Mk VII Tetrarch light tank

The Mk VII Tetrarch, General Staff specification A17, was a British light tank produced by Vickers-Armstrongs in the late 1930s and used in the Second World War. It began as a private venture prototype in 1937 and improved on the earlier Light Tank Mk VIC by carrying a 2-pounder gun, with a Besa machine gun, in a two-man turret and a Meadows engine of 165 horsepower. It had an unusual steering system in which the front wheels turned to bend the tracks for gentle turns. Between 100 and 177 were built, and twenty went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease. A few took part in the invasion of Madagascar in 1942, and Tetrarchs carried in Hamilcar gliders landed in Normandy in June 1944 with the 6th Airborne Division. The tank was deemed obsolete by 1946 and the last was retired in 1950.