The Cruiser Tank A13, redesignated Cruiser Tank Mark III from June 1940, was in reality the first true ‘cruiser’ design. Its predecessors that rather optimistically bore the cruiser designation were the A9 (Cruiser Mark I), originally designed as a low-cost medium tank that was rather too slow for the cruiser specification and the A10 (Cruiser Mark II) that was intended as an infantry support version of the A9 with better armour but even slower.
The A13 achieved the required performance by using a suspension system derived from the designs of American inventor J. Walter Christie, subsequently used in all British cruiser tanks until the arrival of the Centurion in 1945. The original concept of the cruiser tank was that speed would be its main protection, so frontal armour of only 14mm was fitted, it was soon realised that this was inadequate so a total of just sixty-six vehicles was produced between April and December 1939 before production switched to the better-protected A13 Mark II (Cruiser Tank Mark IV). The Cruiser Tank Mark III only ever saw action in France in 1940 with the 1st Armoured Division.