Covenanter tank The Tank , Cruiser , Mk V , Covenanter ( A13 Mk III ) was a British Cruiser tank of the Second World War . It was named for the Covenanter s , a Scottish religious faction in the British Isles at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . The Covenanter was the first cruiser tank design to be given a name . Designed by London , Midland and Scottish Railway as a better armoured replacement for the Cruiser Mark IV , it was ordered into production in 1939 before pilot models were built . Problems with the design only became apparent after production was under way . Although it equipped British armoured divisions in the home defence and training roles , poor engine cooling made it unfit for use overseas in hot climates and it never saw combat . In 1943 it was declared obsolete after more than 1 , 700 had been built . Development . In 1938 , the War Office had issued a requirement for a new , better armoured " heavy " cruiser tank to replace the Cruiser IV . Nuffield ' s A16 ( and the A14 ) design was found to be too expensive , and in 1939 a cheaper and lighter cruiser tank - under General Staff specification A13 Mk III Cruiser Mark V - was chosen to be developed . It had nothing apart from Christie suspension in common with the other A13 specifications . The initial specification required a QF 2 pounder gun , at least one machine gun , the same A13 Christie suspension in a lower hull , epicyclic steering transmission and " armour standard " of . The " 30 mm armoured standard " referred to any vertical plate having to be 30 mm thick . Angled surfaces ( through the principles of sloped armour ) could be thinner provided long as they were at least as effective as a 30 mm thick vertical plate . From these a design using many sloped surfaces was chosen to keep the weight low . To keep the silhouette low the suspension used cranked arms and a low profile engine was envisaged . The engine to specifically designed for it was to deliver at least . The Wilson transmission and steering of the A16 would be used . Design work was by the London , Midland and Scottish Railway Company ( LMS ) . They had no prior experience in the design and production of fighting vehicles , they had been invited to participate under a Government policy that British companies should develop necessary skills in expectation of war . The design assumed a welded hull rather than the usual rivetting . The turret was designed by Nuffield , with Henry Meadows designing a new low profile engine for it . On 17 April , before even a single prototype was produced , the first 100 vehicles were ordered from the LMSR . Additional orders soon followed , with English Electric and Leyland Motors joining the production effort , for a final production total of 1 , 771 Covenanters . Nuffield was also approached , but preferred to design its own offspring of the A13 line , which became the Cruiser Mk . VI Crusader . Due to the expectations of an imminent war , the design was ordered " off the drawing board " . The expectation was that two pilot models would serve for testing and results applied to the production lines . To meet the engine requirement , a horizontally opposed 12 - cylinder design was used . Although flat , it was wide and left no room for radiators in the engine compartment , and so the radiators were situated at the front of the vehicle . The unusual arrangement , although tested in mockup form first , when combined with the rushed design process resulted in serious problems with engine cooling . Even when the systems were redesigned there were problems , and the piping from engine to the radiators heated the fighting compartment . These problems meant that the Covenanter would not be employed in the North African Campaign . Instead , Crusader and American tanks were sent to Africa , while the Covenanters remained in the British Isles . LMS advised a return to riveted construction due to doubts about its strength , and rather than risk delays due to a lack of welders , this was accepted . The welded design used two layers of armour plate , the inner being of steel that would weld readily without losing its properties . This two - plate system was retained when the design reverted to riveted construction . The use of riveted construction , the use of steel wheels instead of the intended aluminium and an increase in armour specification to at the front of hull and turret increased the weight to a level where the tank suspension was at maximum load , leaving no room for later development of the design . A further change was made to the transmission . Rather than risk the availability of the combined Wilson transmission and steering affecting production , the A13 " crash " gear box was used with epicyclic steering units . This had the knock - on effect of a reduced size of cooling fan for the transmission compartment . The contracts were placed with the manufacturers in 1939 . The pilot model ( with welded hull ) was tested with a favourable outcome in 1940 ; though the second pilot had cooling issues . The first deliveries of production vehicles were not until after the battle of Dunkirk . Production of turrets lagged behind that of hulls . Although the Covenanter was needed at the time , production continued even when newer better tank designs were waiting for space on production lines . By late 1943 the Covenanter was considered too weakly armed and armoured to deal with new German tanks . It was decided that neither problem could be addressed without significant changes in the design , so the tank was declared obsolete and all vehicles except the bridgelayer variant were to be scrapped . Active service . Except for a few trial vehicles , Covenanters were never deployed outside of the British Isles . The Covenanter was used to re - equip the British 1st Armoured Division ( six armoured regiments in two brigades ) which had lost most of its tanks in the Fall of France . When the 1st was sent to Egypt , the tanks were transferred to the 9th Armoured Division . Eventually a handful of vehicles were sent to the desert for service trials and were allocated to the REME for maintenance and evaluation . It is not clear if these tanks were ever used in combat although the unit markings indicate they may have been deployed alongside Kingforce with their new 6 pounder - equipped Churchill Mk III tanks . Covenanters were also used to equip the Guards Armoured Division in 1942 and elements of the 1st Polish Armoured Division when it was formed in the UK ; they were replaced before these units were sent to the front - line , except for a few bridgelayers both divisions retained and used in their advance through Belgium and the Netherlands . The only Covenanter gun armed tank known to have been lost to enemy action was that destroyed by a German air raid on 31 May 1942 in Canterbury . The Covenanter was declared obsolete in 1943 with orders for the tanks to be scrapped , except for those modified for auxiliary roles . The Observation Post tanks were issued to artillery units to carry Forward Observation Officers for Royal Artillery batteries . In an armoured division , there were two OP tanks for each RHA or field battery . Medium gun batteries had just one . Command tanks were similar to OP tanks , but had only two No . 19 sets – one on the regiment radio net and the other on the brigade net . Covenanter Bridgelayers were used by the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade during the Siege of Dunkirk from October 1944 to May 1945 . The bridgelayer version was also used by the 4th Armoured Brigade of the Australian Army at Bougainville and Balikpapan during the Pacific Campaign in 1945 . Variants . Additional equipment : Surviving Vehicles . A single Covenanter gun – tank is preserved and displayed at the Bovington Tank Museum in the United Kingdom . It is displayed in the markings it had during the War when it served with the 13th / 18th Royal Hussars , part of the 9th Armoured Division . For unknown reasons , it was buried after the war on a farm near Dorking . In the early 1980s it was discovered , recovered , restored and put on display at the Bovington museum . The Bovington Tank Museum also has the turret from an early , Covenanter pilot model . The partially buried , wrecked hulls of two other tanks may be seen at Titchwell Marsh in Norfolk , England . Now a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve , the area was formerly a tank gunnery range and the Covenanters were likely used as targets . Two Covenanter Bridgelayers are preserved in Australia – one at the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Tank Museum , Puckapunyal , Victoria , and one at the Royal New South Wales Lancers Lancer Barracks and Museum at Parramatta , New South Wales .