The were a series of
British pre-
World War II Tankette s, the most successful of which was the Mark VI, the only version built in significant numbers. It became a classic tankette design worldwide, was license-built by several countries and became the basis of several designs produced in several different countries. It was not so much a light tank as a tracked machine gun carrier.
The Carden Loyd tankette came about from an idea started, as a private project, by the British military engineer and tank strategist
Major Giffard LeQuesne Martel . He built a one-man tank in his garage from various parts and showed it to the
War Office in the mid 1920s. With the publicization of the idea, other companies produced their own interpretations of the idea. One of these was ''Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd'', of
John Carden and
Vivian Loyd . Besides one-man vehicles they also proposed two-man vehicles which turned out to be a more effective and popular idea.
Vickers-Armstrong manufactured and marketed it worldwide.
Considered a reconnaissance vehicle and a mobile
Machine Gun position, the Mark VI was the final stage of development of Carden Loyd series of tankettes.
Production started in 1927 and lasted until 1935. From 1933 to 1935 production was by s, mortar carriers or smoke projector vehicles.
In 1929, Poland bought 10 or 11 Mark VI tankettes with a licence and used them for development of their own
TK tankette series, which was in turn the predecessor of the Polish
TKS tankette.
Czechoslovakia also bought three Mark VI tankettes in 1930 with a licence, and then improved the design, producing 74 of
Tančik Vz.33 tankettes in the
ČKD (Praga) works (the original British construction was evaluated as unusable in modern warfare).
The
Soviet Union bought 20 Mark VI tankettes (designated K-25 in Russia) as well as a license. However, the final project was significantly modernised and the license was dropped. Instead, the ''Bolshevik'' works in
Leningrad started the production of the
T-27 tankette, a modernised and enlarged variant of the British design. A total of 3,228 T-27 tankettes were built between 1931 and 1933.
Japan also bought six Mark VIb tankettes and later developed its own
Type 94 Te Ke design that was based on them. Similary, Italy bought a number of Carden Loyd Mark VIs and built a small number of licence copies designated CV-29, and then developed this design further into the
L3/35 tankette.
In addition, the Carden Loyd tankettes were also supplied in small numbers to Canada, France, India, Italy, the Netherlands (5), and Siam. The French unarmed
Renault UE carrier was based on the Carden Loyd design. Bolivia had two Mark VIb tankettes and used them during the
Chaco War . In addition to this, the design of the German
Panzer I light tank was influenced by the Carden Loyd tankette.
