A13 Mk.I & Mk.II Cruiser Tanks A Technical History

Book excerpt: The A13 Cruiser Tank was created by Colonel Giffard Le Quesne Martel after he had witnessed the performance of the fast Soviet BT tanks while on a military mission to Russia in 1936. These had in turn been developed from a prototype tank designed by the mercurial American engineer J. Walter Christie. The British Army quickly imported one of Christie's tanks and set about modifying it to suit their requirements, in collaboration with Lord Nuffield. The result, achieved in a mere two years, was a powerfully armed, highly mobile, though lightly armoured tank. This book follows the development history of the A13 up to and including the Battle of France, where any merits it may have possessed were overshadowed by poor preparation and the inadequate organisation and tactics of the Royal Armoured Corps.