Armour of the BEF, France 1940: Cruisers

The British 1st Armoured Division was equipped with Cruiser tanks. These were a strange British concept of  lightly armoured fast tanks designed to make deep thrusts along Liddel-Harts 'indirect approach'.

Utter cobblers of course and it led to a series of disasters in North Africa until Montegomery took command, cut the crap, and devised the massed firepower and punch strategy that beat the Panzer Divisions.

The medium tank is an A10 heavy cruiser (Cruiser Mk II). It was supposed to be an infantry support tank but sanity prevailed and it was reclassified as a heavy cruiser beciuase is has light tank armour as opposed to armoured car level armour! Probably the best of the 1940 cruisers. All the cruisers were prototypes with inevitable consequences on reliability.

The small tank beside it is a Light Tank Mk VIC. The Spanish civil war had shown light tanks to be useless but this was the only model in full production model when war broke out so it was employed as a cruiser substitute. As light tanks went, it wasn't bad with a two man turret. The C version had a 15mm automatic cannon. The Mk VI B was aso used as a reconnaisance vehicle by 1940 infantry divisions, one regiment per division.

The models are from Warlord Games Bolt Action 28 ml range.