Gun Carrier Mk 1

 

The Gun Carrier was suggested as a companion machine to the Mark I Tank, to carry forward medium artillery and ammunition over shell-torn ground covered with old and new trench systems. It was apparent by mid-1916 that offensives on both sides (and notably the German attack at Verdun in February July 1916) soon lost their drive through the difficulty of bringing up artillery to maintain support.

The idea of a gun-carrying tank was put forward by Major Gregg of the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Co., who were the builders of the greater proportion of Tanks Mark I produced. Design commenced in July 1916 and the prototype, built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Co., was running at the beginning of 1917.

The Gun Carrier, Mark I, as it be­came designated, used the main mechanical components of Tank, Mark I, including the steering tail wheels (which were later discarded). The purpose for which the Gun Carrier was designed, however, necessitated a changed arrangement and resulted in an entirely different appearance from the tank. The layout comprised an open space at the front in to which the artillery piece (usually a 60-pdr. gun or a 6­in. howitzer) could be winched up a ramp, and behind this space an arm­oured box which contained a crew compartment and the engine and transmission. In the prototype, the driver and brakesman sat in the open over either track in front of the rear compartment, but in production machines two armoured cabs, either side of the breach of the gun, were fitted. This layout required the engine (a 105-h.p. Daimler) to be placed at the rear (unlike the Tank Mark I) with transmission shaft leading forwards to the differential which was located near the front of the armoured compartment. The final drive chains then led back to drive sprockets at the rear of the track assembly. Overall tracks, as in the heavy tanks, were not provided for in the Gun Carrier and the fact that the tracks went through tunnels under the front crew cabs and the rear compartment led to difficulties with mud col­lecting at these points.

Forty-eight Gun Carriers were built (two similar machines were completed as Salvage Tanks), the majority of them by Kitson & Co at Leeds, by July 1917. In France, they were used far less for carrying artillery than ammunition. The vehicle was designed so that the 60-pdr. gun or the 6-in, howitzer could be fired from it, although from a practical point of view only the 6-in. howitzer could be used in this way: These weapons were employed in this fashion at night on a few occasions and achieved some tactical success, but the Gun Carrier companies were eventually converted into supply companies and carried other supplies as well as ammu­nition. When transporting a medium gun or howitzer, sixty-four rounds of ammunition could be carried or, without the weapon 130 rounds, or approximately seven tons of supplies. It was estimated that six Gun Carriers with their combined crews of twenty-four men could carry a load which would otherwise require 1745 men - the only practicable alternative form of cross-country transport.

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