The Crusader was a British tank of the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1939, and serial production continued in 1940-1943. In total, about 4,900 copies of this tank were built. The Crusader was equipped with a Nuffield Liberty Mk II engine with a capacity of 340 hp. The machine was armed, depending on the version, with one 40 mm 2-pounder QF gun or one 57 mm 6-pounder QF gun and two 7.92 mm and 7.7 mm machine guns.
The Crusader tank was created as a successor to the unsuccessful Convenanter A13 machine. First of all, the new tank was more carefully designed, which meant that it had a much lower failure rate than its predecessor. The armor was also improved. Despite these changes, the Crusader, when it entered service, still had too weak armor, and above all, too weak weapons to fight enemy tanks. Its strengths include the aforementioned low failure rate and good mobility. However, after the end of the North African campaign (1940-1943), in which Crusader tanks played an important role, they were systematically and quickly withdrawn from the front lines. Several variants of this tank were created during mass production. Chronologically, the first was the Crusader I, which became the first mass-produced version of this tank. In May 1942, the Crusader III version debuted with a new 57 mm gun and 51 mm reinforced armor. After 1943, many specialized vehicles were created on the basis of the Crusader chassis, such as the Crusader II Gun Traktor or the Crusader III AA Mk. I and II. Crusader tanks ended up in parts of Free France, Australia and New Zealand. They also became part of the equipment of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (PES).
