Love this channel, even though I was Infantry I still am fascinated by armor. Wishing Mr. Fletcher a happy retirement. I do miss his take on armor. Cheers from Tennessee
Excellent presentation. I've always admired the whippet tank for its functional beauty. Despite its flaws, I now see that it proved its tactical worth on the bloody battlefields of 1917-18.
during the segment of “Does it work”, two dates of 1960, and 1970 are used. (Unless my American ears misheard the accent). Not sure if this can be corrected in an edit, but it did perk up my ears🤠. Excellent work regardless- love the channel
I’m waiting to hear a review of a tank in which it is found that the crew compartment is roomy and comfortable. It seems to be part of the boilerplate of tank reviews to say that the crew compartment is cramped and uncomfortable. I suggest that crew discomfort be taken as a given and move on.
Id love a video like this about the Vickers Medium, which I feel is the true first modern tank. Renault FT os incredibly important, but the Vickers Medium is the first tank that really matches the requirements that still exist today. Multi-man turret, gun designed for anti-tank work, dispersal of labour,
Just got back from Norfolk Tank Museum displaying the working replica of Musical Box, you might have seen us at Bovington Tankfest last month, watch out for more real life Whippet action next year!
Apparently a Whippet was used here in St John's, Newfoundland in the early 20s as a snow plow. There's a rumour that it was somehow stored in the basement of the Grace hospital, and then buried when the hospital was closed and demolished over top of it. Anyone around with a shovel, a strong back, and a sense of adventure? (You can Google the story but the stories are behind paywalls)
Thanks for the Tank chat! I didn't know much about the Whippet. Glad I joined the channel. 👍🍻🇦🇺 Brilliant stuff guys. I am going to have to track down a Whippet for my model collection.
That was all news to me. I found the story of the combat fascinating but the sheer carnage was sobering. I am glad I have never been called upon to rise to such a severe challenge.
Great video format! I really like the use of the period-correct inter-titles. They also happen to impart a Guy Maddin like surrealist quality to the videos, too!
Great tank, although I have difficulty squaring 8mph with ‘rampaging’. Nevertheless, the story of ‘Musical Box’ is however worthy of a film. Considering it was amongst the last of the tanks brought forward by the British in WW1, the Whippet owes a rather important piece of its design to the original tank, Little Willy as the tracks of the Whippet were based on those of Little Willy. Although only a couple of hundred Whippets were made, their contribution was out of all proportion to their numbers. It would be interesting to have a Tank Chat on the Plan 1919 tanks, Mediums Mk.B, C and D.
It is worth considering the map at 13:18 (firstly pausing to note how good a map it is, drawn from memory by Ribbens later). The action at Cachy described in chapter 5 takes place on the same map: just south of Villers-Bretonneux. And this is almost exactly the same place where the A7V 'Mephisto' is immobilised on April 24th 1918, and later recovered. And it is also the same place and same battle where the first tank-versus tank engagement takes place (with Whippets involved). And just to the north, possibly on the margin or just off the map near the two shaded areas near 'Warfursee', is Le Hamel, where the first really properly co-ordinated, executed and completely successful operation takes place in July 1918, with the Tank Corps and supporting Australian and US infantry. There is a lot of tank history in this place!
My grandfather served in WW1, in the Royal Horse Artillery. He didn’t have a good opinion of the (horsed) cavalry. He used to say that they’d ride up to the front, then ride back again, time and time again.
Thank you for another brilliant video and it was interesting to learn about the whippet I don’t usually comment on the videos but I will on this one because it’s the first time I’ve seen inside the tank museums whippet I’ve only seen it from outside when visiting and took pictures so it was nice to see inside as well as interesting and yes I would say it was definitely revolutionary because it laid the groundwork for the army in the future when they had their infantry tanks and cruiser tanks and once again another great video thank you 👍😊
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! You mentioned FT-17 in this video in comparison to Whippet, I think one video of this calibre would be fantastic for that tank, because it also has great significance as a vehicle.
One of my Top 5 Tanks. And the earliest on the list. In terms of service and employment, it was the first real tank IMO, being a mobile weapon system instead of a slowly moving pillbox.
fascinating seeing how these initial tanks influenced british second world war tank doctrine, with the whippet being similar to a cruiser and the mark I to Vs being similar to infantry tanks! learning about ww1 in school at the moment so loving learning about these early innovations 🫶🏴
Wow, fascinating tank, nice coverage team! I didn't really hear why it was called the whippet though I wonder if what was said that it would whip the tank around if one of the engines stalled is why it got that name? That had to have been terrible in the face of danger. Speaking of which that whippet that had the gas dumped all over it, really a tragedy the driver didnt get a medal. What a horrifying situation and then he died while his crew got spared. Did they really plan for him to turn it around and drive them out of there? Oof. Guess the best armor wasn't on front but that is still dangerous considering the whole thing had gas all over it.
17:45 Mechanised Infantry are carried in AFVs, not lorries - you're thinking of Motorised Infantry! Aside from that, great vid, very interesting to see inside these ancient tanks.
Firepower, mobility - armor. The basic rule of tank design. Trading in quite a bit of firepower (no cannons - only machine guns) for ~3x more speed was a wise idea - and the next logical step. This made it significantly harder for the enemy to use heavy (indirect fire) artillery due to slow-speed communication tech of the day. When the firing order was executed - the Whippet was already out of the danger zone. Plus: A lot less crew needed - a lot less material needed.
The Mk V & already reduced the crew requirements. You no longer need so many men to work the engines & just drive the Tank. Though surviving Mk IVs were still used. As supply tanks, with the sponsons plated over.
That day of the Whippet, the 8 8 1918 is remembered well by the German commanders: "The senior German commanders, including Kaiser Wilhelm II, knew from this point on, that the war was lost. The battle’s most important impact was on the morale on both sides. Meanwhile, because of the scale of the losses in prisoners captured and the distance the attackers advanced, Erich Ludendorff, who was effectively the commander of the German armed forces in the war, described 8 August 1918 as ‘the black day of the German Army’ (‘der Schwarze Tag’)." Imperial War Museum
Do you do tank renovation at Bovington? If you do will it ever be possible to do videos of tank restorations like the Australian tank and armour museum do on their "workshop Wednesday's "??,this would be a great edition to your very informative videos. 👍
You can see where the British inter-war obsession with categorising tanks into with slow moving heavy infantry tanks and faster and lighter armoured medium 'cavalry' tanks came from - thats what had helped them win the Great War. So logically thats what they'd need for another European war too. They just forgot to extend the logic a bit further - if tanks could overcome the trench warfare stalemate of 1914-18 the chances were that another war wouldn't fall into that stalemate in the first place and would become a war of manoeuvre again.
Instructive that the commanders of tank formations in WWII took many of their lessons from the exploits of the Whippets and the FT-17s during The Great War. Indeed, George Patton commanded a force of FT-17s during the conflict.
When a problem comes along, you must whippet Before the cream sets out too long, you must whippet When something's going wrong, you must whippet Now whippet into shape, shape it up, get straight Go forward, move ahead, try to detect it, it's not too late To whippet, whippet good!
There is a Whippet in South Africa that was used in the Rand Revolt of 1922. I believe her driver was killed by a bullet through his viewing slit. She is now a gate guard at one of the military HQ's in Pretoria.
A good video about the Whippets but what about the photographs of Major Manovich with Lieutenant Arnold? The photo's are interesting but . . unusual, whats the story there?
The original tank prototype "Little Willie" actually did have a top rotating turret but it was deemed impractical and made the tank top heavy which wasn't great considering the ground conditions of the battlefields of WW1.
I would love to know the ideas and thoughts, from 1917, from the War Dept, designers and manufacturers about how the recognised Tank design, rhomboid mk4 for example, had an "offshoot", called the Whippet now, that actually became acceptable.
The combination of all branches of the army, including the army aid corp, war the brain child of Major General Sir John Monash, who's engineering background had taught him to use one piece of equipment to support another. 😊
Monash didn't come up with the combined arms tactics of Hamel, those had been developing in armies on both sides of the Western Front, Monash simply saw the most successful employment of them. Monash's civil engineering background saw his strength lay more in organisation and logistics than tactical or strategic planning, being able to coordinate, resupply and reinforce advances against the Germans in order to keep up momentum and see a plan through rather create some clever Hannibal-esque stratagem. Mont Saint-Quentin is a good example of how crude his tactics could be; it saw him command two under strength battalions to attack the German position before artillery were properly in place and in support, to charge uphill "yelling like bushrangers" and only saw it's initial success due to the general momentum of the 100 days advance before being kicked off the hill by a German counterassault.
IMO its the Germans who learnt the lessons of what even 1 tank in the rear areas could do. Many Brit tanks that broke thru were eventually hit, crew become casualties. If done the debrief is months late. While the Germans saw the results 1st-hand. Consider Pz1 & it's 2x MGs in France 1940.
