.) Whippets arrived late in the First World War, at a time when the
British Expeditionary Force, recovering from the
Third Battle of Ypres in Flanders, was quite inactive. They first went into action in March 1918 and proved very useful to cover the fighting withdrawal of the infantry divisions recoiling from the German onslaught during the
German spring offensive. Whippets were then assigned to the normal Tank Battalions as extra "X-companies". In an engagement near
Cachy, a Whippet company of seven tanks wiped out two German infantry battalions caught in the open, killing or wounding over 400. That same day, 24 April, one Whippet was destroyed by a German
A7V in the world's second tank battle, the only time a Whippet fought an enemy tank. The Whippet was, as a British tank veteran wrote, "the big surprise" of the
Royal Tank Corps. Crews used their vehicles' speed to attack troops in the rear. They were so successful that by summer 1918 civilians "seemed to talk in terms of whippets", not knowing of heavy tanks' importance in breaking through fortifications and barbed wire. British losses were so high however that plans to equip five
Tank Battalions (Light) with 36 Whippets each had to be abandoned. In the end only the 3rd Tank Brigade had Whippets, 48 in each of its two battalions (3rd and 6th TB). Alongside Mark IV and V tanks, they took part in the
Battle of Amiens (8 August 1918) which was described by the German supreme commander, General Ludendorff, as "the Black Day of the German Army". The Whippets broke through into the German rear areas causing the loss of the artillery in an entire front sector, a devastating blow from which the Germans were unable to recover. During this battle, one Whippet –
Musical Box – advanced so far it was cut off behind German lines. For nine hours it roamed at will, destroying an artillery battery, an
observation balloon, the camp of an infantry battalion and a transport column of the German 225th Division, inflicting many casualties. At one point, cans of petrol being carried on
Musical Box's roof were ruptured by small-arms fire and fuel leaked into the cabin; the crew had to don gas masks to survive the fumes. Eventually, a German shell disabled it and as the crew abandoned the tank, one of them was shot and killed and the other two were taken prisoner. “Musical Box” was captured by the Germans, however it was retaken by the British later on in the war. The tank survived the war, and although most likely scrapped post war, 2 other Whippet tanks that saw extensive action are in Museums; A347 Firefly and A259 Caesar II, The Germans captured fewer than fifteen Whippets, two of which were in running condition. They were kept exclusively for tests and training purpose during the war, but one of them saw action afterwards with the
Freikorps in the
German Revolution of 1918–1919. The Germans gave them the designation
Beutepanzer A. After the war, Whippets were sent to Ireland during the
Anglo-Irish War as part of the British forces there, serving with
17th Battalion, Royal Tank Corps. Seventeen were sent with the Expedition Forces in support of the
Whites against Soviet Russia. The
Red Army captured twelve, using them until the 1930s and fitted at least one vehicle with a French 37 mm
Puteaux gun. The Soviets, incorrectly assuming that the name of the engine was "Taylor" instead of "Tylor" (a mistake many sources still make) called the tank the
Tyeilor. A few (perhaps six) were exported to Japan, where they remained in service until around 1930. Whippets were used by the
Imperial Japanese Army in
Manchukuo and during
World War II. == Variants ==