The Tank, Cruiser, Mk I (A9) was a British

cruiser tank The cruiser tank (sometimes called cavalry tank or fast tank) was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry, as distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were develop ...

of the interwar period. It was the first

: a fast tank designed to bypass the main enemy lines and engage the enemy's lines of communication, as well as enemy tanks. The Cruiser Mk II was a more heavily armoured adaptation of the Mark I, developed at much the same time.

Design and development

In 1936, the British

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

designated two different kinds of tanks for future development: heavily armoured

infantry tank The infantry tank was a tank concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily arm ...

s to be used in close co-operation with infantry during attacks, and fast mobile cruiser tanks designed to make forays deep into enemy territory. Due to the cost, British replacement designs for Medium Mark II tanks then in service had been cancelled with only three Medium Mark III built. In 1934,

Sir John Carden Sir John Valentine Carden, 6th Baronet MBE (6 February 1892 – 10 December 1935) was an English tank and vehicle designer. He was the sixth baronet of Templemore, County Tipperary, from 1931. Work Born in London, Carden ran a company from 1 ...

Vickers-Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

was asked to provide a "reasonably cheap tank" as a replacement for some of the medium models then in use. This design was known by General Staff specification A9. The pilot model of his medium tank design was finished in 1936 and given the designation A9E1. It incorporated the best features of the cancelled Medium Mk III design, but lighter so that it could be powered by a commercial petrol engine. However, this was still in the time of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and the tank had a number of cost-cutting measures applied. It was the first British tank to have a centrally located turret and to have powered traverse. The system was by Nash & Thompson and similar to that being introduced on the

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

medium bomber aircraft. The armour was light, with a maximum thickness of . Many armour faces were vertical, and there were numerous shot traps, but it could achieve and carried the new high velocity QF 2-pounder (40 mm) gun, which had replaced the QF 3-pounder by the time manufacture started in 1937. The driver's compartment and the fighting compartments were not separated. As well as the turret armament, which consisted of an Ordnance QF 2 pounder gun and a coaxial

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

, there were two small turrets either side of the driver's compartment, each with a Vickers machine-gun. Both of these smaller turrets were permanently manned, which gave the tank a total crew of six (commander, gunner, loader, driver and two machine-gunners). The A9E1 was tested against other designs and, although lacking in some areas, it was accepted in 1937 as an interim design until a Christie suspension cruiser tank could be delivered. An order was placed for 125. Seventy-five were built by

Harland & Wolff Harland & Wolff Holdings plc is a British shipbuilding and Metal fabrication, fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish yard, Arnish, Appledore, Torridge, Appledore and Methil. It specialises in ship repair, ship ...

, and the other 50 were built by

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

. Initially, a

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

car engine (the 7.67 litre of the Phantom II) was used for the pilot model, but this proved to be underpowered and was replaced by a 9.64 litre AEC

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

engine. The later Valentine

essentially used the same lower hull and suspension, though with considerably more armour. The A9 weighed , was long, high, wide and had a top speed of on road and off. Its maximum road range was . The ammunition load was 100 rounds for the main gun and 3,000 rounds for the three machine guns.

Service

The Mark I cruiser began to be delivered in January 1939. 36 tanks were delivered before the start of the war, 40 in September–December 1939 and 49 in 1940. The Cruiser was an effective tank in the French, Greek and early

North African campaign The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

s. The 2-pounder gun was lethal against the early Italian tanks encountered during the North African campaign and could hold its own against Rommel's early Panzer IIs and IIIs. It could also breach the of protective steel on later opponents, such as the

Panzer III The ''Panzerkampfwagen III (Pz.Kpfw. III)'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Nazi Germany, Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was List of Sd.K ...

''Ausf'' D and the

Panzer IV The IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the Panzer IV, is a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161. The Panzer IV was the most numer ...

''Ausf'' D. It was effective until the Germans introduced the more thickly armoured Panzer IV ''Ausf'' E to the desert in the spring of 1941. However, its minimal armour made the A9 very vulnerable to most Axis anti-tank weapons. Also problematic was the lack of

high explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

shells for the 2-pounder gun, and even worse the lack of armour-piercing shells for the 94 mm gun on the close support version. Another issue was that the areas around the front machine gun turrets created a frontal surface that was more vulnerable to enemy fire than it would have been had it been a simple flat plate. The mechanical unreliability of the Cruiser was also a disadvantage. In particular, tracks were easily slewed, causing difficulties.

Variants

;Mark I (A9) :Used by the 1st Armoured Division in the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

(1940). Used by the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

and 7th Armoured Divisions in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

until 1941. ;Mark I CS :Had a 3.7 inch (94 mm) /L15 breech-loaded howitzer, derived from the World War I QF 3.7-inch mountain howitzer, instead of the 2-pounder gun. 40 rounds, mostly smoke, were carried. :

Surviving vehicles

* On display at

The Tank Museum The Tank Museum (previously the Bovington Tank Museum) is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about north of the village of Wool and west of the major port of Poole. The collectio ...

at Bovington, England. * On display at Cavalry Tank Museum at

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar, officially Ahilyanagar, is a city in, and the headquarters of, the Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Ahmednagar has several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost impre ...

, India

Notes

References

* *
WWIIvehicles.com, accessed 23 October 2007
* *

External links

{{Subject bar , portal1=United Kingdom Cruiser tanks of the United Kingdom Interwar tanks of the United Kingdom World War II tanks of the United Kingdom Vickers Multi-turreted tanks Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s