Hello everyone :), what I would like to introduce today is Cruiser Tank Mk. I CS.
Introduction
In 1934, the Vickers-Armstrong Company in Britain was asked to design a low-cost light tank to replace the outdated medium tank in use at the time. Soon, the A9 tank was designed. In 1936, this tank was designed and manufactured with a 14mm thick armor plate and a rotating machine gun turret, capable of reaching a top speed of 40km/h. At this point, it was equipped with a QF 2-pound gun and replaced the old QF 3-pound gun. The QF 2-pound gun could penetrate almost any tank encountered at that time.
The Cruiser Tank Mk. I CS is a modified howitzer designed for close range support of infantry, equipped with a 94mm howitzer that can fire high explosive or smoke bombs. But the gun has a short range and is not equipped with armor piercing shells, making it unable to deal with enemy tanks alone. Its machine gun turret is also very vulnerable to enemy attacks.
This modification involved approximately 40 vehicles, which were deployed on the French battlefield to engage in combat with German forces. Due to their violent shaking during movement, it is impossible to fire while moving, and the tracks are also prone to falling off during long-distance driving. The vast majority were destroyed by Germany’s anti tank weapons.
The remaining A9 tanks were deployed to the North African battlefield. Due to the harsh desert environment and insufficient engine cooling, many of them experienced mechanical failures and were eventually scrapped for various reasons. Some tanks survived and are now preserved at the Bovington
Tank Museum
In game
The A9 tank, equipped with a 94mm howitzer, is an interesting tank. Its appearance is similar to the T-28 and it has three turrets. The machine gun turret can shoot unprotected targets, and its howitzer is powerful, with a long range and sufficient mobility. Suggest adding it to the technology tree as 1.7.
Specifications
Crew：6
Main weapon：3.7 inch (94 mm) /L15 breech-loaded howitzer（40 rounds）
The 3.7 Inch Howitzer isn’t going to be effective enough. There’s no anti-tank ammunition only HE and smoke. The HE is not reliable, or powerful, enough to make up for it either.
I definitely want to see a Cruiser Tank Mk. I but the CS version doesn’t fit the game.
I’m in favor of the idea, but it would require the bottom few BRs of the game to be changed a bit. And I’m also surprised that nobody has proposed the A9 since they redid the forums.
Apparently, from a quick glean, the gun had a HEAT round introduced in 1942. Wikipedia also mentions this, but I take that site with a pinch of salt especially since it doesn’t specify a source.
Furthermore, the Premium vehicle Alecto I uses a 95mm howitzer that has access to HEAT. This gun used ammunition from the same gun the Mk.I CS used, the 3.7-inch gun (94mm), so the HEAT round is likely identical in both, or would likely be backwards compatible even if it isn’t.
It would be fairly straight-forward to use newer ammunition types in the older 3.7-inch gun of the Mk.I CS since it uses separate-loading ammunition which means you only need to load the more modern projectile inside the barrel without loading it into a special sized case first (and then separately place the propelling charge in behind it, of course).
The round in-game has 110mm pen at 0-degrees, and 95mm pen at 30-degrees, which is very decent up to BR 3.0 where the 105mm Sherman sits with a 130mm pen HEAT-round.
Those stats would be a good buff for it. More filler weight and better pen (~127mm at 0-degrees).
I guess the 50/50 Pen is Pentolite, but I’ll have to look up what D1 is later. Or would you happen to know?
Edit: Think I figured out what the D1 is. It’s a special version of the 50/50 Pentolite (50% TNT and 50% PETN), that used 92% of the Pentolite mix and added 6.9% paraffin wax (PWX) and 1.1% other desensitizing agents for a total of 8% (92+8%). This mix was usually called, as we can sort of see, 50/50 Pen/D1 (92/8).
The only source that directly ascribes this composition to the D1 designation is an old forum post, so take it what it’s worth for. But the designation can be found in other munitions as well.
It’s a different gun. If you look at your A9 A10 Instruction Book, you’ll see it is a “3.7-in Mortar”. It is just a a low velocity gun by another name. It fires fixed ammunition that is not the same as the 3.7 inch howitzer which is separate loaded because it is a howitzer and so variable charge. From memory the 95mm ammunition at least started out modelled after the 3.7 inch howitzer, but ended up with a fixed case version of it, so the HEAT projectile at least fits the older gun, also why Ed’s table lists the 3.7 inch and 95mm stats identically.
You’re probably right, perhaps it’s for the 3.7 Inch Mountain Howitzer. Apparently there’s instances of HEAT being used for that weapon in Burma, but I haven’t been able to confirm that yet. Probably me just getting too excited again, what does appear exciting is the line below it with 3 Inch Tank Howitzer being specifically stated.
I have the manual for the 3.7 Inch Tank Mortar. While it might refer to the Medium II, as it’s the same weapon the information is transferrable.
Sadly MaximumSomething is right. It’s not the 3.7 Inch Howitzer it’s the 3.7 Inch Mortar. See my above for reference. So that means the A9 and A10 CS tanks probably aren’t viable with HE alone.
Though doing the conversions it comes out to around 731.77g of explosive mass, which comparing it to something in-game would be roughly around the T-34/85’s HE shell. So maybe viable?
Though, that document is still useful for showing that the current 95mm HEAT is underperforming and the 3 Inch Tank Howitzer has a HEAT round available.
