What was actually a *cruiser* tank during WW2?

Question

And also what was a Cruiser in the navy among destroyers etc?

Answer 1

A cruiser tank is a tank that was designed to take on the role of the cavalry in WW I and WW II .
The idea was to have two different type's of tank : infantry tank or heavy attack tank ( more armour ) designed to advance at the same walking speed as the infantry and fight his way true the enemy's lines.
When this was happened the cruiser tank came in to his role ( lighter and a lot more speed ) to take advantage of the breakthrough and getting in to the back of the enemy.
This idea is a left over of the WW I (the mark IV is the infantry tank and the whippet the cruiser )
At the start of the WW II most country's believed that the war would be a the same as the previous war and so the tank's where still divided in to the two role's
cruisers like the the mark I till IV , the crusader, Cromwell, challenger,comet, cavalier and covenanter
the infantry tanks where : the Matilda I , II and Churchill
Also the french used the same system nl. the char b1 as the heavy tank and the Renault 35 and the hotchkiss h 39 as the cruiser tank
latter on this division disappears because one general type of tank can do the 2 roles and it is also cheaper to have 1 type of tank and the MBT ( main battle tank leopard, M60, T55) comes into play.

Answer 2

According to Brit WW2 tank theory tanks were divided into slow "infantry" tanks and fast "cruiser" tanks.
The Infantry tanks were supposed to advance with infantry and act more like mobile artillery in destroying enemy strongpoints.
The Cruiser tanks were supposed to act independently as a fast, mobile armoured force- both in breakthrough attacks and as a mobile reserve to be rushed to the scene of enemy attacks

In the Navy the Cruisers are supposedly the smallest ship able to act independently- fast enough to run away from a stronger opponent and strong enough to sink any weaker ship.
Generally speaking, Cruisers are stronger than Destroyers and weaker than Battleships.
That's as far as the theory goes. In practice there were too many classes of cruisers, covering de facto several generations of ships. Also there were never enough cruisers, which is why the Royal Navy used dozens of converted passenger ships in the "Armed Merchant Cruiser" role for patrol and escort duties (eg. to protect against german merchant raider ships).
For examples look up "Penguin" (German raider) and "Rawalpindi" (who took on a Battleship)

Answer 3

Cruiser tanks were a tank design concept of the British during the Second World War. They were intended to work like the ships of the same name; able to operate independantly. In this case independant of the slow infantry, using their speed and mobility to exploit gaps in the enemy's forces and attack lines of communications according to the theories of Hobart and Liddell Hart. As such, speed was a critical factor and the early cruiser tank designs produced were lightly armoured and armed.

In military terminology, a cruiser is a large warship capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously. Historically they were generally considered the smallest ships capable of independent operations — destroyers usually requiring outside support such as tenders — but in modern parlance this difference has disappeared.