A1E1 Independent
In service 1926 - 1935
Also known asVickers A1E1, Independent
The one-off British multi-turret heavy that inspired a generation of foreign designs it never fought alongside.
Built byVickers
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
Vickers built a single A1E1 in 1926 as a command-and-breakthrough tank: a 47 mm main turret over four independent machine gun turrets, with an intercom for the eight-man crew. Cost and shifting doctrine killed any production order, but the layout was studied closely abroad and is visible in the Soviet T-35, the German Neubaufahrzeug and the British Medium Mark III. The vehicle survives at Bovington.
Notable actions
- Trials and exercises only