Vickers Medium Dragon
The Mark I–III versions were purchased and used in quantity by the British Army at the start of its mechanisation of the artillery during the inter-war period.
The Mark IV version of the Medium Dragon was effectively a complete re-design, using the running gear from the Vickers 6-ton tank, neither of which were adopted by the British Army.
[1] Major-general Sir Louis Jackson, formerly Director of Trench Warfare at the War Office, suggested in a lecture he gave in December 1919 that the army should organize the entirety of its transport on the basis of trucks; the infantry, artillery, and engineers should be carried in tracked tractors and cross-country trucks capable of transporting them swiftly and safely across the battlefield.
The United Service Gazette reported that "The War Office have given instructions for the four batteries of the 9th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, now stationed at Deepcut, in the Aldershot Command, to be "mechanicalised" for the purpose of practical experiments.
It is understood that a tractor fitted with caterpillar tracks has been officially recommended for the trials, which are to take place shortly in the Aldershot Command.
The 9th (IX) Brigade Royal Field Artillery took delivery of the supply variant in August 1922: subsequently two more prototypes were built, named the Vickers Dragon Nos.
11 road wheels, six return rollers, side skirt running the length of the tracks like Johnson's 'Tropical Supply Tank'.
[citation needed] By 1926 a Vickers Medium tank had also been adapted to be a bridgelayer, but with only a 16-foot (4.9 m) light girder bridge, it was found to be of no practical use.
[13] A Pathé News film shows King George V at Aldershot in c1923 watching Army exercises, including his inspection of a Medium Dragon Mk II.
The headlight enclosures were squared-off, and the triangular engine cooling intake was turned downwards-facing on rh side front plate.
A 1942 US manual on the British Army shows a Medium Dragon Mark IIIC towing a 152 mm BL 6-inch 26 cwt howitzer.
Only twelve were sold to British Army in 1935, which adopted the official name of Dragon, Medium, Mark IV: some of these went to France with the BEF at the start of WWII.
[citation needed] According to David Fletcher, the running gear of the Matilda I infantry tank was derived from the Mark IV Dragon.
During trials of early Matildas in 1936 the track pins failed constantly until relative height of drive sprocket and wheels were changed, and the rubber-tyred road rollers (which were subject to considerable wear) were replaced with steel ones.
