Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

Technology Model - Whippet Medium Tank Mk 2, 1917

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Overview

Handcrafted model of a British Whippet medium Tank.

The Medium Mark A Whippet was a British tank World War 1. 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.

Historical information

This armoured fighting vehicle was intended for fast mobile assaults. 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. The fuel tank was in the front of the hull. The sides featured large mud chutes which allowed mud falling from the upper treads to slide away from the tank, instead of clogging the track plates and rollers. Armament was four 0.303-inch (7.7mm) Hotchkiss Mk 1 machine guns, one covering each direction. As there were only three crewmen, the gunner had to jump around a lot, though often assisted by the commander. Sometimes a second gunner was carried in the limited space, and often a machine gun was removed to give more room, as the machine guns could be moved from one mounting position to another to cover all sides.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-922

Contextual Information

The models in this collection were crafted from scratch by Mr Tom Runeckles. They were periodically displayed at the Museum before their eventual donation as part of the Mobility and Firepower story.

Links to additional resources

Whippet Video

Whippet at Villers Bretonneux

Tank Encyclopedia

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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