Tank battle wwii10/18/2023 The first unit to use the Crusader in combat was the 6th Royal Tank Regiment, which used them alongside Matilda Infantry Tanks.Įventually the Crusaders were replaced by the American M3 Lee/Grant and M4 Sherman, but they remained in service for training purposes until 1949. Russia had purchased a prototype tank from the American inventor John Walter Christie, who developed a new type of suspension called Christie suspension that allowed tanks to travel at faster speeds cross country. Once a front line was penetrated, cruiser tanks would then speed through to the rear line, attacking lines of supply and communication.īetween the World Wars, tank design had been rather lacking due to funding shortages and a resistance to mechanization - many had viewed the tank as a fad of World War I. It worked independently of the slower infantry tanks. The Crusader was classified as a cruiser tank, which by definition was one built for speed. It was manufactured by Nuffield Mechanizations and Aero Ltd, which was a personal enterprise of William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield. The Crusader tank - full official name “Tank, Cruiser Mk VI, Crusader” - was initially designed in 1939 and entered into operational service in 1941. Hence we have had the Challenger, the Chieftain, and the Churchill - in the case of the Churchill Crocodile, we were treated to a double-C - as well as the Centurion and today’s subject, the World War II-era Challenger.Ĭrusader Tank Early History and Specifications The British, on the other hand, tag their tanks with heroic words that start with the letter C. American tanks by tradition have borne the names of famous general officers - from Grant and Lee (on the same tank, no less) to Sheridan and Sherman, to Pershing, Patton and Abrams.
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