Military Power

In 1918 the Tank Corps had consisted of twenty five battalions, of which eighteen were in France and four more were awaiting embarkation. With the coming of peace however, the strength of the Corps shrunk to some 2500 all ranks equipped with the rusting relics of the Great War.

Colonel J.F.C (Boney) Fuller in charge of Department SD7 (the department responsible for Tank matters) at the War Office during the early 1920s was pressing the Master-General of Ordnance (MGO) for funding to purchase the Medium D, but this Tank gave so much trouble in development that in order to spend the allocation of a half a million pounds, which would otherwise have been lost, a contract was issued to Vickers to produce a replacement.

Vickers, initially did not want the job but as post war trade was not good, decided to accept the contract. The result, the Vickers MK 1 was a very well engineered vehicle with sprung suspension and armed with a Vickers 3-Pdr Gun and two Vickers Machine guns. Although designed to travel at 15 mph it could in fact achieve a respectable 30 mph. The Armour, however left much to be desired.

About 100 Mk 1s and the later Mk 2s were built built by Vickers, but apart from the War Office contract no orders were received from other Governments. Half a Dozen went to Australia and 15 were supplied to Russia, some of which survived long enough to appear in the winter war with Finland.