Cruiser Mk 2 series of cruiser tanks

CRUISER MK 2

SERIES OF CRUISER TANKS

The design of the A10 by Sir John Carden commenced in 1934 and first appeared in pilot form in 1937. It was developed in parallel with the A9 and was basically an A9 with additional armour bolted to its hull and turret. It was the first tank to feature this sort of composite construction by increasing the armour thickness with additional armour plates. By the time it started entering service in 1938 it was considered to be too lightly armoured to be an 'infantry' tank; the purpose for which it was originally built and it was reclassified as a 'heavy cruiser' tank. Production contracts were placed in June 1938 for 100 examples. Vickers built 10, the Birminham Railway Carriage Company and Metropolitan-Cammel built 45 each. An additional 75 were ordered from the Birminham Railway Carriage Company in September 1939 and production was completed by September 1940. Orders were not large for these vehicles as by 1938 it had been decided that they were purely stopgap pending the introduction of a new generation of vehicles. Cruiser Mk II were used along with Cruiser Mk I in France and, later, in the Western Desert up until about the end of 1941.