Cruiser tank

The cruiser tank, sometimes called a cavalry tank or fast tank, was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernized armoured and mechanized cavalry, distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were developed after medium tank designs of the 1930s failed to satisfy the Royal Armoured Corps, and the concept was conceived by Giffard Le Quesne Martel, who preferred many small light tanks to swarm an opponent rather than a few expensive and unsatisfactory medium tanks; light cruiser tanks such as the Cruiser Mark I carried less armor and were correspondingly faster, while heavy cruiser tanks such as the Cruiser Mark II had more armor and were slightly slower. The British cruiser tank series began in 1938 with the A9 and A10, followed by the A13 and A13 Mark II, the A13 Mark III Covenanter in 1940, and the A15 Crusader which entered service in 1941; the Crusader was superseded by the A27 Cromwell in 1944, and the A34 Comet, a better-armed development of the Cromwell, began entering service in late 1944.