By Nick Pollard
Tanks have been much in the news recently, with Western nations agonising over whether to supply them to Ukraine to support their fight against Russian aggression. It may come as a surprise though, to learn that some significant developments in tank design happened in our area.
The Carden-Loyd Tractor Company had been established by Sir John Carden and Vivien Loyd by the river at Chertsey Bridge in 1922/23. They manufactured small tracked vehicles mainly with military applications, such as light tanks and infantry carriers. This type of vehicle enabled theories of an ‘all armoured’ force to be developed, in which tanks, infantry and artillery would all be able to move together at speed. The British Army trialled this concept in the 1920s, but unfortu-nately the nation which really embraced the idea was Germany, where under the Nazis the ‘Blitzkreig’ (lightning war) proved hugely successful at the start of World War Two. To return to Chertsey and Carden-Loyd how-ever. Their early success in selling their vehicles around the world led to their being taken over by the huge Vickers Armstrong Company in 1928, although the Chertsey factory was kept. In 1931 they developed an amphibious tank which could cross rivers and marshy ground where normal tanks could not go. This may seem like an impossibility for anything as heavy as a tank, but they fitted the vehicles with flotation tanks and a small propellor driven off the engine, and cut down the armour thickness to save weight. The prototype was successfully tested in the Thames near Chertsey Bridge in October 1931, as can be seen in the first photo on the left of this page. It was stated that the tank was able to negotiate the steep muddy banks on either side and achieve 6 knots in the wa-ter, or a very respectable 40mph on the land. It must have caused a real stir on the river to see this strange vehicle swimming about with only the top of the hull and the turret visible! The crew of two comprised a driver in the hull and a gunner in the small turret, which mounted a Vickers machine gun. The armour was really only thick enough to protect against rifle bullets, which the British Army decided was insufficient. The company did manage to make many sales abroad though, in places such as China (pre communist), Thailand, the Dutch East Indies and Poland. The Soviet Union bought a prototype and based a tank of their own design (the T-37A) on it, of which some 1200 were produced and used in the early part of WW2, although fairly obsolete by then. The sole survivor of the Carden-Loyd is indeed in a museum in Russia, which given my introductory paragraph, is quite ironic.
‘Lord Desborough – Titan of the Thames’ by Peter Williams is the subject of the next meeting of the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society. The talk takes place at Halliford School on Tues 21st March at 8pm. All welcome, admission £2 for non-members.