Background
The split between the infantry tank and cruisers had its origins in the World War I division between the first British heavy tanks and the faster Whippet Medium Mark A and its successors the Medium Mark B and Medium Mark C. During the interbellum British tank experiments generally followed these basic classifications, which were made part of the overall doctrine with the work of Major-General Percy Hobart and the influence of Captain B.H. Liddell Hart.
In 1934 Hobart, the then "Inspector, Royal Tank Corps", put forward two options for a tank to support the infantry. One was a fairly small machine gun-armed tank that would be fielded in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy defences. The other was a larger tank with a cannon and armoured against enemy field artillery. Within the limitations of the military finances, the Master-General of the Ordnance Hugh Elles went for the smaller machine gun tank. This requirement was passed to Vickers-Armstrongs who had a prototype ready by late 1936.
Read more about this topic: Infantry Tank
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