This British tank prototype was proposed during the inter-war years but rejected by the British military on cost grounds. However, the idea lived on in the Soviet Union where the concept was copied. Stalin had a soft spot for monstrosities like this and gave a go ahead for mass production of the T-28 and T-35 which had similar configurations.
Whenever you see a design that’s has a very long hull dominated by complex but rigid suspension you’re probably looking at a shelled area tank. The shelled area concept was developed during the Great War and it assumed that speed was not as important as the ability to pass over trenches and shell craters. Shelled area tanks were lumbering and slow but very agile, able to extricate themselves from all kinds of holes. Up to the final days before Blitzkrieg many in Britain’s tank industry believed that WWII would be a repetition of the trench warfare of the Great War. Shelled area tanks continued to be developped and this culminated in the Churchill tank. The Churchill was true to its shelled area origin: if there was anything it loved to do it was to climb over things. The tank proved itself invaluable in the hedgerows of Normandy navigating obstacles that stopped American Shermans.
This specimen of the Independent tank is located at the Bovington museum in the UK.
