page_title: Vickers Medium Dragon
section_title: Medium Dragon Mark IV
hierarchical_section_title: Vickers Medium Dragon / Production history / Medium Dragon Mark IV
caption_attribution_description: BRITISH MILITARY VEHICLES 1918-1939 Vickers Dragon, Medium Artillery Tractor Mk.IV (fitted with an AEC C1 engine) towing a 60 pounder Mk I gun.
context_page_description: The Vickers Medium Dragon was a fully-tracked British field artillery tractor made by Vickers Ltd., produced in various versions from 1922 to 1937. It was developed from the carrier version of a 'Tropical Tank' designed by Lt-Colonel Philip Johnson, using components from the running gear of the Vickers Medium Mark I tank. The Mark IV version of the Medium Dragon was effectively a complete re-design, using the running gear from the Vickers 6-ton tank which was not adopted by the British Army. The Army finally decided in 1935 to purchase only wheeled artillery tractors, and no more were sold in the UK, but the Medium Dragon Mark IV sold well in export versions up to 1937. The Medium Dragons towed a wide range of artillery, from 18-pounder to 60-pounder guns.
  From c1929 Vickers-Armstrongs also made the Light Dragon tractor for towing light artillery, with a similar name but of a completely different design based on early versions of Vickers Light Tanks.
context_section_description: The Mark IV of c1932 was essentially a complete re-design, incorporating the running gear from the Vickers 6-ton Light Tank Mk II (or Mark E?): eight road wheels in two sets of paired bogies, quarter elliptical leaf spring suspension, and four return rollers. The side skirts on previous models were removed, leaving the running gear exposed. There was a distinctive shape to the tracks with the top run angled upwards towards the front.
  Only twelve were sold to British Army in 1935, which adopted the official name of Dragon, Medium, Mark IV: some of these went to France with the BEF at the start of WW2. The UK versions were fitted with an AEC 6-cylinder inline water-cooled diesel engine  as fitted to London buses (eg the AEC Q-type). Export versions were powered by an Armstrong-Siddeley Puma petrol 4-cylinder engine developing 91.5 bhp.
  In 1935 the Army decided to concentrate on using wheeled vehicles for towing all the army's artillery (such as the Morris CDSW and later the Quad, and the AEC Matador), and the procurement of tracked artillery tractors was dropped. Nevertheless, Mark IIIC Medium Dragons were still being used in 1942.
  A cargo version of the Medium Dragon Mark IV was also produced.
  Vickers exported considerably more Mark IVs (and 6-ton tanks) to foreign armies. In 1932 one vehicle was sold to the German company Siemens-Schuckert; in 1933 Finland bought 20, and the same year 26 Mark IVs in an anti-aircraft version were sold to the Siamese (Thai) Army, armed with a QF 2-pounder naval gun ( 'pom-pom'). 23 were sold to China in 1935 and India bought 18 tractors in 1937. 
  According to David Fletcher, the running gear used in the Mark IV Dragon was the basis of the Matilda I tank. During trials of early Matildas in 1936 the track pins failed constantly, and the rubber-tyred road rollers (which were subject to considerable wear) were replaced with steel ones: but these faults weren't cured until 1937 (when production of Mark IV Dragons ceased).
caption: Medium Dragon Mark IV with 60-pounder gun
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