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| © Michal Derela, 1999 | Updated: 24. 06. 2003 | |
Part I: development history and construction
Part II: international service
Part III: Polish service
 | Polish Vickers E tank, single turret [Painting - source 5, improved by PIBWL] |
This page is devoted to the service of Vickers Mk.E light tanks in the Polish Army. A development history, technical description and data are in part I. An international service of Vickers Mk.E tanks is desribed in part II.
In the late twenties, it became clear, that the Polish Army needed a modern tank, produced in the country. Since Polish engineers had no experience in tank designing, it was decided to buy the licence from abroad, which would be a good base for future own design works.
The Polish Ministry of Defence was in contact with the British company Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd since 1926. Initially, Vickers Medium Tanks Mark C and Mark D were offered to the Polish side (the latter one was designed respecting Polish reservations as for Mk. C), buf they were rejected (the single tanks of this marks were finally bought by Japan and Ireland). In 1928, Vickers-Armstrongs designed a new Vickers 6 ton tank, also known as Mark E (Mk.E). It was to be one of the most significant tank developments. In the beginning of the thirties, it was one of most modern tanks in the world. The tank was designed in two variants: Mk. E Type A (Alternative A) with twin-turrets, armed with machine guns; and the single-turret Mk. E Type B (Alternative B), which was the world's first tank with a co-axial gun and machine gun in a turret.
More details and a techical description in Part I.
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| Polish Vickers tanks under construction in Vickers-Armstrongs factory on Tyneside, June 1932 (note MG magazine covers). Click to enlarge. [photo source 1] |
The first 6-ton tank was tested in Poland in September 1930. The general evaluation was quite good, though the tank revealed a few faults as well, like: an overheating engine, thin armour and cramped crew compartment. At that time, Poland wanted to buy Christie's wheel-and-track tank first of all, but when Christie failed to deliver his tank, it was decided to buy Vickers tank.
In September 1931, Poland bought 50 tanks Vickers Mk.E Type A with a licence. Only 38 complete tanks were delivered to Poland - the rest were sent in parts for local assembly (some publications say, that the price of the rest of tanks was counted as a licence fee, but accoding to the source [1], the licence was paid separately). None of the remaining 12 tanks were assembled in Poland, anyway. Poland did not start production of the Vickers Mk.E either, but Polish designers started work upon own improved design, basing on the Vickers Mk.E. The new Polish design was firstly named: VAU-33 ("Vickers-Armstrong-Ursus", or: "Vickers-Armstrong Ulepszony (improved)", 33 was the year), later renamed to 7TP. The major change was fitting more powerful and reliable Diesel engine. The parts of unassembled Vickers tanks were utilized in building the first series 7TP.
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| Single-turret Vickers E, with Polish modifications and late camouflage. [photo source 1] |
The ordered 38 tanks were delivered between summer of 1932 and early 1933. All were twin-turret variant (Type A), their serial numbers were: VAE 408 - 445. Polish tanks were quickly modified (probably in 1934) by adding large air intakes behind the crew compartment to improve engine cooling. It was a significant feature of Polish Vickers tanks only. This, and some other minor improvements were designed by Vickers on Polish demand, and completed in Poland (at the 3rd Armoured Battalion workshops and in PZInz works). The tanks were officially accepted by the Polish Army in August 1934, after the modifications were completed and after a 1200-km test raid of two tanks. Also that year, 22 tanks were rebuilt to single-turret Type B standard (see below). In 1933, two tanks were experimentally fitted with Straussler trench-crossing gear (see here). However, this device appeared inconvenient and unsuccesfull - it was damaged during testing on one tank.
In 1936, in order to improve the existing tanks, one tank was experimentally rebuilt with a PZInz.235 (Saurer BLDb) Diesel engine from the 7TP tank. It was called: V/7TP. The modification proved very good, but more tanks were not rebuilt due to the cost.
Polish Vickers Mk.E tanks differed from all others Vickers Mk.E having the large air intakes. In the late thirties, an additional stowage boxes were mounted on rear fenders. From the beginning, Polish twin-turret tanks also had significant box covers for the 13.2mm MG magazines, sticking out of the turrets' roofs. During the service, they were also fitted with ventilation cupolas in the hatches.
A confusion in tank designations:
These tanks were commonly called just: "Vickers" or "Vickers E" in Poland. Twin and single turret
variants had no specific designations. However, in Western sources they are sometimes
marked with: "dw." and "jw." letters. They are abbreviations of Polish words:
"dwuwiezowy" = twin-turreted and "jednowiezowy" = single-turreted.
These abbreviations are not the vehicles' designations in fact and they are not used in any serious Polish sources. However, I understand they are quite common in literature and may be useful in telling the variants apart. I suggest they are written this way: "Vickers E jw." or: "..E (jw.)" eventually, keeping in mind, that they were not tanks' designations.
As for manufacturers designations, the most correct is: Mark E Alternative A or B (used in Vickers' documents) or Type A / B. The designations: "Mark A", "Mark B", used in many publications, are incorrect.
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You can read a technical description of the Vickers Mk.E in part I. Differencies in construction of Polish tanks were mentioned in the text above, differencies in armament and equipment are described below.
All the tanks were delivered in twin-turret version (Type A), without any armament. In Poland, they were initially armed with two air-cooled 7.92mm wz. 25 Hotchkiss tank machine guns (TMG). They were mounted in newly designed in 1933, Polish universal round mountings wz. 34 (all weapons mentioned below for twin-turret variant used those mountings as well). In a twin-turret tank, the commander sat in the right turret, which was fitted with a small sleeve for signal flags.
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| A modified twin-turret Vickers E with 13.2mm TMG in right turret on manoeuvres. Note the new camouflage, used since 1937. The triangle is a tactical marking. Also, ventilation cupolas are visible [photo source 1] |
In late 1933, 16 tanks were re-armed with one air-cooled 13.2mm wz. 30 Hotchkiss TMG in the right turret, and a water-cooled 7.92mm wz.30 (Browning) TMG
in the left turret. The 13.2mm TMG was meant for the armament of Polish Vickers tanks from the beginning, that's why all the turrets were fitted with magazine covers.
A few (6?) vehicles received a 37mm wz.18 (SA-18) Puteaux L/21
low-velocity gun in the right turret, while the 7.92mm wz. 25 TMG remained in the left one.
Since the 37mm wz.18 gun offered very limited anti-tank capability, and the twin-turret tank could not be fitted with any larger weapon, it was quickly decided to convert some tanks to single-turret ones. For this purpose, 22 turrets of the single-turret variant Mk. E Type B were bought in Great Britain. They were armed with a 47mm Vickers QF gun. The turrets were bought without coaxial machine guns.
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| A turret of the Polish Vickers Mk.E Type B 'en face'. [source 3] |
The remaining 16 twin-turret tanks also received two 7.92mm wz. 30 TMG's with 6600 rounds. These were probably completed by 1937. Their water radiators were lightly armoured. And such was the tanks' final armament in 1939.
The armour of Polish Vickers Mk.E tanks was the same, as of other Vickers Mk.E tanks: riveted of rolled armour plates; thickness: hull front and sides - 13mm, rear - 8mm, turrets of both variants - 13mm all around, top and bottom - 5mm.
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| The Polish Vickers Mk.E - click to enlarge [source 3] |
Polish Vickers tanks were not equipped with radios initially. Only before the war, 4 tanks of the 12th company (company and platoons commanders) received Polish RKB/C radios. It demanded a modification of an electric installation. This radio demanded a tall folding transmitter aerial mast, but there is no information how it was fitted on Vickers tanks. Possibly 8 other single-turret tanks of the 12th company might have been equipped with receivers (?). There is no information, if any tanks from the 121st company had radios.
When the tanks came into service, they were employed by the 3rd armoured battalion in Warsaw. In late 1930s, probably in 1937, as new 7TP tanks were arriving, the Vickers tanks were moved to the 2nd armoured battalion in Zurawica, near Przemysl. A second unit equipped with Vickers tanks was the 11th armoured battalion in Armoured Weapons Training Centre (CWBrPanc) in Modlin. The five tanks in each battalion were so-called "mob" (mobilization) reserve, and not used in peacetime duties. The rest of the tanks were used intensively for training, so most of them were quite worn out in 1939.
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| Vickers E twin-turret entering Zaolzie. A tactical marking is barely visible on the front hull plate: 3 vertical belts, probably red or blue [photo source 1] |
Between 4 and 20 September 1938, twenty tanks were used in large manoeuvres in Wolyn province (now in Ukraine). They formed a company, assigned to the 10th (motorized) Cavalry Bde (10.BK). The manoeuvres, in fact, were just a preparation for an action to regain the Czech Zaolzie province, inhabited by a Polish majority and captured by the Czechs in 1918. The Polish government took the opportunity to regain Zaolzie in a shameful moment, when Hitler gained the western parts of Czechoslovakia after Munich treaty. On 22 September 1938, the 10.BK, assigned to the newly created Operational Group GO "Slask" (Silesia), was moved to Zaolzie. The province was taken over without any fighting, by "agreement" with the Czech government. The Brigade - and its tanks spent the next two months in Zaolzie.
During the mobilization in August 1939, Vickers tanks were divided between two light tank companies of Polish only two motorized brigades. The 11th armoured battalion formed the 121st light tank company for the 10th (motorized) Cavalry Brigade, while the 2nd armoured battalion formed the 12th light tank company for the Warsaw Armoured-Motorized Brigade.
A light tank company had 16 tanks: it should be 10-11 single turret and 5-6 twin-turret ones. It consisted of the commander's troop with a commander tank, and three platoons with 5 tanks each (company structure). Most probably in 1939 the platoons were mixed of three single-turret and two twin-turret tanks.
There is a doubt as to the 121st company's tanks' number; however. Maj. F. Skibiński, the Chief of the 10.BK Staff, always claimed, that the company had only about 7-8 tanks. Col. St. Maczek, the Commander of the 10.BK wrote: "seems, it was only 9" in his memoirs. But according to the official numbers, it should have all 16 tanks.
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| The Vickers tanks platoon during manouvres before Zaolzie action, 1938 (the tank platoon in September 1939 might look the same). [photo source 3] |
The 121st light tank company (commander: Lt. Stanisław Raczkowski) was initially fighting with the 10th (motorized) Cavalry Brigade (10. BK). The tanks were supporting Polish motorized cavalry fighting in delay actions against elements of two German armoured divisions in Beskidy mountains. The 121st company, along with two companies of tankettes, were used as a kind of a "fire brigade", thrown at threatened parts of the front. For example, on 3 September 1939, the Polish tanks, attacking along the road, twice repelled the infantry of the 2nd PzDiv, which was attacking the flank of Polish 10th Mounted Rifle Rgt. (10. PSK). On 4 September the company supported the assault of the 24th Lancer Rgt, along with the 101th recce tank company. It helped to repel the elements of the 4th Light Division and the 3rd Mountain Division. On that day, Germans lost 3 tanks and 2 armoured cars. Polish forces stopped the enemy advance, losing two Vickers tanks and few tankettes. During the next days, the Company fought day-by-day, losing one tank on 6th September at Wisnicz.
On 8 September, during a night march, the company, being in the rear guard, ran out of fuel and stayed in place. This way the 10.BK lost its only "real" tanks. The Brigade commander, Col. St. Maczek, described it this way in his memoirs: "..In my thoughts I'm sending warm thanks to this brave company: for saving the situation at Naprawa, for outstanding participation in the assault at Kasina, for going out of its way on the Brigade's eastern flank, for they were supporting unit's morale just with their presence; for they did not evade the hardest tasks, telling, that they are only old, training junk".
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| The Polish Vickers captured by the Germans in Niemirow - probably one of the tanks supporting the 21st Mountain Division. [photo from a collection of Piotr Smolinski] |
The company found some fuel at last (supposedly some improvised mixture of kerosene with mentholated spirit), but it was not enough for all tanks, and only 3 tanks arrived in the small town of Kolbuszowa on 8 September in the evening. Then, the commander of the "Cracov" Army's armoured forces ordered them to move behind the river San, and assigned them to the 6th Infantry Division to strengthen the soldiers' morale, and finally - to the 21st Mountain Division of "Boruta" Operational Group (GO). On 15 September they took part in the combat at Oleszyce, against German 45th Inf.Div. Among others, they protected divisional staff. The surrounded 21st Division surrendered on 16 September (its commander Gen. J. Kustron fell in a breakthrough trial). One tank was destroyed by artillery; the other two were captured by the Germans.
The rest of the 121st company's tanks found themselves in Kolbuszowa on 9 September, and were used in the town's defence against the 2nd PzDiv. The heavy fighting lasted all afternoon and evening, both sides suffered losses. The company lost three vehicles, while covering the withdrawal of Polish units behind the River Leg. According to the latest research, it was not the end of the company, but it probably still fought, with the 6th Inf.Div. (of the GO "Boruta"). Supposedly 6 tanks took part in later battles with the Division, especially during the crossing of the River Tanew (an attack on Narol and Belzec on 17-18 September). During these battles, Cpt. Raczkowski was injured and commanded from a field car, lying on the stretcher. The company had three tanks and about 20 men left at that time.
The second unit to use Vickers tanks was the 12th light tank company of the Warsaw Armoured-Motorized Brigade (WBP-M), commanded by Cpt. Czeslaw Blok. During mobilization, four tanks (the company and troops' commanders) received RKB/C radios.
During August and the first two weeks of September 1939, the Brigade was being organized and trained, and stayed on the right bank of the Vistula.
The first combat action, against the German bridgehead over the Vistula near the small town Annopol, took place on 13 September. It was not fortunate, though. The 12th company attacked too early, taking all the German fire, and losing two tanks. Retreating tanks were taken as the enemy and shot at by Polish infantry (fortunately, without major injuries). During the next days, Polish units were in permanent retreat. The tanks were breaking down and a few had to be left behind. There was a problem with finding a fuel as well. The company took part in a few skirmishes, eg. on 17 September two tanks were supporting a motorcycle platoon, ordered to capture the road in Krasnobród small town (south of Zamosc). The Polish unit met two armoured cars there, and both were destroyed by Vickers tanks.
The last battle - and the second biggest tank battle in 1939 campaign, was the battle of a small town Tomaszów Lubelski. The Brigade, with other Polish units, tried to break through to Lwow (the WBP-M absorbed numerous Polish units on the way, including 7TP tanks from the 1st light tank battalion and many tankettes from two or three units). The town and nearby villages were held by the German 11th Motor Rifle Rgt, a tank company of the 33rd bttn (the 4th Light Div), and the elements of the 2nd PzDiv, coming to the town. The first assault took place on 18 September in the morning. Eight Vickers tanks, along with tankettes of the 11th company, supported the attack of the motorized 1st mounted rifle regiment, from the north-west of the town (other Polish units were attacking from the west). Despite heavy fighting, the attack failed. Four Vickers tanks (and 8 tankettes) were lost. After dark, Polish forces attacked once again. After fierce fighting, the Polish achieved minimal success, but only one Vickers was left. On the next day, the Poles, supported by the last Vickers and seven 7TP tanks, attempted the night assault once again. It failed, and only one 7TP survived. The Brigade capitulated on 20 September, after the last breakthrough attempt.
The remaining training tanks, that were not included in the companies, were gathered in the 3rd Armoured Weapons' Reserve Centre. These 4-5 twin-turreted Vickers tanks were later incorporated into some improvised units (eg. one tank, from CWBrPanc went to an improvised so-called 5th armoured battalion). On the way towards the Hungarian border, two or three Vickers, and some tankettes, were destroyed on 18 September 1939 by invading Soviet tanks of the 23rd Tank Brigade.
All damaged, destroyed or broken down Vickers tanks were captured by the Germans and Soviets, but were not used by them.
See miscellaneous photos of Polish Vickers tanks in the gallery.
Between 1932 and 1936 an older camouflage scheme was used, called in Poland: the "Japanese-style" camouflage. The patches were in bright yellowish sand, dark green and dark brown, separated with thin black stripes.
| The Vickers E single turret, wearing old camouflage, on parade in Warsaw, about 1934. The tank is in its original form, without air intakes. Behind it, a Polski FIAT PF-621L standard Army 2.5t truck can be seen. [source 2] |
Since 1936-37, the tanks were painted in a standard camouflage scheme of three colours: greyish sand and
dark brown (sepia) over brown-green (a base color). The patches were airbrushed, with soft transitions, the shapes were horizontal mainly. There was not any standard pattern of patches. The interior was painted in sand.
Polish Vickers E tanks twin- and single turreted, in standard 1937 camouflage.
Drawings - Adam Jońca, source [2]
The tanks wore no insignia at all. Only before the war did the tanks carry tactical marks for training purposes (evident on a title painting). They were attached light blue-gray disc (the 1st platoon), triangles (the 2nd) or squares (the 3rd). The tanks' numbers (1354-1361 and 1462-1491) were painted on the front plate, only until 1937.
The technical data are in Part I.
Models of Polish variant of light tanks Vickers Mk.E. All models of single-turret tanks below (that are known to me) present a tank with air intakes, in 1939 configuration. The models of twin-turret tanks below present different configurations... Most of kits have incorrect names! You can write me your comments.
1/72:Our thanks to Chris Amundson for a language assistance.
Sources:
1. Janusz Magnuski: "Angielski lekki czołg Vickers Mark E w polskiej słuzbie"; "Nowa Technika Wojskowa" nr. 5, 6/99.
2. A. Jońca, R. Szubański, J. Tarczyński: "Wrzesień 1939 - Pojazdy Wojska Polskiego - Barwa i broń"; WKŁ; Warszawa 1990.
3. Jan Tarczyński, K. Barbarski, A. Jońca: "Pojazdy w Wojsku Polskim - Polish Army Vehicles - 1918-1939"; Ajaks; Pruszków 1995.
4. Rajmund Szubański: "Polska broń pancerna 1939"; Warsaw 1989
5. Janusz Magnuski: "Prezentuj broń! : oręż żołnierza polskiego 1939-1972", Warsaw 1974. Drawings Adam Werka (?).
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Text copyright © Michal Derela, 2003.