Last updated on February 17th, 2019 at 09:49 pm
The Vickers 6 Ton tank was a British tank that was rejected by the British army but was used and copied by the armies of many other nations.
It was sold to the Soviet Union, Finland, Bulgaria, Greece, Bolivia, Thailand and Portugal.
The Vickers 6 Ton tank was used by Bolivia in the Gran Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay. It was used by both sides in the Spanish Civil War and by both sides in the Russo-Finish War. The Polish used the Vickers 6 Ton tank in their attempt to repel the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland. Later on, the Chinese used this tank against the Japanese in Manchuria, and the Thais used it to fight against France in Indochina.
Poland’s 7TP tank and the Soviet Union’s T-26 tank were based on the Vickers 6 Ton tank.
Three crew members operated the Vickers 6 Ton tank. They communicated with each other by means of a new device known as a laryngophone, or throat microphone, which could be worn inside a gas mask and would not pick up background noise from inside the tank.
The Vickers 6 Ton tank had a fireproof partition between the engine and the fighting compartment.
When World War II began, the British Army took the leftover Vickers 6 Ton tanks that had been ordered by other countries but hadn’t yet been shipped overseas and used them for training.
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Vickers 6 Ton |
|---|---|
| Active: | 1928 |
| Crew: | 3 |
| Weight: | 7 tons (7,115kg) |
| Length: | 15ft (4.57m) |
| Height: | 6ft 10in (2.08m) |
| Width: | 7ft 11in (2.42m) |
| Weapons: | Early models: 2 x 0.303in (7.7mm) machineguns; Later models: Main – 3 pounder (1.85 in/47mm) gun, Secondary – 1 x coaxial machinegun |
| Armor | Maximum – 0.51in (13mm) |
| Engine: | Armstrong-Siddeley 4-cylinder gasoline, 88hp |
| Speed: | 20 mph (32kph) |
| Range: | 124 miles (200 km) |