Customer Reviews

Crusader and Covenanter Cruiser Tanks 1939-45 (New Vanguard)

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David Fletcher, of Britain's Tank Museum, has written a useful, if limited, history of British cruiser tanks in the 1941-43 period. The content is split about evenly between two competing designs, the Crusader and the Covenanter. While the Crusader was Britain's main battle tank in the Western Desert battles against Rommel's Afrika Korps and the Italians, the Covenanter stayed behind in Britain (its cooling system was woefully inadequate). After the Sherman tank became available in large numbers, Crusaders were rebuilt as antiaircraft vehicles and gun tractors, while the Covenanters were scrapped. Aimed mainly at the model builder, this title has all the strengths and weaknesses inherent in Osprey's military booklets. The color drawings of operational vehicles reproducing their camouflage and unit markings are quite useful, but the book's 48 pages are very limiting, particularly since it covers two distinct vehicles. Osprey favors text over photos, and most pictures are small and murky, so you might also want to track down "Tanks in Camera," Mr. Fletcher's hardbound photo essay on the desert war. Thomas Jentz has also done a photo book on the early desert war.

The mechanical characteristics of the Crusader tank are important to understanding the fighting in the Western Desert in World War II. For better or worse, the Crusader was the most numerous British tank in the desert fighting, and served during the heaviest fighting, from mid-1941 through the Tunisian campaign in early 1943.

This title gives some background on the Crusader, but I wanted more. Part of the problem is that the book gives equal attention to the Covenanter, a tank with severe cooling problems that kept it on training duties in Britain's mild climate through the war. To my mind, the Covenanter warrants a page or two at most; the Crusader should be the primary subject. There is also a bizarre typo that claims about 17,000 Covenanters were built; other sources put the total at a more realistic-sounding 1,700.

The author points out that some of the Crusader's notorious reliability problems stemmed from lengthy shipping time. Improper stowage, and attendant exposure to salt water, worsened the tank's problems once it arrived in North Africa's searing heat and ubiquitous dust. In fact, this much-maligned tank had some strengths, including good speed and a tough suspension. Reliability problems were reduced as crews learned the tank's servicing needs. The Crusader III mounted the highly effective 6-pounder gun, although this version did not arrive in North Africa until late summer, 1942, and was hampered by a two-man turret.

Text is readable, albeit in a techno/British style that may seem stilted to some casual American readers. I also would have liked a little more attention to the tanks' predecessors, including the A-13 Mk III and IV series that preceded both designs, and the flawed "cruiser tank" concept. A little more discussion of the two-pounder gun and its tank mounting would have helped, too. Note to Osprey publishers: the Crusader was important enough to warrant a title in the new "duel" series, perhaps up against the Panzer IIIh.

If you know little about the Crusader, this title will give you new information. Illustrations are of good quality. If, like me, you have encountered this tank in many readings, you will add a little to your knowledge, but still have a lot of questions.

No less than two experts on warfare from the past & future (coming from the perspective of mounted fighting troops) validated the combat-worthiness of this excellent British tank. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest once said the key to victory consisted in getting there the first with the most. Wehrmacht General Hasso von Manteuffel described one of the most important qualities of the ideal tank (discussed in an interview after the Second World War) as having superior speed on the battlefield. They could very well have been discussing the foundations of the British Crusader tank. It may not have been the most heavily armed and armored tank of World War Two, but by virtue of the bravery of its crews and the quantity of numbers employed, this tank helped to stall Nazi Germany's southernmost thrust on land against the Allied cause. It's difficult to gain a good overall impression of the war in North Africa during the Second World War without also knowing about the machines that carried out the will of the combatants. This book does a good job in describing what it was like to operate and fight in this too-often maligned British tank. The fact of the matter is, the Crusader made up the majority of numbers of British tanks in North Africa against the Axis forces. The Crusader was an important reason why the Allies won in North Africa. David Fletcher also describes other, lesser-known variants. A very well-done book!!!