Cavalier tank
Encyclopedia
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VII Cavalier (A24) was an unsuccessful design of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 cruiser tank
Cruiser tank
The cruiser tank was a British tank concept of the inter-war period. This concept was the driving force behind several tank designs which saw action during the Second World War....

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It suffered from an underpowered engine, and problems because of the rush to design and build it.

Development

In mid-1940, the British were considering which tank should follow on from the new cruiser tanks then being developed. A specification was drawn up by the Directorate of Tanks and Transport which included the QF 6 pounder gun. This led to General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...

 specification A23 for a cruiser version of the A22 Churchill tank
Churchill tank
The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV was a heavy British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war...

 from Vauxhall, the A24 from Nuffield Mechanisation and Aero
Nuffield Organisation
The Nuffield Organisation was a vehicle manufacturing company in the United Kingdom. Named after its founder, William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, it was formed in 1938 as the merger of Nuffield's Morris Motor Company , another of Nuffield's companies the MG Car Company and Riley.Morris Motors...

 based upon their Crusader tank
Crusader tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VI or A15 Crusader was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the early part Second World War and perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign...

 design, and a design from Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company also based on the Crusader.

The Nuffield design used an uprated (410 hp) Liberty engine which was expected to give a top speed of 24 mph (38.6 km/h). Armour would be from 63 to 70 mm at the front, and the 6 pounder gun would be in a turret on a 60 inch turret ring.

The Tank Board meeting in January 1941 decided that as the tank needed to be in production by early 1942 it should be based upon an existing design to avoid the need for prototypes. Six tanks of the Nuffield design were ordered that month.

At the end of 1941 it was decided production of the Nuffield design, by then known as Cromwell, would be by Nuffield and Ruston and Hornsby. The schedule had already slipped due to work on other projects and work to fit the 6 pounder to the Crusader tank and the first tank began trials in March 1942. The tank was judged unsatisfactory; the Nuffield order was reduced to 500 tanks and the BRC&W design was looked at again.

With no spare production capacity for vehicles, Rolls-Royce's design team had got involved in developing a tank engine from one of their existing aero-engines. Working with Leylands engineers they produced by early 1941 from the Merlin, the Meteor which gave a higher output than the Liberty for a similar size. The lead designer had met with BRC&W and they were able to produce a prototype of their design with the Meteor and a new Leyland transmission by the end of January 1942. However Leyland had doubts about the Meteor and wanted to manufacture the Liberty instead.

The General staff specifications now covered three tanks: A24 "Cromwell I" from Nuffield, A27L (Liberty engine) "Cromwell II" from Leyland and A27M (Meteor engine) "Cromwell III". To avoid confusion the first two were renamed as "Cavalier" and "Centaur" leaving the A27M as the Cromwell tank
Cromwell tank
Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell ,The designation as the eighth Cruiser tank design, its name given for ease of reference and its General Staff specification number respectively and the related Centaur tank, were one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second...


Construction

Internally Cavalier was subdivided by bulkheads which also functioned as structural members. The driver and hull gunner were in the front compartment, the fighting compartment was in the centre. The bulkhead behind the fighting compartment was the firewall from the engine, a Liberty Mark IV, and the final bulkead separated the engine from the transmission. Mechanically the Cavalier was similar to the Crusader but the Mark IV engine gave more power. Operation of the steering brakes and gear changing was pneumatic.

The Cavalier turret was a six sided boxy structure. The mantlet was internal with a large opening in the front of the turret for the gun barrel, the coaxial Besa machine gun and the aperture of the No. 39 telescopic sight. The gun was of the "free elevation" type; the gun was balanced such that it could be readily moved by the gunner. This fitted in with British practice of firing on the move.

Service history

Those that were built were used in training or auxiliary armoured vehicle roles.
At least 12 Cavaliers were provided to France in 1945, and were operated by the 12th Dragoon Regiment of the French 14th Infantry Division.

Variants

  • Cavalier OP
Produced in 1943. The gun was replaced with a dummy barrel freeing up room in the turret and hull for extra radios. It was then used as an artillery observation post.

  • Cavalier ARV
The turret was moved and an A-frame
A-Frame
An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized beams, arranged in a 45-degree or greater angle, attached at the top...

 jib and associated equipment added for use as an armoured recovery vehicle
Armoured recovery vehicle
An armoured recovery vehicle is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to repair battle- or mine-damaged as well as broken-down armoured vehicles during combat, or to tow them out of the danger zone for more extensive repairs...

.

External links

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