Medium Mark C
Charlie Clelland

Medium C 1

When Sir William Tritton, chairman of William Foster & Sons, Lincoln, heard in 1917 that Maj. W.G. Wilson was designing a new medium tank he instructed his chief designer, William Rigby, to design a competing tank to Wilson's. Rigby's design was accepted by the British Army on 19 April 1918 with a prototype to be ready in August 1918. The tank was completed on schedule and was accepted as the Medium Mark C "Hornet" although the name seems to have been little used later. The initial order of 200 tanks was increased to 600 but at the time of Armistice none had been completed. After the war 36 Medium Mark C tanks were completed and delivered to the 2nd Battalion, Tank Corps. A further 14 Medium Cs were constructed from spare parts and materials assembled for production.

Medium C 2 Medium C 3 Medium C 4 Medium C 5 Medium C 6 Medium C 7 Medium C 8 Medium C 9 Medium C 10

The Medium Mark C was designed with a similar configuration to the Medium B although it was considerably larger and somewhat heavier at 20 tons. The fighting compartment at the front held three crew, two machine gunners and the tank commander who had a rotatable cupola at the rear of the citadel. The driver was located at the front in the centre of the tank. Unlike the early tanks, the Medium C could be driven by one man. Armament was 4 Hotchkiss machine guns, although it was planned to build "male" Medium Cs with a 6 Pounder gun, these were never built. The 6 Pounder gun proposed was the long L/40 version used in the Mark I tank rather than the short L/23 version in the Mark IV. It's thought this choice was made to reduce the effects of muzzle blast on the driver. The tank was equipped with speaking tubes which made it much easier to operate the tank since the crew could communicate with each other, something that was very difficult in the earlier tanks.

The engine bay was large enough to mount the same engine as the Mark V tank, the 150hp 6-cylinder Ricardo. The transmission was in front of the engine with the rear sprockets driven by two-stage chain drives running down the inside of the hull on each side. The fighting compartment was isolated from the engine and transmission by a firewall. The suspension was rigid and the tracks were similar to the earlier tanks. The armour plating varied between 14mm and 6mm, similar to the heavy tanks.The Medium C had a higher top speed than the Medium B, 8 mph, and generally was a more maneuverable vehicle. There was a large fuel tank holding 150 gal (680 l) in the rear corner of the tank which gave a range of 140 miles (230 km)

The Medium C was never deployed outside Britain. The only notable events during its service life was the participation of 4 Medium Cs in the Victory Parade in London on 19 July 1919 and the deployment of Medium Cs to Glasgow to help suppress civil unrest associated with the Battle of George Square on 31 January 1919. The Medium Cs were gradually replaced by Vickers Medium Mark Is from 1925 onwards. There are no surviving Medium Mark Cs.

Medium C 11
Victory Parade 19 July 1919
Medium C 12
Glasgow Horse Market February 1919

Sources

David Fletcher "British Tanks 1915-19", Crowood, 2001
Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis "(AFV Weapons Profiles No.7) Medium Tanks Marks A-D", Profile Publications, 1970

Acknowledgement

User "PDA" of the Landships forum for the Medium C video.

How To Model This Tank

Matador Models produce a 1/72 resin Medium C.