Medium Mark A Whippet

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (March 2024)

Medium Mk A Whippet
Whippet Firefly of F Battalion in The Museum of the Army in Brussels (original colours)
Type	Medium tank
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1918–1945
Used by	United Kingdom Russian State Soviet Union German Empire Weimar Republic Empire of Japan
Wars	World War I Anglo-Irish War Russian Civil War World War II
Production history
Designer	William Tritton
Manufacturer	Fosters of Lincoln
Produced	1917–1918
No. built	200 by 14 March 1919
Specifications
Mass	14 long tons (14 t)
Length	20 ft (6.10 m)
Width	8 ft 7 in (2.62 m)
Height	9 ft (2.74 m)
Crew	3-4
Armour	14 mm (0.55 in) maximum
Main armament	4 × 0.303-inch (7.7mm) Hotchkiss machine guns
Engine	2× Tylor Twin 4-cylinder side-valve JB4 petrol engine 2x 45 hp (33 kW)[1]
Power/weight	6.4 hp/tonne
Transmission	4 forward speeds and 1 reverse
Suspension	None
Maximum speed	13.4 km/h (8.33 mph)[1]
References	Fletcher[2]

The Medium Mark A Whippet was a medium tank employed by the British in World War I. Intended for fast mobile assaults, it was intended to complement the slower British heavy tanks by using its relative mobility and speed in exploiting any break in the enemy lines.^[3]

Although the track design appears more "modern" than the British Tanks Mark I to V, it was directly derived from Little Willie, the first tank prototype (itself directly taken from the track design of the Holt tractor), and was unsprung. The crew compartment was a fixed, polygonal turret at the rear of the vehicle, and two engines of the type used in contemporary double-decker buses were in a forward compartment, driving one track each.