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The cruiser tank (also called cavalry tank or fast tank) was a British tank design concept of the inter-war period. This concept was the driving force behind several tank designs which saw action during the Second World War. The Interwar period (also interbellum) is understood within Western culture to be the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, specifically 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939. ...
Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33...
Like the ships of the same name, cruiser tanks were fast and mobile, and were designed to operate independently of the slow-moving infantry and their heavier Infantry tanks. USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser (really an uprated guided missile destroyer), launched in 1992. ...
Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means. ...
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the British in the years leading up to World War II. They were intended to work alongside infantry. ...
Once gaps had been punched in the enemy front by the infantry tanks, the cruisers were intended to penetrate to the rear, attacking lines of supply and communication in accordance with the theories of Hobart and Liddell-Hart. Speed was therefore a critical factor, and to achieve this the early cruiser designs were lightly armoured and armed. This emphasis on speed unbalanced the British designs; insufficient attention was paid to armour protection. At the time it was not well understood that lightly-armoured vehicles would not survive on the modern battlefield. An even bigger problem for most cruiser tanks was the small calibre of their main gun. Most cruisers were armed with the two-pounder (40 mm) gun. This gun had good armour penetration capability (the best at the time), but was never issued high explosive ammunition. This made the cruisers vulnerable to towed anti-tank guns. However, as fighting enemy tanks was part of the projected role of the Cruiser tanks they were the first to be upgraded to the heavier 6 pounder (57mm) gun when it became available, and a great deal of effort was put into developing (admittedly unsuccessful) Cruiser tanks armed with the 17 pounder QF gun. Ironically, given the emphasis on high mobility, most cruisers were plagued by mechanical unreliability. This problem was usually caused by insufficient development as most of the early Cruiser tank designs were ordered "off the drawing board" and was not fully solved until the debut of the Cromwell in 1944, with its powerful, reliable Rolls-Royce Meteor engine. Major-General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart (14 June 1885-19 February 1957) was a British military engineer and commander of the 79th Armoured Division during World War II. He was responsible for many of the specialised armoured vehicles (Hobarts Funnies) that took part in the invasion of Normandy. ...
Basil Henry Liddell Hart (October 31, 1895 _ January 29, 1970) was a military historian and is considered among the great military strategists of the 20th century. ...
The QF 2-pounder gun was a British anti-tank gun. ...
The Rolls-Royce Meteor was a British tank engine developed from the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero-engine. ...
Inter-war cruisers included the A-9, A-10, A-13 Mk I and A-13 Mk II, which were used in the French, Greek, and North African Desert campaigns. The A-13 (Mk I and Mk II) was the first British cruiser to be fitted with Christie suspension, after British officers observed Soviet high-speed BT tanks on manoeuvres. During early WW2, the Crusader was probably the best-known cruiser, being used in large numbers in the desert. Other WW2 cruisers include the Covenanter, Centaur, Cromwell, and Comet. The Centaur and Cromwell saw action from Normandy onwards, while the Comet was fielded in the beginning of 1945. By this point in the war, the firepower and armour protection of the cruisers made them indistinguishable from medium tanks. General characteristics Length 5. ...
General characteristics Length 5. ...
General characteristics Length 6 m Width 2. ...
General characteristics Length 6 m Width 2. ...
During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from September 13, 1940 to May 13, 1943. ...
General characteristics Length 6 m Width 2. ...
General characteristics Length 6 m Width 2. ...
A British Comet with Christie suspension The Christie suspension is a suspension system developed by Walter Christie for his tank designs. ...
The Fast Tank (Russian: ), was a series of Soviet cavalry tanks which were produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. ...
One of the primary cruiser tanks of the United Kingdom during World War II, the Cruiser Tank VI Crusader was perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign. ...
Covenanter The Cruiser Mk V Covenanter was a British Cruiser tank of World War II, influenced by the Soviet T-28. ...
A27M Cruiser Tank VIII Cromwell was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in World War II. It was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed, and reasonable armor. ...
The A27M Cruiser Tank VIII Cromwell, named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in World War II. It was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed, and...
The Cruiser Comet was a British tank that first saw use near the end of World War II. It is often considered the best overall British tank of the war. ...
In the course of the war, technological improvements enabled heavier tanks to approximate the speed of the cruisers, and the concept became obsolete. The last of their line was the Centurion. The Centurion was designed to satisfy the "Heavy Cruiser" criteria by combining the mobility of a Cruiser tank and armour of an Infantry tank into one chassis. This idea - and the Centurion along with it - then evolved into the "Universal tank" concept, a single design that could "do it all." Ultimately the Centurion tank transcended it's cruiser tank origins and become the first modern main battle tank. The Centurion was the primary British Main Battle Tank of the immediate post-war era, and considered by many to be one of the best British tank designs of all time. ...
The US M1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. ...
The concept was also employed by the Soviet Union in the 1930s, as exemplified by the BT tank series (Russian: bystrokhodniy tank, "fast tank"). The Fast Tank (Russian: ), was a series of Soviet cavalry tanks which were produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. ...
See also
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