Light Tank Mk IV | Tank Chats #173 | The Tank Museum

Weighing in at five tons, machine gun armed and with a two-man crew, the Tank, Light, Mk IV was one of a series produced for the British Army by Vickers before World War II, seeing service on the NW Frontier of India. Recently restored, the Mk IV is the oldest running tank in our collection.

*Support The Tank Museum & Get great perks:*

00:00 | Intro
00:48 | History
03:25 | Development
11:46 | Mark IV
14.48 | Later variants

#tankmuseum #tankchats #davidwilley

[thetankmuseum]

Hi Tanks Nuts - We hope you enjoyed this video. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.

[markedwards]

Good to see David back again. I love his delivery style, informative and educating.

[Caratacus]

Those photos of the horse towing the tank and the commanders who were about to be catapulted out of their turrets were brilliant 😁

[jussi]

that mk1 with the twin 50 looks so cool

[glennpettersson]

Like every presentation by David the vehicle is used to tell a much bigger story. Classy 😎

[c.j.zographos]

It's always great when David does these chats; well researched and informative, even about lesser known (at least to some of us) vehicles.

[bob_the_bomb]

Always thought it looked like the grandad of Scorpion

[bikenavbm]

thanks to all to that helped with the restoration especially Pearson for your generosity, great vid on these stepping stone vehicles. A boring personal connection I used to turn wheel bearing components for Horsman used for military vehicles but I dont know which. Thank you tank Museum for conserving history.

[dylanmilne]

Love nothing more than a bit of Willey on a Friday afternoon!

[MaximumResultsCopy]

Excellent video...thank you! I find the "background" information explaining the context and why a vehicle was built very helpful. There were many problems with British tanks in WW2 but there were all sorts of constraints on the tank program.

[volvowithlazers]

Nice to know Pearson Engineering is a going concern experts in the field so UK does have business post brexit good job Pearson. Love this vid. The early Era concepts would make a great unit in war game on this Era only.

[causewaykayak]

That was SO interesting ! The wealth of knowledge there. The use of simple light vehicles to train up reserve production capacity was particularly interesting. It's not all nuts and bolts !

[russellnixon]

What a great presentation by the master.
I always saw these little light tankettes as bad idea but listening to this I now see for the roles in colonial wars and policing it makes sense. I also realize I;m viewing the subject with hine sight. Thanks for this, I now have a better insight to tank development.

[peterharrington]

Great video. Pleased to see Pearson's still doing as little bit in that new / old Vickers factory. Shame it couldn't be more of course.

[OrangesAndCookies]

Haha, that TC in the first picture showing the little hand grips on the top of turret looks like he scared to death of falling out the tank.

[chriskortan]

I have a new appreciation for the philosophy behind these tankettes. I had always considered them worthless beyond enforcing colonial will. A good percentage of the FT tanks had a cannon and even the Panzer 2 at least had a 20mm auto-cannon.
The idea that it wasn't just economy but preparing industry and keeping them in business makes a lot of sense.

[douglasmaccullagh]

I'd enjoy seeing a Tank Chat on the MK VI. Thank you for discussing industrial issues behind the light tank series. I was half-way familiar with the mechanical progression, but I learned a lot here. I especially learned about the light tanks in India. That was an eye opener. Thank you!

[comentedonakeyboard]

Last Time i was this early, the French still held the Maginot Line.

[alexhunt]

Something David isn't mentioning (a little unfairly) is that a lot of the Army budget is being spent on motorising the infantry and artillery, whereas neither France nor Germany were that focused on motorisation

[nikidanberthelsen]

Would be interesting to see 'the top 5 cheap tanks'. Just to see which tanks are the best in regard to cost-compromises. Which would facilitate attrition warfare.