The Vickers-Carden-Lloyd A4E12: An Export Success Story

The A4E12 under test, demonstrating its amphibious capability. (Author's Collection)

     In the 1930s Britain, there was an apathy in the high command towards modernizing and expanding Britain’s tank force. In part, this was a legacy of World War One thinking in which tanks were not seen as being a true, equal component of an armed force and also that it was felt World War One would be the last global conflict. Despite this, there was fairly significant tank development in England and in most cases, it wasn’t to interest the British military but to entice foreign buyers. Numerous nations either did not have the technical ability to build tanks or they did not have the manufacturing infrastructure to produce tanks and so looking elsewhere and using hard currency was a way to obtain tanks and other armored vehicles. One such vehicle was the Vickers-Carden-Lloyd A4E12 light amphibious tank. 

     To achieve buoyancy, the A4E12 sacrificed so much armor protection that it could barely hold the designation of light tank. At the maximum, the A4E12 sported 11mm of armor. Additional buoyancy came from the balsa wood floats which were encased in sheet steel and fitted to the hull sides above the tracks. The A4E12, on water, moved via a propeller fitted to the rear of the tank and a rudder provided steering. Armament consisted of a single Vickers .303in. machine-gun. Export sales, however, were fairly brisk for the A4E12 and China, the Dutch East Indies, Thailand, and the Soviet Union were all buyers of the tank. The Chinese 12th. Army Group would deploy the A4E12 into action against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War which began on July 7, 1937. In the end, all but one remained in Chinese service (as a training tank) though during the battles, the Japanese captured a few in functional condition and used them against the Chinese. 

     The Soviet Union purchased eight A4E12 tanks for trials and enamored with the A4E12, used it as the basis for the T-37 light amphibious tank. The T-37 was not an outright copy of the British design but the A4E12 did provide the influence for the Soviet tank. The T-37 saw extensive action against the Finnish in the Winter War and against the Germans following the 1941 invasion. However, the severe lack of armor (9mm maximum) saw most of the T-37 tanks destroyed with the few which survived being relegated to the training role. 

     One of the Soviet Union’s purchased A4E12 tanks survives today and is on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum outside Moscow, Russia.