I wondered if anyone could tell me when the British medium and heavy tanks of Great War vintage (i.e Marks I, II, III, IV, V, V*, V**, VIII and IX, and Mediums A, B and C) were retired from British tank battalions? I know that a few soldiered on in specialist schools and experimental establishments virtually up to WW2, but when were they supplanted by newer types (Medium D, Vickers Mk 1) in the battalions?
I was assuming that all had gone by 1928 or so, but can anyone be more definitive?
Were you after the individual retirement times (e.g. Mk I retired such-and-such a date, Mk IV on another date) or just a cut-off date for the final use of any WWI designed tanks in battalions?
Just a cut off date - but if there's more detailed information available I'd be interested. It's not much of an issue with the Marks I, II and III. I'd most like to know about the Mediums or the Mark IV onwards.
Part of the problem is what do you mean by retirement? Tanks have a habit of living on in work shops etc as mobile cranes, tractors and the loke - so that MK Is were still around in this sort of role certainly into late 1918 and possibly after the armistice and I'm sure that later models lasted much longer (just as in the late 70s I found a Mk II Medium chassis still on REME's books as some sort of general purpose derrick). However I think that the Mk IVs went out of front line service by the end of the War and I don't think any of the other heavies lasted more than a year or so after that. Mk C Mediums werearound into the early 20s but the MkI Medium and then the Mk II and MK III Mediums soon took over.
Thanks for that. I'm aware that tanks have a habit of hanging around. I was meaning in front line battalion service as opposed to being used as tow abouts, instructional vehicles, etc etc.
Liddell-Hart makes a few comments on this subject in his history of the RTR. All contracts for tank production (except for the Medium C and D tanks) were cancelled on Nov.12, 1918. Three weeks later the contract for the Medium C was limited to the 36 tanks which were on the point of delivery. The Medium D was still in the design stage at the Armistice. It proved to be unreliable, and only 4 prototype vehicles were produced. The seven MkVIII tanks built in Britain went straight from the factory to the tank graveyard at Bovington a few weeks after the Armistice. MkIV, MkV, Medium A and Medium B tanks were used for internal security in Ireland during 1919-20. MkV tanks were used for a similar pupose by the occupation force in Germany in 1919-20, and in Scotland in 1919. Three detachments of MkV and Medium B tanks were sent to Russia in 1919. The Medium B saw some service as a training vehicle during 1919-21, but the main equipment of the post-war Tank Corps cadre in Britain appears to have been the 36 Medium C tanks, which remained in service until replaced by the Vickers light tank in 1923.
One minor correction. The Mk Vs in Germany in 1919 were not on occupation army duties (they were in fact based in France and trained in as necessary) but acting in support of a League of Nations resolution in Upper Silesia where hostilities had broken out between German and various Polish and Czech forces. Today it might have been called something between a peace keeping and a peace enforcing mission. I did a posting on this a loooong time ago
