The specification was produced by Superintendent of Tank Design at Woolwich with design by the Mechanization Board and passed to Harland and Wolff for detail work and to build a pilot. Four pilots were ordered in February 1940. Two - A20E1 and A20E2 - were built. The first pilot took part in trials in June 1940.[2] It was shipped from Northern Ireland to Vauxhall Motors (without a turret) in August; thereafter to Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment at Farnborough.[1]
The Battle of France indicated that trench warfare was not going to be the case in the Second World War. A new specification, A22, was drawn up and Vauxhall who had been engaged to find a suitable power plant - their Bedford "twin six" engine - for the A20 were instructed to bring a tank based on the A20 into production as soon as possible. This would enter service as "Tank, Infantry, Mark IV" later named Churchill. The first pilot Churchill was finished by November 1940.
The decision to cancel the order for 100 A20 was made in June 1940 and that the four pilot models - constructed of mild steel - would be used for component testing.
After the MWEE, the A20E1 moved to the Experimental Bridging Establishment, Christchurch then back to Farnborough, this time to the Wheeled Vehicle Experimental Establishment. There it was used as trial load to test a twenty-wheel 70-ton capacity tank transporter trailer built by Cranes of Dereham.[1]
The Infantry Tank Mark II, best known as the Matilda, was a British infantry tank of the Second World War.
The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British heavy infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, its ability to climb steep slopes, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war.
The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during World War II. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in eleven marks, plus various specialised variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production. The many variants included riveted and welded construction, petrol and diesel engines and a progressive increase in armament. It was supplied in large numbers to the USSR and built under licence in Canada. It was used extensively by the British in the North African campaign. Developed by Vickers, it proved to be both strong and reliable, which was unusual for British tanks of the period.
The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine high speed from a powerful and reliable engine, and reasonable armour. The intended dual-purpose high velocity gun could not be fitted in the turret and the medium velocity dual purpose gun fitted proved inadequate. An improved version with a high velocity gun became the Comet tank.
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk I (A9) was a British cruiser tank of the interwar period. It was the first cruiser tank: a fast tank designed to bypass the main enemy lines and engage the enemy's lines of communication, as well as enemy tanks. The Cruiser Mk II was a more heavily armoured adaptation of the Mark I, developed at much the same time.
The cruiser tank was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry, as distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were developed after medium tank designs of the 1930s failed to satisfy the Royal Armoured Corps. The cruiser tank concept was conceived by Giffard Le Quesne Martel, who preferred many small light tanks to swarm an opponent, instead of a few expensive and unsatisfactory medium tanks. "Light" cruiser tanks carried less armour and were correspondingly faster, whilst "heavy" cruiser tanks had more armour and were slightly slower.
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily armoured to allow them to operate in close concert with infantry even under heavy fire. The extra armour came at the expense of speed, which was not an issue when supporting relatively slow-moving foot soldiers.
The Universal Carrier, also known as the Bren Gun Carrier and sometimes simply the Bren Carrier from the light machine gun armament, is a common name describing a family of light armoured tracked vehicles built by Vickers-Armstrongs and other companies.
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk III, also known by its General Staff specification number A13 Mark I, was a British cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was the first British cruiser tank to use the Christie suspension system, which gave higher speeds and better cross-country performance; previous cruiser tank models had used triple wheeled bogie suspension.
The Tank, Heavy, TOG 1 was a prototype British heavy tank produced in the early part of the Second World War in the expectation that battlefields might end up like those of the First World War. It was designed so it could cross churned-up countryside and trenches. A single prototype was built, and followed by an improved model, but interest faded with the successful performance of another cross-country design, the Churchill tank, and the mobile war that was being fought.
The Tank, Heavy Assault, A33 (Excelsior) was a British experimental heavy tank based on the Cromwell (A27) design developed in the Second World War. It was developed when there were concerns as to performance of the Churchill tank.
The Tank, Infantry, Valiant (A38) was a British tank design of the Second World War that only reached the prototype stage. Intended to meet the specification for a lightweight but heavily armoured tank for use in the war in the Far East, it proved to be a failure. The sole example was retained by the School of Tank Technology after the war as a lesson to its students.
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production, and the Admiralty retained responsibilities for supplying the Royal Navy. During the war years the MoS was based at Shell Mex House in The Strand, London.
The Assault Tank T14 was a joint project between the United States and the United Kingdom with the goal being to produce a universal infantry tank.
This article lists British armoured fighting vehicle production during the Second World War. The United Kingdom produced 27,528 tanks and self-propelled guns from July 1939 to May 1945, as well as 26,191 armoured cars and 69,071 armoured personnel carriers.
The Medium Tank T20, Medium Tank T22 and Medium Tank T23 were medium tank designs developed by the United States during the Second World War, to be the successor to the M4 Sherman.
Sir Albert Gerald Stern was a banker who became the Secretary of the Landship Committee during World War I, where his organisational ability assisted the Committee in creating the first British tank.
Ordnance QF 3 inch howitzer was a howitzer fitted to British cruiser and infantry type tanks of the Second World War so they could fire a smoke shell in "close support" of other tanks or infantry. HE shells were also available. Earlier British tanks were fitted with a 3.7 in howitzer.
The Ordnance QF 95-mm howitzer was a British howitzer built in two versions during the Second World War. The tank howitzer version was accepted for service use, but the infantry version was not.
This article on military tanks deals with the history and development of tanks of the British Army from their first use in the First World War, the interwar period, during the Second World War, the Cold War and modern era.
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