participate under a Government policy that British companies should develop skills in expectation of war. The design assumed a welded hull rather than the usual riveting. The turret was designed by Nuffield, with Henry Meadows designing a new low profile engine for it. On 17 April 1939, before a prototype was produced, the first 100 vehicles were ordered from the LMS. 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 expectation of 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 mock up form first, when combined with the rushed design 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 at home. LMS advised a return to riveted construction due to doubts about the strength of the welds 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 rivets, steel wheels instead of 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. 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 necessitated a reduced size of cooling fan for the transmission compartment. Contracts were placed with