Whippet Tank

Tanks - Whippet Tank

(List of photos at bottom of page).

The Whippet tank baffles me. But the Whippet's tower is at the back of the tank and the engine is at the front. So it looks backward to me. Still, the Whippet tank was a very important tank for Great Britain for in it, they had a tank that could be produced in numbers since it was much smaller than the 28 ton Mark IV tanks. The Mark IVs were long (and thus heavy, underpowered and likely to break down) because they had been designed to cross trenches on their own. But British tacticians discovered quickly that chained rolls of branches (fascines) could be dumped into trenches and then traversed relatively easily. This obviated the need for tanks to be able to cross the entire span of the trenches on their own. And hence the smaller and easier to produce 14 ton Whippet.

Like the Mark IV, the Whippet tank's tracks had a 20 mile life limiting strategic mobility.

British World War I Whippet Tank: the engine is in front. Note the one of the four machine guns still left.


British World War I Whippet Tank: front 3/4 view.


British World War I Whippet Tank: front. The crew compartment is at the back.


British World War I Whippet Tank

Photos from US Army Ordnance Museum/Aberdeen Proving Grounds

Photos of Tanks at the US Army Ordnance Museum

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Please email me for high resolution photos for publication. US Army Ordnance Museum/Aberdeen Proving Grounds photo portfolio by Narayan Sengupta.