It is always a delight to receive a book from Stratus. Over the years I have come to rely on them for producing books on subjects that are interesting with an excellent historical section, great color profiles and equally well chosen photographe.

This edition is no exception.

For their second volume of Polish Tracks, they have chosen the Vickers 6 Ton light tank and some variants. This is the first volume that covers only those tanks that were produced in the UK and not the license built ones, which will be in the second volume. This edition also covers the C6P and C6T artillery tractors, as well as the much more successful C7P version.

To provide a bit of background, in the late 1920s, it was realized the the Polish Army needed a tank that was better than the WWI vintage Renault FT-17s that were used successfully against the Bolsheviks. However, money was tight and finding a replacement was not easy. Though many different designs were tested, none were really an improvement on what they already had and some were a step back.

It was also important that these tanks be rugged, easy to maintain and contain guns that could use extant Polish ammunition. Some consideration was given to a Christie tank, but it was a demonstration of a British Vickers Mark E. It seemed to have all that was required in terms of being a solid build and one with a good automotive section.

Still, the situation regarding a decent gun was not found. Rather than wait, the Polish Army ordered a number of twin turret tanks, these using Hotchkiss machine guns. But a cannon was really wanted. Later a cannon was found and several single turret kits were purchased to upgrade the tanks already purchased. One of the main issues with these tanks was that the production tanks were not up to specs based on the demonstrator. To make a long story short, the British made Vickers were used mostly as training tanks while the Polish built versions (the 7TP). Eventually, the war situation required the use of these training versions against the invading Germans, where they had little success.

Derived from the Vickers tank was a tractor. Prototypes wer ethe C6P and C6T differing only in where the drive sprocket was located. The definitive production version was the C7P. Not only was it used as an artillery tractor, but also as a recovery vehicle and as an engineering vehicle with the war stopping development of the latter.

Throughout the book are photos of various vehicles with full color profiles based on the images. In the very back of the book are a set of plans of these vehicles in 1/72 and 1/35 scale. This includes all the different variants that are covered in the book.

Like all of Stratus' books, this one is a keeper and a must have by those interested in light tanks.

November 2011

Review book courtesy of MMP Books, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb aviation and modeling books. The book is also available through Casemate Publishing in the US and Platypus Publications in Australia.

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