SERVICE HISTORY
THE MEDIUM MARK A WHIPPET WAS A BATTLEFIELD SUCCESS, ALTHOUGH IT WAS DEPLOYED IN LIMITED NUMBERS
The Whippet reached the battlefield in early 1918, and its crews first experienced combat during the German Spring Offensive. The Whippets blunted enemy attacks by covering the withdrawal of British troops and enabling them to re-establish defensive lines. At Hébuterne in northern France, a dozen Whippets caught two battalions of German soldiers on the move and forced them to retire.
Once the crisis had passed, the Whippets were assigned to tank battalions in company strength. On 24 April 1918, seven Medium
Mark A Whippets rushed to the aid of a Mark IV heavy tank just exiting a fight with three German A7V tanks. The Whippets then caught several battalions of German infantry in the open and shredded them with .303-inch machinegun fire. Some enemy soldiers were crushed under Whippet treads. Approximately 400 Germans were killed. Three Whippets survived the struggle. Later in the day, a Whippet was destroyed by an A7V.
The most memorable wartime Whippet exploit belonged to the crew of ‘Musical Box’, which terrorised the enemy for nearly 11 hours on 18 August 1918. Commanded by Lieutenant C.B. Arnold, Musical Box dashed through a breach in the enemy line and destroyed a German artillery battery. Unable to retire, Musical
Box proceeded to hunt opportunistic targets, attacking infantry columns and supply convoys, ramming a German truck and pushing it into a stream, and machine-gunning an airfield and destroying an observation balloon.
German bullets penetrated Musical Box’s thin armour and pierced the petrol tank, forcing the crew to put on gas masks. When an artillery shell rocked the tank and set leaking fuel afire, the crew abandoned the Whippet. One crew member was shot dead. Arnold and the other crewman were taken prisoner.
After World War I, the British deployed the Whippet in Ireland and during the Russian Civil War, and several tanks were sold to Japan. It remained in service into the 1930s.