It was designed by Vickers-Armstrong, and produced by Vickers, Miesse and Familleheureux [fr] and outfitted with armament from Fonderie Royale de Canons Herstal.

Total production numbers are unclear and have been underestimated for political reasons, both before and after World War II, but are generally estimated at 300 vehicles, although not all were available or fully outfitted on 10 May 1940, the start of the Battle of Belgium.

Impressed with the vehicle's performance on both hilly and flat terrain, the Belgian Armed Forces decided to take the concept a little further and experimentally outfitted the tractor with the F.R.C.

However, given its successful use with the Chasseurs Ardennais mountain troops, the Belgian Armed Forces decided to order another 32 vehicles, which became the basis for the T-13 B1.

Pleased with the performance of the Vickers 1934 artillery truck, the Belgian Army started to equip the newly ordered 32 vehicles with the FRC Herstal built 47 mm Model 1931 anti-tank gun.

Since this was a fairly heavy piece of equipment, and because of the general lay-out of the Vickers artillery tractor, the decision was taken to simply install the gun and its turret backwards on the vehicle, so as to keep enough space for crew and ammunition.

This design, exclusively used on lightweight vehicles, was also used on the Light Tank Mk VI of the British Army and was invented by Sidney Horstmann.

Motor power came in the form of a Meadows 5 cylinder gasoline engine, producing 51 hp, coupled with a five speed preselector gearbox.

Also, the side armor shields had to be folded down to permit the full 360° traverse of the turret, further exposing the crew to enemy rifle fire.

[citation needed] Armament was fairly heavy for this lightweight vehicle, giving the T-13 tank destroyer a good anti-tank capability.

[7] After the prototype T-13 B1 passed all the tests of the Belgian Army, production was authorized to proceed in 1935: the Miesse company near Buizingen (close to Brussels) delivered 32 T-13 B1s, all based on imported British built Vickers 1934 artillery tractors.

Although the Belgian armed forces were generally very pleased with the capabilities of the existing T-13 B1 and B2s, there were obvious issues with both models of the tank destroyer.

Exporting fully assembled designs was too expensive a solution to field a tank destroyer in adequate numbers, especially with the Belgian economy performing rather poorly because of the worldwide Great Depression and the resulting drop in foreign demand for industrial products.

The definitive T-13 B3 was structurally very different from the earlier B1 and B2 versions, with the B3 suffix obviously[citation needed] chosen to play down the fact that a new tank destroyer was being produced rather than a variant of the older systems.

The most important and obvious difference was the bigger and more powerful engine, which allowed for greatly reduced wear and tear and a rather more stable gun laying platform, and above all for better manoeuvrability in the field.

Operationally, the Belgian armed forces, apart from the cavalry units, followed the rather ineffective World War I "penny packet" doctrine, also used in the French army at the time.

The lack of a radio was another very important issue that often led to immobilized units, waiting for a single motorcyclist to act as a liaison.

Very often, when T-13s, T-15s and even the heavier Renault AMC 35s of the Belgian army tried to counterattack, the German 37 mm Pak anti-tank guns and similarly equipped armored units inflicted heavy casualties - neither the T-13 nor the T-15 had been designed for this mission.

[14] On a different occasion, in the afternoon of 12 May 1940 the 3rd regiment 'Lansiers/Lanciers' of the Cavalry knocked out a German reconnaissance group that was advancing on the road between the towns of Zoutleeuw and Drieslinter, and succeeded in wiping it out completely, finishing off the remaining infantry with machine gun fire.

[15] On one occasion, a single 47 mm hit pierced the hull of a Panzer IV on both sides of the vehicle, continuing its trajectory afterwards.

Confronted with soft targets, the T-13s fared well: T-13s participated in the successful counterattack at Kwatrecht near Gent on 20 May 1940, which succeeded in throwing back the German Army's 192nd and 234th infantry regiments, until British troops to the south of Oudenaarde received the order to retreat to Dunkirk on 22 May 1940 and broke contact with the Belgian front one day later.

They were mostly assigned to driver training and target practice, light support duties, airfield security, counter insurgency and possibly as part of the Atlantikwall coastal defenses.