Editing Armoured fighting vehicle (section)

==== Cruiser tank ====
[[File:IWM-E-17616-Crusader-19421002.jpg|thumb|2 pdr-armed [[Crusader tank]] in the desert]]
{{Main|Cruiser tank}}
A cruiser tank, or cavalry tank, was designed to move fast and exploit penetrations of the enemy front. The idea originated in "[[Plan 1919]]", a British plan to break the trench deadlock of [[World War I]] in part via the use of high-speed tanks. The first cruiser tank was the British [[Medium Mark A Whippet|Whippet]].

Between the wars, this concept was implemented in the "fast tanks" pioneered by [[J. Walter Christie]]. These led to the Soviet [[BT Tank|BT tank series]] and the British [[Cruiser tank|cruiser tank series]].

During [[World War II]], British cruiser tanks were designed to complement [[infantry tank]]s, exploiting gains made by the latter to attack and disrupt the enemy rear areas. In order to give them the required speed, cruiser designs sacrificed armour and armament compared to the infantry tanks. Pure British cruisers were generally replaced by more capable medium tanks such as the [[Sherman Tank|US Sherman]] and, to a lesser extent, the [[Cromwell tank|Cromwell]] by 1943.

The Soviet fast tank (''bistrokhodniy tank'', or [[BT tank]]) classification also came out of the infantry/cavalry concept of armoured warfare and formed the basis for the British cruisers after 1936. The T-34 was a development of this line of tanks as well, though their armament, armour, and all-round capability places them firmly in the medium tank category.
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