However, progress had also been made on a more conventional alternative started in 1922 that inevitably became the "Light Tank Mark I" under the Vickers company designation of A2E1. The Vickers Light Tank proved too unique for its time (particularly its new, complicated and unreliable transmission system) and the program was soon dropped in 1922. While the Medium Mark D project eventually led to naught, the Vickers firm produced two working prototype versions - a machine gun-laden "female" and a cannon-armed "male" - by the end of 1921 known collectively as the 'Vickers Light Tank". Meanwhile, the Vickers firm was concurrently working on a private-venture light armored fighting vehicle (AFV) all their own. By 1920, a new government-funded tank design was being developed under the designation of Medium Mark D light infantry tank to bring about a more modern design. Though never to see combat service at any level, the type served the British well in defining key tank design features and in-the-field mechanized battle tactics that would become a mainstay of armored warfare leading up to World War 2.Īfter World War 1, British authorities were content to simplify and downsize their armored corps. With a war-weary world cutting back much in the way of military production, the Medium Mark I managed a relatively healthy existence to lead the British Army into a new age of mechanized warfare.
The Vickers Medium Mark I series of tanks was one of the few mass-produced tank systems to be found in the 1920s.
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