. Vickers Medium Mark C - Tank Encyclopedia Among these countries were Poland and Japan, both of which showed interest in purchasing this tank. In February 1925, the Japanese Ministry of War, in search of a modern tank design, sent a delegation led by Lieutenant General Katsuichi Ogata to find and purchase a tank. The delegation looked for new tanks in Great Britain, France, and America (considering the designs of J. Walter Christie). When negotiating with Vickers, they expressed interest in what were most likely the Medium Mark II tanks. Similarly to Japan, Poland was also looking for new tanks at that time. On July 31, 1925, the Polish Armament Committee decided to purchase 50 of the Medium Mark II tanks, deeming them as the most adequate out of the available options. However, both Japan’s and Poland’s attempts were unsuccessful. The British government did not allow the export of the Mark II tanks, fearing it would affect the production for their own Army.
However, the Medium Mark II was not the only design Vickers had to offer. In 1922, the Ministry of War created a set of requirements for a heavy tank that, among other things, included a rear engine and sponsons with machine guns. The concept of a heavy tank itself evolved and eventually led to the creation of the A1E1 “Independent”, but Vickers also used some of these requirements as the basis for designing light tanks. As a result, they created designs called Mark A and Mark B, which were comparable to the Medium Mark I tank, but were ultimately deemed inferior to it, leading to their abandonment before they ever left the drawing board. In 1925, Vickers designed another tank, called the Mark C, which was initially referred to as a light tank, before being reclassified as a medium. This tank also featured similar specifications to those of the Mark I, and used a chassis derived from the one of the “Birch Gun” self-propelled gun. The British Army, however, did not express any interest in this design, as they already had the comparable, or even superior, Mark II tanks.