The Cromwell tank, named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed from the powerful and reliable Meteor engine, and reasonable armour, all in one balanced package. Its design formed the basis of the Comet tank. The Cromwell first saw action in June 1944, with the reconnaissance regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps.
This Cromwell tank was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington when I went there in 2016.
I had taken a photograph of the same tank twenty odd years earlier as well.
The Cromwell tank was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Its design formed the basis of the Comet tank. However by the time the Cromwell first saw action in Normandy in many ways it was already out of date.
I remember when I watched episode 4 of Band of Brothers and was pleasantly surprised to see some (real) Cromwells used in the filming.
Overall the Cromwell was a welcome addition to the British forces, but as with many allied tanks, they were under armoured and under-gunned when faced with the German tanks of the same time period. Where the allies won out was in sheer numbers and probably more importantly logistics.
The Sherman Firefly was a World War II British variant of the American Sherman tank, fitted with the powerful British 17 pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon. Originally conceived as a stopgap until future British tank designs came into service, the Sherman Firefly became the most common vehicle with the 17 pounder in World War II.
This Sherman Firefly was on display at the Bovington Tank Museum.
Though the British expected to have their own new tank models developed soon (and were loath to consider using American tanks), British Major George Brighty championed the already-rejected idea of mounting the 17 pounder in the existing Sherman. With the help of Lieutenant Colonel Witheridge and despite official disapproval, he managed to get the concept accepted. This proved fortuitous, as both the Challenger and Cromwell tank designs experienced difficulties and delays.
After the problem of getting the gun to fit in the Sherman’s turret was solved, the Firefly was put into production in early 1944, in time to equip Field Marshal Montgomery’s forces for the Normandy landings. It soon became highly valued as the only British tank capable of defeating the Panther and Tiger tanks it faced in Normandy at standard combat ranges. In recognition of this, German tank and anti-tank gun crews were instructed to attack Fireflies first.
After World War 2 Soviet tanks developed along logical traditional lines. In 1960 work began on a new design, the T-64, which incorporated many revolutionary and untried features but it was not a great success and in 1970 the prototype of T-72 appeared, which could be described as a simplified version of T-64. The T-72 is a family of Soviet main battle tanks that first entered production in 1971.
This T72 was on display at Bovington Tank Museum.
The Tank Museum’s vehicle is a T72M1 that was used by the former East German Army, (NVA, Nationale Volks Armee).
About 20,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refurbishment has enabled many to remain in service for decades.
I have recently published an article that I wrote, which originally appeared in the January 1994 edition of Miniature Wargames.
The article, entitled, It fell off the back of a lorry…. is a skirmish scenario involving gangsters, market traders as well as police and security forces in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Oh it involves a T-90 tank which is an up-armoured version of the T-72.
The Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (tracked) FV101 at Bovington.
The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, it was introduced into service with the British Army in 1973 and served until 1994.
Scorpion became the first of a whole family of fighting vehicles including Scimitar, Striker and Samaritan. It served in the Falklands and the Gulf as well as being a success on the export market. Changes in British policy, and the international situation meant that surviving Scorpions were fitted with a new weapon, the 30mm Rarden Cannon, and renamed Sabre.
It has been supplied to Belgium, the Irish Republic, Malaya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman and Venezuela.
I have some Team Yankee Scorpions, they are currently in the process of being painted as BAOR versions.
Some thoughts on the RAF Regiment Scorpion I saw at RAF Cosford.
The FV4201 Chieftain was the main battle tank of the United Kingdom during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This is the one on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
A development of the Centurion, the Chieftain introduced the supine (reclining) driver position to British design allowing a heavily sloped hull with reduced height. A new powerpack and improved transmission gave it higher speed than the Centurion despite being heavier due to major upgrades to armour protection and the armament.
Still in service in the Middle East, the British Army stopped using it in 1995.
I did consider buying some for Team Yankee, but was put off by apparent issues with the smoke dischargers on the side of the turret. Certainly for a 1970s version of Team Yankee you couldn’t use the new Challenger, and would need to use the Chieftain.
The Leopard 1 is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought to make conventional heavy armour of limited value, the Leopard focused on firepower in the form of the German-built version of the British L7 105-mm gun, and improved cross-country performance that was unmatched by other designs of the era.
This Leopard 1 was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
This is a Standardpanzer Series-0, one of two pre-production Leopards supplied to Great Britain in exchange for two Chieftains.
Land Rovers have been used by military forces across the world and many different conversions have been tried and utilised. The most radical conversion of a Land Rover for military purposes was the Centaur half-track back in 1978. It was based on a Series III with a V8 engine and a shortened belt drive from the Alvis Scorpion light tank. A small number was manufactured, and they were used by Ghana, among others.
This video is from the Tank Museum at Bovington who have one in their collection, though I didn’t see it on my last visit there.
The Laird Centaur was the brainchild of Laird (Angelsey) Limited and was the result of intensive engineering development combining the Land Rover and the Alvis designed tracks of the FV101 Scorpion light tank. The Alvis Scorpion was developed to meet a British Army requirement for the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) or CVR(T).
Alvis FV1010 Scorpion CRV(T) at the tank museum at Bovington
In 1967, Alvis was awarded the contract to produce 30 CVR(T) prototypes. The Centaur made use of a shortened version of the tracks.
The proposed design offered unique advantages in both performance and cost-effectiveness. In addition maintencena nd spares, as well as support could have been based on existing arrangements and mechanisms in place to support Land Rovers and the CVR(T) family of armoured vehicles.
What was interesting were the proposed variants for customers and these were detailed in a pamphlet from Laird (Angelsey).
They included armoured versions that could be used as an APC, reconnaissance and as a command vehicle. Their pamphlet also had weaponised versions including the Milan AT system and even one with a 106mm gun!
It was extensively tested by the British Army, I quite like this winter version that you can see on Flickr.
It’s a Land Rover Centaur on trial in Norway with the British army in the early eighties and with a special projects registration.
Here is a video of that vehicle undergoing testing in Norway.
Half track vehicles likes the Centaur have some advantages, it is not difficult for someone who can drive a car to drive a half-track, which is a great advantage over fully tracked vehicles which often require more specialised training.
The main disadvantage is the increased maintenance to maintain track tension, and the reduced life span of the tracks. In addition they perform less well cross country than fully tracked vehicles and perform less well on roads that fully wheeled ones. As a result they are a compromise across both and these disadvantages usually outweigh the advantages. As a result you don’t really see many hard tracks now in modern military service.
The Laird Centaur makes for an interesting what if vehicle and, well that story is for another time…
This enormous tank presents an interesting contrast with contemporary British designs. American manufacturing techniques, using sophisticated machine tools, not only speeded up production but also ensured high reliability. Even so Britain insisted on modifications to the American design which resulted in a different turret but both types saw service with British forces. Those with the original turret were designated Lee, those with the British style turret were Grants.
The M3 Grant Medium Tank was on display at Bovington. In the background is a Light Tank M3A1 Stuart IV.
The main asset of the tank, from the British point of view, was the 75mm gun which could fire high explosive and armour piercing ammunition. The former was the perfect answer to Rommel’s imaginative use of anti-tank guns and there is no doubt that Grant tanks were largely responsible for halting Rommel’s attack during the key battle of Alam Halfa.
For all that the Grant was a difficult tank to fight in. The low position of the main gun meant that it was impossible to conceal and the tank often had to swing round in order to bring this gun to bear. Riveted construction was also a serious liability by 1942 while the 37mm gun, in the turret, was all but useless.
Tanks of this type were first used in Western Desert in 1942. Mechanically reliable but soon superseded by Sherman.
Over at Duxford they have the one used by General Montgomery during the battle of El Alamein. The 37mm gun was replaced by a wooden dummy gun barrel to create more room in the turret for extra radio equipment.
The M3 Stuart, officially Light Tank, M3, was an American light tank of World War II. It was supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Thereafter, it was used by U.S. and Allied forces until the end of the war.
Stuart tanks were the first to be supplied to Britain under the Lend-Lease scheme and they were very popular, even so none survived to join the original Tank Museum collection. This example was kindly supplied by the Brazilian Government and is displayed in recognition of the fact that Brazilian troops served with the Allies in Italy.
This PzKpfw III was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.
The Panzerkampfwagen III, commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and serve alongside and support similar Panzer IV which was originally designed for infantry support. However, as the Germans faced the formidable T-34, more powerful anti-tank guns were needed, and since the Panzer IV had more development potential with a larger turret ring, it was redesigned to mount the long-barrelled 7.5 cm KwK 40 gun. The Panzer III effectively swapped roles with the Panzer IV, as from 1942 the last version of Panzer III mounted the 7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24 that was better suited for infantry support. Production of the Panzer III ceased in 1943. Nevertheless, the Panzer III’s capable chassis provided hulls for the Sturmgeschütz III assault gun until the end of the war.
Going through my Flames of War collection and other models, I realise I don’t have a 15mm version of this tank.
