Whippet Tank

1. Lead

The Whippet (Medium Mark A) was the British medium tank of 1918, and the fastest tank of the First World War. Designed by William Tritton, the designer of the Mark I tank, it was a light, fast tank, armed with four machine guns and powered by two petrol engines, and it was intended for a new role: exploitation.

While the heavy tanks, the Mark IV and the Mark V tank, broke through the German lines, the Whippet was to race through the gap, to pursue the retreating enemy, to attack his guns and his transport, and to spread panic behind his lines.

At Amiens on 8 August 1918, the Whippets did exactly that, and one Whippet, “Musical Box”, fought alone behind the German lines for nine hours, destroying guns, transport and infantry, before it was finally knocked out. About 200 Whippets were built, and the type served after the war in Ireland, in South Africa and in Russia, and it was the ancestor of the fast medium tanks of the Second World War.

The Whippet’s name, which was taken from the whippet dog, a fast and agile breed, was a good description of the tank: it was fast, light and agile, and it was designed to run, rather than to fight head-on. The Whippet was not a battle tank, and it was not designed to fight other tanks or to attack strongpoints: it was armed only with machine guns, and its armour, at most 14 mm thick, could be penetrated by the German armour-piercing rifle bullet.

But the Whippet was a new kind of tank, and it showed that the tank could be used for exploitation, for pursuit and for raiding behind the enemy’s lines, and that speed could be as important as armour and firepower.

The Whippet’s story is therefore the story of the fast tank, and of the idea that would become the cruiser tank of the Second World War, and the medium tank of today.

2. Key Facts

Type	Medium tank (exploitation tank)
Origin	Britain
Designer	William Tritton (Foster’s of Lincoln)
Manufacturer	William Foster & Co., Lincoln
In service	1918–1919 (British Army); longer elsewhere
Produced	1917–1918; about 200 built
Weight	About 14 tonnes
Length	About 6.1 m
Width	About 2.6 m
Height	About 2.8 m
Crew	3 (commander, driver, gunner)
Armour	5–14 mm
Main armament	Four .303 Hotchkiss machine guns
Secondary armament	None (machine guns only)
Engine	Two Tylor JB4 four-cylinder petrol engines, 45 hp each (90 hp total)
Top speed	About 13 km/h on level ground
Range	About 130 km

3. Background and Development

The need for a fast tank

The Whippet was born of the experience of the heavy tanks, the Mark I tank and the Mark IV tank, which had proved the idea of the tank, but which were slow, moving at walking pace, and which could not exploit a breakthrough.

At Flers-Courcelette in 1916 and at Cambrai in 1917, the heavy tanks had broken through the German lines, but they had been too slow to exploit the breakthrough, and the German Army had had time to bring up reserves and to close the gap.

The British Army needed a fast tank, which could race through the gap, pursue the retreating enemy and spread panic behind his lines, and the result was the Whippet, which was designed by William Tritton, the designer of the Mark I, and which was built by Foster’s of Lincoln, the firm that had built the first tanks.

The Whippet was designed in 1917, and the first prototype was ready in early 1918. It was a small, light tank, weighing about 14 tonnes, less than half the weight of the Mark IV, and it was powered by two Tylor petrol engines, each of 45 horsepower, which together produced 90 horsepower, and which gave it a top speed of about 13 km/h, more than twice the speed of the Mark IV.

The Whippet was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns, mounted in a fixed turret that could rotate, and it was protected by armour up to 14 mm thick, which was enough to stop rifle bullets and machine-gun fire, but not enough to stop the German armour-piercing rifle bullet.

The Whippet’s crew was only three men, which was fewer than the Mark IV’s eight, and which made the tank easier to man and to train, although it also meant that the crew had to work harder, with the commander also serving as a gunner.

Tritton’s design and the two engines

William Tritton, who had designed the Mark I with Walter Wilson, designed the Whippet on his own, and it was a very different tank from the Mark I. The Mark I had been a large, rhomboid machine, with tracks running around the whole body of the vehicle, but the Whippet was a small, conventional tank, with a hull, a turret and tracks that ran along the sides of the vehicle, and it was the first British tank to have a conventional layout, with the driver at the front, the fighting compartment in the middle and the engine at the rear.

The Whippet’s two engines, which were mounted side by side at the rear of the vehicle, were a novel feature: each engine drove one track, and the tank was steered by varying the speed of the two engines, which was simpler than the Mark I’s gearbox, but which required the driver to control two throttles and two gearboxes, and which made the tank difficult to drive in a straight line.

Production: 200 Whippets

About 200 Whippets were built in 1917 and 1918, by Foster’s of Lincoln, and they were delivered to the Tank Corps in time for the great offensives of the summer and autumn of 1918. The Whippet’s production was a considerable achievement, given the state of British industry in 1917 and 1918, when the factories were working day and night to produce tanks, guns and ammunition for the war, and when materials and labour were in short supply.

The Whippet was built in only one version, the Medium Mark A, and it was not followed by a Mark B or a Mark C in large numbers, although the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C were designed as successors, and a small number were built.

The Whippet’s production ended in 1918, when the war ended, and the type was not built again, although it remained in service after the war, in Ireland, in South Africa and in Russia.

4. Design

The conventional layout

The Whippet was the first British tank to have a conventional layout, with the driver at the front, the fighting compartment in the middle and the engine at the rear, and it was a considerable advance on the Mark I and the Mark IV, whose engines were inside the fighting compartment and whose crews worked in appalling conditions.

The Whippet’s driver sat at the front of the hull, with a good view of the ground ahead, and the commander and the gunner sat in the turret, which could rotate through 360 degrees, and which gave the tank a wide field of fire.

The Whippet’s engines, which were mounted at the rear of the vehicle, were accessible from the rear, and they could be maintained without entering the fighting compartment, which made the tank easier to maintain than the Mark IV. The Whippet’s conventional layout became the standard for British tanks, and it was used in the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C, and in the tanks of the Second World War.

Armour and armament

The Whippet’s armour was thin by any later standard: 14 mm on the front and on the turret, 10 mm on the sides and 5 mm on the rear and on the roof. It was enough to stop rifle bullets and machine-gun fire, which was the main threat on the Western Front, but it was not enough to stop the German armour-piercing rifle bullet, which could penetrate it at close range, and it was certainly not enough to stop German artillery.

The Whippet’s armament was four .303 Hotchkiss machine guns, mounted in the turret, with one gun firing forward, one firing to the left, one firing to the right and one firing to the rear, so that the tank could fire in any direction.

The machine guns were effective against infantry, against gun crews and against transport, but they were not effective against tanks or against strongpoints, and the Whippet was not designed to fight tanks or to attack strongpoints: it was designed to exploit a breakthrough, to pursue the enemy and to attack his rear.

The two engines and the crew of three

The Whippet was powered by two Tylor JB4 four-cylinder petrol engines, each of 45 horsepower, which together produced 90 horsepower, and which were mounted side by side at the rear of the vehicle. Each engine drove one track, and the tank was steered by varying the speed of the two engines, which was simpler than the Mark I’s gearbox, but which required the driver to control two throttles and two gearboxes, and which made the tank difficult to drive in a straight line.

The Whippet’s crew was only three men: the driver, who sat at the front of the hull, the commander, who sat in the turret and who also served as a gunner, and the gunner, who sat in the turret and who operated the machine guns.

The crew’s small size made the tank easier to man and to train, but it also meant that the crew had to work harder, and that the commander, who had to command the tank, to spot the targets and to fire the guns, was overworked.

5. Variants

Variant	Year	Key features	Production
Medium Mark A (Whippet)	1917–1918	Four Hotchkiss machine guns; two Tylor engines	About 200
Medium Mark A with 6-pounder	1918	Experimental; one gun replaced by a 6-pounder	1 (experimental)
Medium Mark B	1918	Successor; 6-pounder gun; longer hull	About 45
Medium Mark C	1918	Successor; 57 mm gun; larger turret	About 36

The Medium Mark A and the experimental gun tank

The Whippet was built in only one production version, the Medium Mark A, and it was armed with four Hotchkiss machine guns. The Medium Mark A was built in about 200 examples, and it was the only Whippet to see combat, and it fought at Amiens and in the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918.

One Whippet was experimentally fitted with a 6-pounder gun, in place of one of the machine guns, to test whether the Whippet could be armed with a cannon, but the experiment was not successful, because the 6-pounder gun was too large for the Whippet’s turret, and because the tank’s suspension could not cope with the recoil.

The experimental gun tank was not put into production, and the Whippet remained armed only with machine guns, which was adequate for its role as an exploitation tank, but which limited its usefulness against tanks and against strongpoints. The Whippet’s machine-gun armament was typical of the tanks of 1918, and it reflected the belief that the tank’s main enemy was the infantry, not other tanks.

The Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C

The Whippet was followed by the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C, which were designed as successors, and which were built in small numbers. The Medium Mark B, of which about 45 were built, was a longer version of the Whippet, with a 6-pounder gun and with a more powerful engine, and it was intended to be a medium tank that could fight other tanks, but it was not completed in time to see action in the First World War, and it was used for training after the war.

The Medium Mark C, of which about 36 were built, was a larger version of the Whippet, with a 57 mm gun and with a larger turret, and it was intended to be the standard medium tank of the British Army after the war, but it was not built in large numbers, and it was replaced by the Vickers Medium tanks of the 1920s.

The Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C show how the Whippet’s design influenced the British medium tanks that followed, and how the idea of a fast medium tank survived the First World War.

6. Operational History

First use, March 1918

The Whippet first saw action in March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive, when it was used to plug the gap in the British lines and to counter-attack the German advance. The Whippets were used in small numbers, and they fought in the defensive battles of March and April 1918, where they helped the British to hold the line, although many were lost to German artillery and to German anti-tank guns.

The Whippet’s first battles showed that it was a fast and agile tank, but also that it was vulnerable to artillery and to anti-tank guns, and that it needed to be used in conjunction with the infantry and with the heavy tanks, rather than on its own.

The Whippet’s crews learned from these battles, and they developed the tactics that the Whippet used for the rest of the war: to race through the gap, to attack the enemy’s rear and to avoid a head-on fight with the enemy’s strongpoints.

Amiens, 8 August 1918

At Amiens on 8 August 1918, the Whippet fought its greatest battle, and the battle for which it was designed. The Whippets, which were used in large numbers at Amiens, raced through the gap in the German lines that had been made by the heavy tanks, and they pursued the retreating German Army, attacking its guns, its transport and its infantry, and spreading panic behind its lines.

The Whippets advanced up to 12 kilometres on the first day, and they captured German guns, prisoners and supplies, and they helped the British to break through the German lines and to begin the Hundred Days Offensive. The Whippet’s role at Amiens was crucial: it was the tank that exploited the breakthrough, and it showed that the fast tank could be used to pursue a retreating enemy, and that speed could be as important as armour and firepower.

“Musical Box” at Amiens

The most famous Whippet of the war was “Musical Box”, a Whippet of the 6th Tank Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant C. B. Arnold, which fought alone behind the German lines at Amiens for nine hours. “Musical Box” broke through the German lines, and it attacked the German guns, the German transport and the German infantry, destroying several guns, a number of lorries and a balloon, and killing or capturing many German soldiers.

The Whippet was eventually knocked out by German artillery, and its crew, with the exception of the driver, who was killed, were captured, but their action had spread panic behind the German lines, and it had shown what a single Whippet could do.

Lieutenant Arnold was awarded the Military Cross for his action, and “Musical Box” became the most famous Whippet of the war, and its story is still told today as an example of what a fast tank can do behind the enemy’s lines.

The Hundred Days, August–November 1918

After Amiens, the Whippet fought in the Hundred Days Offensive, the great Allied offensive that ended the war, and it was used in every major attack of the summer and autumn of 1918. The Whippets raced through the gaps in the German lines, pursued the retreating German Army, and attacked its guns and its transport, and they helped the British to break through the Hindenburg Line and to advance across France.

The Whippet’s speed and its reliability were at their best in the Hundred Days, when the British Army advanced rapidly and when the Whippet’s two engines and its light weight allowed it to keep up with the advance. The Whippet’s last battles were fought in November 1918, and by then the type was being replaced by the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C, and the surviving Whippets were used for training or sent to Ireland, to South Africa and to Russia.

7. Performance and Specifications

Specification	Whippet (Medium Mark A)
Main armament	Four .303 Hotchkiss machine guns
Armour (maximum)	14 mm
Armour (front)	14 mm
Armour (side)	10 mm
Weight	About 14 tonnes
Engine	Two Tylor JB4, 45 hp each (90 hp total)
Power-to-weight	About 6.4 hp per tonne
Top speed (road)	About 13 km/h
Range (road)	About 130 km
Fuel capacity	About 270 litres
Crew	3
Number built	About 200

Firepower and protection

The Whippet’s firepower was limited to machine guns, and it was adequate for its role as an exploitation tank, but not for fighting other tanks or for attacking strongpoints. Its four Hotchkiss machine guns could fire in any direction, and they were effective against infantry, against gun crews and against transport, but they could not penetrate the armour of a tank, and they could not destroy a concrete strongpoint.

The Whippet’s protection was also limited: its armour, at most 14 mm thick, was enough to stop rifle bullets and machine-gun fire, but not enough to stop the German armour-piercing rifle bullet, and it was certainly not enough to stop German artillery.

The Whippet’s real protection was its speed: it could move fast, it could use the ground to hide, and it could avoid being hit, which was the exploitation tank’s doctrine, and which was the reason why the Whippet was designed to be fast rather than well armoured.

Mobility and comparison with the Mark IV

The Whippet’s mobility was its greatest strength. With a top speed of about 13 km/h on level ground, it was more than twice as fast as the Mark IV tank, which could reach only 6 km/h, and it was the fastest tank of the First World War.

Its two Tylor engines, which together produced 90 horsepower, gave it a power-to-weight ratio of about 6.4 horsepower per tonne, which was better than that of the Mark IV, and its light weight, about 14 tonnes against the Mark IV’s 28 tonnes, allowed it to cross bridges that the Mark IV could not cross, and to move across ground that the Mark IV could not cross.

Compared with the Mark IV, the Whippet was faster, lighter and more agile, but it was less well armed and less well protected, and it was designed for a different role: exploitation, rather than breakthrough. The Whippet’s speed made it an excellent exploitation tank, and it was used for that role for the rest of the war.

8. Operators

Britain: the Tank Corps

The Whippet was used by Britain, and it was the standard medium tank of the Tank Corps in 1918. The Tank Corps, which had grown from a few hundred men in 1916 to more than 20,000 men by 1918, operated about 200 Whippets in the great offensives of the last year of the war, and it became one of the most important arms of the British Army.

The Whippet’s crews were volunteers, and they learned to drive, to maintain and to fight in the tank, and to use it in conjunction with the infantry and with the heavy tanks, and they developed the tactics that the Tank Corps used for the rest of the war.

The Whippet remained in service with the British Army after the war, when it was used for training, and it was replaced by the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C, and by the Vickers Medium tanks of the 1920s.

Ireland, South Africa, Russia and Japan

After the war, the Whippet was used by several countries, including Ireland, which received Whippets and used them in the Irish Civil War, and South Africa, which received Whippets and used them for training and for internal security, and Russia, where British Whippets were used by the White Russians in the Russian Civil War, and where captured Whippets were used by the Red Army.

The Whippet was also used by Japan, which bought Whippets in the 1920s and used them for trials, and by Germany, which captured Whippets and used them for trials, although the Germans did not build a tank like the Whippet.

The Whippet’s use by so many countries is evidence of its importance, and of the fact that it was the first fast tank, and that it was a design that other countries wanted to study, even if they did not build it in large numbers.

The Whippet’s export was limited, because the British Army had few Whippets to spare, and because most of them were worn out by the end of the war.

9. Legacy and Influence

The first fast tank

The Whippet’s legacy is that it was the first fast tank, and the ancestor of the cruiser tank. It showed that a tank could be fast, light and agile, and that speed could be as important as armour and firepower, and that the tank could be used for exploitation, for pursuit and for raiding behind the enemy’s lines.

The Whippet’s design, with its conventional layout, its rotating turret and its two engines, influenced the British medium tanks that followed, including the Medium Mark B and the Medium Mark C, and the Vickers Medium tanks of the 1920s, and it influenced the cruiser tanks of the Second World War, including the Crusader and the Cromwell tank, which were designed for speed and mobility, like the Whippet.

The Whippet’s speed, which was its greatest strength, became the standard for British tanks, and the cruiser tank, which succeeded it, was designed to be fast as well as well armed and well protected.

“Musical Box” and the Whippet in memory

The Whippet is remembered today above all for “Musical Box”, the Whippet that fought alone behind the German lines at Amiens for nine hours, and whose story is still told as an example of what a fast tank can do.

Lieutenant Arnold, who commanded “Musical Box”, was awarded the Military Cross, and his action has become one of the most famous tank actions of the First World War, and it is remembered in Britain as a triumph of courage and of the fast tank.

The Whippet is also remembered as the fastest tank of the First World War, and as the tank that showed the way forward for tank design, and as the ancestor of the cruiser tank. The Whippet’s name, which was taken from the whippet dog, has become one of the most famous names in British tank history, and it is still used today by the British Army, which named its new reconnaissance vehicle the Ajax, after the Whippet’s successor, the Comet.

10. Surviving Examples

The Tank Museum, Bovington

Only a handful of Whippets survive, and the best-known example is held at the Tank Museum in Bovington, England. The museum holds a Whippet, A347, known as “Firefly”, which was presented to the museum after the war, and which is displayed alongside the museum’s other First World War tanks, including the Mark I, Mark IV and Mark V.

The museum’s Whippet is in running order, and it is a regular sight at the museum’s annual Tankfest, where it is driven around the arena and where visitors can see its speed and its manoeuvrability. For most visitors, the easiest way to see a Whippet is at Bovington, where the Tank Museum’s Whippet is displayed in the order in which it was built, and where the Whippet’s two engines and its rotating turret can be seen in full, and where the museum’s guides explain the Whippet’s role at Amiens and the story of “Musical Box”.

Other survivors in South Africa and elsewhere

Other surviving Whippets are held in South Africa, where the South African National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg holds a Whippet, which was used by the South African Army after the war, and in Canada, where the Base Borden Military Museum holds a Whippet, and in the United States, where the U.S. Army Armor and Cavalry Collection at Fort Benning, Georgia, holds a Whippet.

The Whippet’s survival in so many places is evidence of its importance, and of the fact that it was the first fast tank, and that it was a design that other countries wanted to preserve, even if they did not build it in large numbers.

The Whippet’s small size and its light weight make it one of the easiest First World War tanks to own and to maintain, and it is one of the most common First World War tanks in private collections, although very few survive, and most of them are in museums.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Whippet tank?
The Whippet (Medium Mark A) was a British medium tank of 1918, designed for exploitation — to race through a breakthrough and pursue the retreating enemy. About 200 were built.

Why was the Whippet so fast?
The Whippet was powered by two Tylor petrol engines of 45 horsepower each, and it weighed only about 14 tonnes, less than half the weight of the Mark IV. It could reach about 13 km/h, more than twice the speed of the Mark IV.

How many Whippet tanks were built?
About 200 Whippet tanks were built in 1917 and 1918 by Foster’s of Lincoln.

What was “Musical Box”?
“Musical Box” was a Whippet of the 6th Tank Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant C. B. Arnold, which fought alone behind the German lines at Amiens on 8 August 1918 for nine hours, destroying guns, transport and infantry before it was knocked out.

What gun did the Whippet have?
The Whippet had no cannon. It was armed with four .303 Hotchkiss machine guns, mounted in a turret that could rotate through 360 degrees.

Where can I see a Whippet today?
The best-known surviving Whippet, A347 “Firefly”, is at the Tank Museum in Bovington, England. Others survive in South Africa, Canada and the United States.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Medium Mark A Whippet” — production of about 200, specifications, Amiens and “Musical Box”.
2. The Tank Museum, Bovington, “Whippet” — the design, the combat record and the surviving example A347.
3. David Fletcher, British Mark IV Tank (Osprey Publishing, 2007) — the Whippet and the Medium Mark A.
4. Paddy Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Western Front (Yale University Press, 1994) — the Whippet at Amiens.
5. John Glanfield, The Devil’s Chariots (Sutton Publishing, 2006) — the Tank Corps in 1918.
6. Tank Encyclopedia, “Medium Mark A Whippet” — specifications, variants and surviving examples.