Vickers T-15 light tank

The Vickers T-15 was a light reconnaissance tank built for the Belgian Army in the mid 1930s. Vickers-Armstrongs built the vehicles in Britain to the design of its Light Tank Mark III, and the Fonderie Royale de Canons at Herstal fitted the armament in Belgium. The Belgian army wanted a replacement for its obsolete Renault FT tanks and chose this export version from the Vickers catalogue, with a conical one-man turret and a French 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun in place of the British guns offered. A Henry Meadows six cylinder petrol engine gave it a top speed of 64 km/h, but its armour was thin and its soft suspension made gun laying difficult. Belgium bought 42 in two batches that were delivered in 1935. They served with the cavalry divisions and the Chasseurs Ardennais, fought in the Battle of Belgium in May 1940, and the few survivors were then used by German forces as the Panzerspähwagen VCL 701 (b). No vehicle is known to survive.