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Tank, Cruiser, Mk II (A10)
Type	Cruiser tank
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1940-1941 [1]
Used by	British Army
Wars	Second World War
Production history
Designer	Sir John Carden
Designed	1934
Manufacturer	Vickers and others
Produced	1938-1940 [1]
Number built	175
Specifications
Weight	14.3 tonnes
Length	18 ft 4 in (5.5 m)
Width	8 ft 4 in (2.6 m)
Height	8 ft 8 in (2.5 m)
Crew	5 (Commander, loader, gunner, driver, Hull MG gunner)
Armour	6 - 30 mm
Main armament	OQF 2pdr 100 rounds
Secondary armament	two Vickers/BESA Machine guns 4,050 rounds
Engine	AEC Type A179 6-Cylinder Petrol 150 hp
Suspension	triple wheel bogie with coil spring
Operational range	100 miles (road)
Speed	16 mph (road) 8 mph (off-road)

The Tank, Cruiser, Mk II (A10), was developed alongside the A9, and was intended to be a heavier, infantry tank version of that type. In practice it was not deemed suitable for the infantry tank role and was classified as a "heavy cruiser".

History and specifications[link]

The A10 was developed by Sir John Carden of Vickers in 1934 by adaptation of the A9 design. The two sub-turrets present on the A9 were removed, and extra armour bolted onto that already present on the front and sides of the hull, along with all faces of the turret, providing approximately twice the armor in most areas. The A10 was two tonnes heavier than the A9, but used the same 150 bhp engine, and as a consequence the tank's top speed was cut from 25 mph to 16 mph.

The turret armament consisted of a QF 2-pounder (40mm) gun and a coaxial .303 Vickers machine gun. There was a 7.92mm BESA machine gun mounted in the hull in a barbette to the right of the driver. This was added to give extra firepower but at the expense of simplicity - the Vickers and the BESA using different ammunition. The tank had a total crew of five (Commander, gunner, loader, driver and hull machine gunner), and there was no separation between the driver's compartment and the fighting compartments.

It used the same suspension and engine as the A9 and as a result it was slower than the A9. The A10 entered service in December 1939, but was something of an oddity - it had been intended to sacrifice speed for armour like an Infantry tank, but was still relatively poorly armoured, and was, as a result, not effective. Production was ordered in July 1938, Total production was 175 vehicles including the 30 CS versions (see below), 45 were built by Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, 45 by Metropolitan-Cammell, 10 by Vickers. In late 1939 another order was placed with Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, this time it was a larger order of 75 vehicles.

Combat history[link]

A British Cruiser Mk II disabled by having lost a track (seen lower right) in Greece, 1941.

A number of Mark IIs were part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France in the early stages of World War II. Their cross country performance was recorded as poor, but they were still used later in North Africa at the defence of Tobruk in 1941, where reliability and suspension performance in the desert conditions was praised. Sixty worn out examples were taken to Greece, by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and although they performed well against the German tanks, over 90% were lost due to mechanical breakdowns as opposed to enemy action (mainly tracks).^[2][3]

Variants[link]

Tank, Cruiser, Mk II (A10 Mk I)[link]

Classified as a 'heavy cruiser' and 31 were sent to France with the 1st Armoured Division, but performed poorly in the following campaign. Also served in the North African Campaign until late in 1941.

Tank, Cruiser, Mk IIA (A10 Mk IA)[link]

The coaxial Vickers machine guns were replaced with BESA machine guns. Armoured radio housing added.

Tank, Cruiser, Mk IIA CS (A10 Mk IA CS)[link]

Cruiser MkIIA CS

Had a 3.7" (94 mm) howitzer in the turret instead of the 2 pdr. The standard ammunition load was 40 rounds smoke, and a few HE shells. The CS denotes Close Support.

This weapon was derived from a World War I field howitzer. It was not related to the 3in howitzer used in later British tanks in World War II, which was itself replaced by a 95mm howitzer in the later versions of the Churchill infantry tanks and all CS versions of the Centaur and Cromwell cruiser tanks. There is a frequent and incorrect claim that the 3.7in CS gun only fired smoke shells due to reports that the A9 CS tanks that went to France only had smoke rounds.

Other vehicles based on chassis[link]

• Valentine

See also[link]

Tank portal

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References[link]

External links[link]

• OnWar.com
• WWIIvehicles.com
• Armor in Focus

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It has been suggested that MKII be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2010.

Mark II or Mark 2 often refers to the second version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk."

Mark II or Mark 2 can specifically refer to:

In technology[link]

In military and weaponry[link]

• Mark II, a variant of the British Mark I tank
• 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun, a U.S. Navy gun that was never mounted on any operational ship.
• Supermarine Spitfire Mk II; an upgraded Spitfire variant with a stronger Merlin engine
• Cruiser Mk II, a WWII British tank
• Thin Man nuclear bomb (1945), formally known as Mark 2 nuclear bomb, a gun-type plutonium bomb
• Mk 2 grenade, an American grenade used in WWII, Korean War and the Vietnam War
• Gerber Mark II (1967), an American double-edged combat knife
• Ruger MK II (1982–2005), an American handgun
• Merkava Mark II (1983); battle tank of Israel Defense Forces

In vehicles[link]

• British Rail Mark 2 (1964); a rail carriage design
• Jaguar Mark 2, an automobile produced from 1959 to 1967.
• Lincoln Continental Mark II (1956–1957), an American personal luxury car
• Toyota Mark II, a series of Japanese car models
• Volkswagen Polo Mk2, an automobile produced in the 1980s and 1990s

Other technologies[link]

• Harvard Mark II (1947), a computer built at Harvard University and used by the US Navy
• RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer (1957), a musical instrument made of electronic components
• Mark II (radio telescope), a radio telescope in England, constructed in 1964
• Mesa Boogie Mark II: an electric guitar amplifier model with channel footswitching
• Canon EOS-1D Mark II, a digital SLR
• Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, a digital SLR
• Canon EOS-5D Mark II, a digital SLR

Other uses[link]

• Mark 2 or Mark II, the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible
• Pope Mark II of Alexandria, patriarch of the Catholic Church from 799 to 819
• Mk II (album) (1969), the second album by the British blues rock band Steamhammer
• MK II (Masterplan album) (2007), the third album by Masterplan, a German power metal band
• Mortal Kombat II, the second title in the Mortal Kombat video game series
• Emergency Medical Hologram Mark II, in the television series Star Trek: Voyager, an artificially intelligent medical assistance program
• Mark II Kobayashi formation, in the game Go, a special opening pattern named after Koichi Kobayashi
• Gundam Mk-II, a robot of the fictional Gundam series
• In music, Mark II is often used to denote the second lineup of a band (e.g. Deep Purple Mk II)

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