in the 1920's. Sir John had a heavy workload now, with the new tanks Vickers was developing, so he'd suggested that Vivian led a new team to work on a prototype for the Army requirement.

The requirement was quite ambitious. A tracked carrier capable of transporting a section of men. He shook his head slightly at that - the Army was currently dithering over whether the best section size was 8 or 10 men - and made a note to design for 10; it would be easier to reduce it than expand it once the Army finally made up their minds. It should be armoured against light rifle and machine guns, and splinters, and it should also have an armoured roof to protect against air attack. Now that was an interesting innovation, it looked like someone had been looking at what the RAF's air cover had been doing in the exercises. It was listed as preferred, not mandated, so he decided to think about it, and in particular how much weight it would add. There was also the issue of just how much armour it would need; aircraft were armed with machine guns, as well as 20mm cannon. Just how well these would penetrate would have to be examined. The vehicle should protect the crew against a mine, at least enough to let them survive. A speed of 30mph on road, and 20mph on rough ground, in order to keep up with the tanks. That should be achievable, it would be a lot lighter than a tank, after all. Range needed to be similar to a tank, better than 120miles.

He sat back and thought. All that was quite feasible, it wasn't that much different from the current Dragon artillery tractor. The additional demand was what would be challenging - it had to be cheap. The Dragon, designed as an artillery tractor, was capable but not cheap. Well, if they were to mount an Infantry Battalion on carriers, he could see why the cost needed to be affordable. He started thinking about what existing components he could use - commercial heavy trucks, maybe some parts from the Carrier. Obviously for any sort of serious numbers, it would need to be designed for mass production like a truck. While they hadn't said so, he suspected that the Army would prefer something cheap even if it wasn't quite as capable.

The army hadn't said too much about the layout of the vehicle. That was good, having a free hand meant they could design what worked rather than what the generals had demanded. He would have to talk to some of the people who'd actually been involved in the exercises on Salisbury Plain. He knew they'd been experimenting with some of the spare Dragons, and he wanted to get a feel for what worked, what didn't, and what the people who'd be at the sharp end felt.

He was looking forward to this challenge. While Sir John was a very old friend, he'd been feeling a bit in his shadow, and this would allow him to show just what he could achieve.