Cruiser Mk III

Cruiser Mark III
Abandoned Cruiser Mark III in Calais, France
Type	Cruiser tank
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1938–1941
Used by	British Army
Wars	Second World War
Production history
Designer	Morris Commercial Cars
Designed	1936–1937
Manufacturer	Nuffield Mechanisations & Aero, Limited
Produced	1938–1939
No. built	65
Specifications
Mass	14 Long tons (14.2 tonnes)
Length	19 ft 8 in (6.0 m)
Width	8 ft 4 in (2.54 m)
Height	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Crew	4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver)
Armour	6–14 mm
Main armament	QF 2-pounder gun 87 rounds
Secondary armament	.303 Vickers machine gun 3,750 rounds
Engine	Nuffield Liberty V12 petrol 340 hp (250 kW)
Suspension	Christie
Operational range	90 mi (140 km)
Template:Encodefirst	30 mph (48 km/h)

The Tank, Cruiser, Mk III, also known by its General Staff specification number A13 Mark I, was a British cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was the first British cruiser tank to use the Christie suspension system, which gave higher speeds and better cross-country performance; previous cruiser tank models had used triple wheeled bogie suspension.

Design and development

British cruiser tank design began with the Cruiser Mk I and somewhat heavier Cruiser Mk II in the mid-1930s. Just as prototypes were arriving in 1936, General Giffard LeQuesne Martel, a pioneer in tank design who had published works on armoured warfare and pioneered the lightly armoured "tankette" to enhance infantry mobility, became Assistant Director of Mechanization at the War Office.

Later that year, Martel witnessed demonstrations of Soviet tank designs, including the BT tank, which had been influenced by American J. Walter Christie's work. Martel urged the adoption of the Christie suspension and Christie's practice of using a lightweight aircraft engine, such as the Liberty Engine. The government authorised the purchase and licensing of a Christie design via the Nuffield Organization, rather than contact the Soviet authorities.

The vehicle obtained seems, on close examination of photographs not to be Christie's prototype M1931 but a production "T3 Medium", the US Army having decided to replace this model c. 1934. Why this survivor was sent to Britain is unknown, though it is possible it was the only available example, hastily put into operable condition but minus its turret. On arrival it was given British War Department number T2086, the road registration BMX841 and the Mechanical Experimentation Establishment's experimental number 958. After trials it was sent to Morris Commercial Cars Ltd, Birmingham and dismantled for study, Lord Nuffield (head of the Morris companies) had already agreed to buy the patent rights that would allow his company to develop the design that would become the basis of the Cruiser Mk III (A13), extensively redesigned, enlarged and with several faults that Christie had not addressed rectified. A new company Nuffield Mechanization & Aero Limited was formed for the development and production of the design.

At a meeting of the General Staff, an official specification was determined, which included 30 mm (1.2 in) armour, a Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun and a road speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). A subsequent review of the specification by Martel and Percy Hobart approved 30 mm armour all round, provided cross-country speed could be kept at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). Pending the delivery of the A13, an interim design was approved from the A7, A9 and A10, the A9 being selected. Orders for the resulting Mk. I's were limited pending the arrival of the A13.

The first prototype (A13E1) was delivered in 1937. Following the testing of two prototypes, the A13 was ordered into production. The original order was for 50 tanks; 43 had been delivered by the start of the war and 22 more from September to December 1939. The Mk III weighed 14 long tons (14 t), had a crew of four, a 340 horsepower (250 kW) engine and a top speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and was armed with a 2 pounder gun and a machine-gun. When it was introduced into service in 1937, the army still lacked a formal tank division.

Combat history

Tank, Cruiser, Mk III (A13 Mk I)

Like most early British cruisers, the A13 was fast but under-armoured and mechanically unreliable. As part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France, the Cruiser Mark III equipped units in the 1st Armoured Division but most were lost. A few were used in the Battle of Greece and in the Western Desert 1940–1941, where they equipped units of the 7th Armoured Division. The design was used as the basis for the Cruiser Mk IV.

See also

• Cruiser tank
• Cruiser Mk. IV
• BT Tank

References

• Bingham, James (1971). Crusader–Cruiser Mark VI. AFV Profiles. Windsor: Profile Publications. OCLC 54349416.
• Doherty, Richard (2013). British Armoured Divisions and their Commanders, 1939–1945. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1848848382.
• Fletcher, David (2017). British Battle Tanks: British-Made Tanks of World War II. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-4728-2003-7.
• Milsom, John; Sandars, John; Scarborough, Gerald (1976). Crusader. Classic Armoured Fighting Vehicles: Their History and How to Model Them. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens in association with Airfix. ISBN 0-85059-194-5.
• Steele, Brett D. (2005). Military Re-engineering Between the World Wars. RAND. ISBN 0-8330-3721-8.
• Tucker, Spencer (2004). Tanks: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-57607-995-3.
• White, B. T. (1963). British Tanks 1915–1945. London: Ian Allan. OCLC 30214464.

External links

• OnWar.com
• HenkofHolland
• David Fletcher's Tank Chat on A13 Cruiser