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. 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.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 (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.
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