Cruiser I

What is this Cruiser I?

Cruiser 1, or the Mk I was a British tank that they used as a cruiser. This is also known as the Mk I A9. The purpose of designing this was to pass the enemy lines. And another purpose was to pass the enemy communication barricades. And they built these strong as possible so that they even can fight the enemy tanks.

Cruiser

History

Firstly, let us talk about the production history and then the service history.

Production history

The designer of this tank is Sir John Carden, a talented designer during the period. He designed this tank for the manufacturing company named Vickers. This was designed from 1934 to 1936 and they started producing these from 1936. They produced Cruiser I for 3 more years. This was not mass built. They only built 125 of these and then stopped.

The service history

This Cruiser I tank was in service for three years. From 1938 to 1941. These tanks were used by the British army. This was only used during the period of the second world war. But it did brilliant work there.

General information

There are several topics we can talk about under this category. Let us see them one by one.

Dimensions

Cruiser I was 19 ft long and it was 8 ft and 4 inches wide. The height of this tank was 8 ft and 8 inches. So, the height and the width of this tank are pretty much the same. This weighed 12.8 tons in long tons and the fully loaded battle-ready tank was about 13.0 tons.

Cruiser

Crew

As this was used as a cruiser, the number of crew members was high. There were six crew members on this tank. They were the commander, the gunner, the loader, the driver, and the two MG gunners.

Armor

When we talk about armor, there are three categories we can talk about. The hull armor, the turret armor, and the armor penetration. The hull armor was 14/10/10 mm thick and the turret armor was 14/12/14 mm thick. And the armor penetration was 40/65/23 mm.

Modules

Now let us look at the modules and their specifications of the Cruiser I.

Guns

There were two guns in this tank. One was the QF 2-pdr Mk. IX prototype and the other one was the 40 mm Pom-Pom prototype.

QF 2-pdr Mk. IX prototype

The penetration of this gun was 40/65/23 mm and the damaging power was 45/45/60 hp powerful. The aiming time of this gun was around 2.5 seconds and the total weight of this gun was around 130 kg.

40 mm Pom-Pom prototype

The penetration of this gun was 35/58/23 mm and the damaging power was 45/45/60 hp powerful. The aiming time of this gun was around 2.5 seconds and the total weight of this gun was around 160 kg.

Engines

There was only one engine in this Cruiser I tank. It was a Rolls-Royce Phantom one. This was 120 hp powerful. The chance of fire on impact was 20%. This engine weighed about 340 kg.

Cruiser

Cruiser II

What is this Cruiser II?

This Cruiser II or the Mk II A 10 was another cruiser tank built by the British army. This was almost like a twin to its previous tank, Cruiser I Mk I A 09. The only significant difference between the two tanks was the weight. They designed this tank to be heavier than the previous one.

History

When we talk about the history of this tank, we can talk about the both production history and the service history. Firstly, let us look into the production history.

Cruiser

The production history

This tank was initially designed in the year, 1934. The designer of this tank was the same designer who designed the Cruiser I, Sir John Carden. After he designed this, Vickers and others manufactured this tank. But it took almost four years to start producing after finishing the design.

How many tanks were built?

They started producing this tank in the year 1938. And they ended up producing these tanks in the year 1940. They built 175 of these during that period.