Британдық әскери техниканы жетілдіру және ауадан тасымалдауға арналған танк іздеуі

A decision had recently been made by the War Office that light tanks were no longer to be generally used in the British Army; on the whole they had performed poorly during the Battle of France and were considered to be a liability. As a result, the Vickers Armstrong Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch light tank was now considered obsolete. This made it available for use by the airborne forces and it was chosen by the War Office as the tank to be transported by glider. However, it had not been designed specifically as an airborne tank or to be airmobile, Its size limited the possible crew to three—a driver in the hull and a gunner and commander in the turret—which was found to be too few crew members to operate the Tetrarch effectively. The gunner or commander, in addition to his own duties, had to act as loader for the 2 pounder, which caused delays in combat; a report on the tank written in January 1941 stated that since the commander had both to fight and control the tank, controlling a troop of Tetrarchs during combat would be almost impossible. A purpose built airborne light tank was therefore required to replace the Tetrarch, but the decision was taken by the War Office not to produce the tank in Britain due to a lack of production capacity. Instead the American government was approached with a request that it produce a replacement for the Tetrarch. This request was made by the British Air Commission in Washington, D. C., with a proposal calling for a tank of between and to be developed, this being the maximum weight the War Office had decided could be carried by current glider technology. The proposed tank was to have a primary armament of a main gun and secondary armament of a .30 06 Browning M1919A4, and a crew of three. The specification also called for a maximum speed of and an operational radius of 200 mile (322 km). The turret and front of the hull were to have an armor thickness of between and , and the sides of the tank a thickness of At a conference in May 1941, the Ordnance Department chose the Marmon Herrington design and requested that the company produce a prototype tank, which was completed in late 1941; it was designated the Light Tank T9 (Airborne) by the company and the Ordnance Department.

The T9 had a crew of three and weighed It was armed with a main gun and a coaxial .30 06 Browning M1919A4 machine gun, as well as two further machine guns on the right hand side of the bow. The main gun and coaxial machine gun were mounted in a powered turret, which also had a gun stabilizer installed to allow the gun to be fired when the tank was moving. However, the T9 was of the correct shape, weight and size to be carried inside a Hamilcar glider, suggesting that these dimensions had been chosen deliberately so that the tank could be transported inside a glider if required. A number of changes were made to the prototype during testing. The main change was the addition of supporting steel beams to improve and strengthen the suspension of the tank, which increased the weight to , the maximum weight that could be carried by a Hamilcar glider. Two new prototypes were ordered by the Ordnance Department in January 1942 and were delivered by Marmon Herrington in November 1942. They were both designated T9E1. The new tanks incorporated a number of requested changes. The turret was altered in shape; it was lightened by the removal of the power traverse mechanism and the gyro stabilizer for the main armament. The faults discovered with the design led to the Ordnance Department giving it the specification number M22, but classing it as 'limited standard'. No American combat units were equipped with the tank, although some of those produced were used for training purposes Some 25 Locusts were ordered in April 1944 for use in the European Theater of Operations, and delivered by September; although a small number were sent to the United States Sixth Army Group in Alsace, France, for testing, they were never used in combat. However, the British still required the M22 as a replacement for the Tetrarch and the first prototype Locust was shipped to Britain in May 1942 for testing, followed by the second prototype T9E1 in July 1943. Although they were of the opinion that the M22 possessed a number of faults, the War Office believed it would perform adequately as an airborne tank. Thus the tank received the official title of "Locust" and 260 were shipped to Britain under the Lend Lease Act.

Extensive testing of the M22 occurred in 1943 and 1944, and was conducted by both the Ordnance Department and the British Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV) Gunnery School at Lulworth Ranges. These tests uncovered a number of faults and problems with the Locust. Operational use of the tank would therefore be restricted to the availability of airfields large enough to accommodate a fully laden C 54, which might not be in the right geographical location or might even have to be captured in advance of a planned airborne operation. The US Army Armored Board released a critical report on the Locust in September 1943, stating that it was inadequate in the areas of reliability and durability, and indicating that it would not be able to be successfully used during airborne operations. By 1944 it was also realized that the design of the tank was actually obsolete. The armor of the M22 in several areas was found to be so thin that it was incapable of even resisting the armor piercing ammunition of a .50 caliber machine gun. Complaints were also made about the 37mm main armament, which was not powerful enough to penetrate the armor of most tanks used by the Axis powers. There were also mechanical problems with the design, which caused it to be unreliable; the engine was also found to be underpowered, possibly due to problems with the torque characteristics of the engine or an inefficient transmission system. The unit chosen for conversion into the Light Tank Squadron was 'C' Special Services Squadron, which had seen service as an independent tank unit during Operation Ironclad, the invasion of Madagascar in mid 1942. The squadron was also equipped with Tetrarchs, which had recently been re designated as an airborne tank by the War Office. 'C' Squadron was officially transferred to the 1st Airborne Division on 24 June 1942, bringing with it seven Tetrarchs amongst the other vehicles it was equipped with. The unit immediately began training, but did not stay attached to the 1st Airborne Division for very long; during mid 1943, the division was transported to the Middle East, where it would eventually participate in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily. 'C' Squadron remained in Britain however, as not enough Hamilcar gliders had yet been built to transport and deploy all of their Tetrarchs. The squadron was transferred to the division with which it would spend the rest of the war; the 6th Airborne Division, raised in April 1943. The squadron continued to train as an air portable unit and participated in a number of exercises intended to familiarize it with the duties it would perform, including reconnaissance of enemy positions and performing counter attacks against enemy infantry and armor. In mid July an American pilot was sent to Britain to illustrate that the tank could fit inside a Hamilcar and be landed, and then on October 25 the Light Tank Squadron received a shipment of seventeen Locusts. During November the new tanks were issued to the squadron, replacing a majority of the Tetrarchs; however a small number of Tetrarchs fitted with a 3 inch (76.2 mm) infantry support howitzer, which were designated as Tetrarch 1 CS (Close Support), were retained. Several of the Locusts also were fitted with Littlejohn adaptors to increase the range and penetration power of their main armament, although it is not clear how many were fitted or if they were fitted at manufacture or after they reached the squadron. However, due to their thin armor and underpowered armament they proved to be completely outclassed by the tanks and self propelled guns deployed by German forces, such as the Panzer IV and the Sturmgeschütz III. By August, in preparation for the 6th Airborne Division's participation in the planned breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, the majority of Tetrarchs in 'A' Squadron were replaced with Cromwell fast cruiser tanks; only three Tetrarchs were retained, remaining with the Headquarters troop of 'A' Squadron. In September the division returned to Britain and in the first week of October 1944, the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment underwent an extensive reorganization. The regiment was completely restructured and retired all the remaining Tetrarch tanks it was equipped with, replacing them with Locusts.

In March 1945, the 6th Airborne Division was informed that it would be participating in Operation Varsity, an airborne operation in support of 21st Army Group crossing the River Rhine during Operation Plunder. On March 24 the division, in conjunction with the American United States 17th Airborne Division, would be dropped by parachute and glider near the city of Wesel, where it would capture the strategically important village of Hamminkeln, several important bridges over the River IJssel and the southern portion of a major forest, the Diersfordter Wald. Eight Locusts from the regiment, divided into two troops of four, would land with the 6th Airlanding Brigade in landing zone 'P' east of the Diersfordter Wald and west of Hamminkeln, acting as a divisional reserve; the rest of the regiment would arrive by road after crossing the Rhine with 21st Army Group. The eight Locusts were loaded into separate Hamilcar gliders between 17 and 20 March, and on the morning of 24 March were towed from the airfield by Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers to join the rest of the gliders and transport aircraft carrying the two airborne divisions. Weather conditions for the operation were excellent, with clear visibility, and all eight gliders arrived in the vicinity of the landing zone without incident. During their attempts to land, however, the small force was severely depleted; one glider broke away from the Halifax towing it and disintegrated, apparently as a result of structural failure, with the Locust inside it falling to the ground. Three more gliders came under heavy German anti aircraft fire and crashed as they landed; one tank survived with a damaged machine gun, another crashed through a house which put its wireless radio set and main armament out of action, and the third broke loose of the glider as it landed and was flipped over onto its turret, rendering it useless. Six Locusts landed intact on the landing zone, including several with significant damage, but two of these tanks did not reach the rendezvous point chosen for the regiment. One undamaged tank came to the aid of a group of American paratroopers who were under fire from a German self propelled gun but was rapidly knocked out by the German vehicle, wounding two crewmembers. A second tank broke down as it attempted to tow a jeep out of a crashed glider, although the crew remained with the tank and supported British airborne troops in the area. Of the four Locusts that reached the rendezvous point, only two were undamaged and fully fit for action; these two were immediately deployed to the high ground east of the Diersfordter Wald, while being covered by the two damaged tanks. Upon arrival they were engaged by German troops and had to be supported by an infantry company, and soon their presence began attracting a great deal of artillery and anti tank fire. Although neither of the tanks were hit, a number of infantrymen were killed or wounded and after several hours the tanks were forced to withdraw. The four tanks and remaining infantry formed a small force that repelled several German attacks on their position, and were eventually relieved at 10:30 by a tank squadron from the 44th Royal Tank Regiment and elements of the rest of the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment.