How The Cromwell Reinvented Britains Approach To Tanks | Tanks! | War Stories

[Music] in the first world war Britain pioneered the use of an important weapon the tank nothing like it had ever been seen on the battlefield before in 1918 it helped the British armies in France to crush the Germans by Spring 1940 Germany completely turned the tables on its enemies by unleashing a merciless Panza thrust in France not only did this bring the nation to its knees but it forced the British to flee the continent leaving its tanks on the beaches at Dunkirk this episode shows how Britain surmounted technical tactical and financial problems to produce a tank that could take on the most formidable weapons in the world the [Music] Cromwell [Music] between 1914 and 1918 both aircraft and tanks had become important weapons of war the tank was developed by the British in 1915 and was first used on the 15th of September 196 its debut was far from successful and it was hampered by all kinds of problems the British invented the tank and by 19 17 they were very good at its use now initially when it first comes in in 1916 it's very primitive there aren't enough of them it's mechanically unreliable but it's a start and like all new weapon systems it takes time for it to come to be really of much use but by 197 it was very good by 1918 only the British have got a workable battle tank as opposed to an upgunned armored car tanks in the first world war didn't have turrets as you see on on on these tanks here they had sponsons mounted on the side of the hole this was for two purposes firstly you needed the weapon mounted quite low so you could fire down its trenches as you as you passed over them but also um the prime primary design characteristic of first world war tanks was was predicated around their ability to cross trenches and large obstacles to do this they needed to have a thing called an IND ditching Beam on the top it's a large beam of wood that would go into the trench if it got lodged in the trench it could lever itself up and you couldn't have a turret on the Top If you going to have that Crews were working often in temperatures of 100° fahit it was very hot very unpleasant the atmosphere was Laden with petrol fumes and carbon monoxide mechanical reliability was also a very major problem um in the early versions The Tracks quite often snapped so there were numerous problems with these things when they were first introduced and some of these problems were never altogether solved in the whole course of the war by the second half of 1917 some British officers were dismissing the tank as an expensive failure but the Battle of CRA on the 20th of November 1917 proved them completely wrong the big opportunity to use the tank has the tank designers intended was at Cambra in 1917 when a large number of Tanks broke through the German lines so without prior artillery bombardment taking the Enemy by surprise using good ground rather than the very poor ground and a large breakthrough happened it was here that the inherent problem of the tank came through that it wasn't fast enough and the attack collapsed though it showed the promise of the tank the tanks performance at Cambra showed that when deployed in large numbers on suitable ground and with the benefit of surprise they could be used effectively not only did the performance of the British British tanks show what could be achieved but it was enough to boost the flagging confidence of the Infantry and of British High command tanks did not win the first world war for the Allies yet the improved tanks available in the second half of 1918 made a significant contribution to Victory victories that forced the Germans to sign the humiliating Armistice of the 11th of November 1918 I think the difficulty was that it was seen by the public as being much more than it actually was it was seen by the public as being a war-winning weapon it was seen by many of the politicians as being a war-winning weapon now the Army knew it wasn't it was a very useful adjunct to the Infantry and the artillery it was something that could cross obstacles it was something that could create gaps in German wire it was something that could give intimate far support to the Infantry but it was never going to be a war-winning weapon were they an infantry support weapon were they a replacement for the cavalry um did we want big tanks did we want little tanks big tanks would be expensive to build and we could only have a few of them small tanks would be limited in capability yes there was an enormous debate and what was the tank supposed to do was it supposed to fight other tanks was it supposed to fight infantry was it in fact supposed to be a strategic weapon that that disappeared Way Beyond the enemy's lines and really in fact by almost by its very presence caused the enemy to collapse to withdraw most of the lessons ironically were learned by the Germans who didn't invent tank who only made one tank of their own which was a complete failure the lesson they took was that although armor wasn't a a war-winning weapon now it might be in the future now if you're a German you have to win a war very quickly and if you don't you don't win it at all and that's a factor of where Germany is geographically now the German soldiers saw that something like the tank might enable them to win battles very quickly what they didn't want to do was ever again get bogged down into a battle or war of attrition which inevitably they would [Music] lose until the early 1930s the British were the world leaders in the development of tanks and in military ideas about their use during the 1930s however this lead slipped away as other countries devoted far more money and Industrial capacity to tank development as a result Britain was far from prepared when Germany Unleashed its Blitz Creek on France in 1940 the outcome was devastating Blitz Creek rolls through France actually the British and the French between them had more tanks than the Germans and in most cases they had better tanks the difference was that the ger knew how to use them and the British didn't the development of British armed forces and Technical development of British tanks goes badly wrong in the early 30s one of the reasons for this the simplest reason is that there's a massive government financial cut in 1931 these fall particularly heavily on the Army the um Great Depression has a rather different impact on Germany because what it does in Germany of course is to bring Adolf Hitler to power in 1933 and uh what then happens is that the German government gives absolutely massive priority to its Army the Germans had carried out a secret tank development program uh in conjunction with the Russians strangely enough in the in the Soviet Union uh and that was secret uh and not much was known about that outside Germany and the Soviet Union but post Hitler coming to power he was key Keen to show the rise of the German armed forces and was very keen to show off what he was developing and how good his tanks his panzas were going to be Britain's Armored Division made up mostly of light and infantry tanks was annihilated before France finally fell in 1940 although most of the men escaped every tank was abandoned the years of indecision and Thrift that had blighted British tank development came back to haunt the war office faced with the overwhelming power and flexibility of the German Panza divisions Britain's military strategists were forced to rethink tank Doctrine training and Equipment it was a rude awakening enormous number of rumors came out of this the sort of the mythical invincibility of German tanks when they were in fact quite the reverse and not at all um as good as um as um British and French tank tanks it's interesting um that the Russians too um got taken in by a lot of German propaganda and this is what started the the race um to to increase tank gun caliber throughout the war in fact the British never really caught up with the Germans knew exactly what we were up to they were they frequently visited England official formal properly constituted visits they came over they looked at this armor division they looked at hard work they talked to the British who were using it they Leed a lot from it they took those lessons back and they applied them to their own development of armored Doctrine which as I say they were carrying out largely in Russia the Germans were sort of actually behind the Russians and uh but they were well ahead of us by the time we came to meet them in [Music] force by the early 1940s tanks were being ordered straight from the drawing board into mass production with no time for testing Cruisers were put through their Paces on the battlefield often with disastrous results at the start of the war there were more casualties as a result of breakdowns than of enemy fire the several years it took to get from design to manufacture also meant that British tanks entered the battlefield much later than they were really needed this time lag meant that models emerging at the start of the war were always one step behind their German counterparts I think there was a conf confusion inside the Army as to what exactly was required for any future mechanized Warfare and in the end the British took the view that they needed a bit of everything so there was an attempt was made to design a range of Tanks which would do individual jobs on the battlefield rather than attempt to produce one type of tank that could do everything effectively the British were really trying to develop two distinct types of tank um light tank tanks which were mainly for reconnaissance purposes and medium tanks which were supposed to do really all the different kinds of fighting I think the British were logical about what they were doing what the British didn't do was when it became apparent very early in the war that this wasn't working they didn't quickly adjust what they were trying to do and change their design and production uh the way they went about producing tanks so it's an inability to adjust to changing situations during the very early part of the war I think that was a problem the Crusader served the British forces in the North Africa campaign until the arrival of the American Grant tanks but at the end of a very long chain of Cruiser development throughout the war emerged a tank that not only earned respect and affection among British tank Crews but propelled British tank technology for the world's Premier League The Cromwell discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the- go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the description [Music] manned by a crew of six the A9 started Life as a medium tank a classification that was changed to that of Cruiser the A9 mounted a 2 pounder Gun 3 7.65 mm machine guns and a 3-in Howitzer its aec engine was capable of a range of 150 m miles 150 brake horsepower and a top Road speed of 25 mph although early testing proved the tank to be overweight with a tendency to come off its tracks vicar worked on it for another year and by 1939 models were being delivered to France Egypt and Greece but the supply problems that had dogged the A's development were far from over models were being issued without their two pounder guns while those with guns were not supplied with ammunition there were no spare parts no tools and few soldiers were trained to operate or maintain them the A9 had a very confused origin it was originally designed in in from a requirement in 1934 for an infantry tank a tank to support infantry in many ways this is why it had the two rather unwieldly machine gun turrets and the very large crew that it had um it was actually used as a cruiser by the time we had defined what we wanted to do with tanks we had decided that it was too large too expensive and a little bit too mobile for use as an infantry tank the A9 had a very reliable suspension and uh it was armed with a 2 pound gun it was reasonably adequate for the campaigns it fought in it had a few limitations as a cruiser tank the suspension was not designed for high speeds so very good system but it was a low speed system wasn't sufficiently powerful the armor on the A9 was really uh very thin I think there were teasing troubles too with mechanical reliability to begin with he couldn't fire high explosive shell so if it found itself on the battlefield in a situation where it was F faced with an enemy that was anything other than an enemy tank it couldn't really do anything so it was not very good against enemy anti-tank positions for example but again we don't really know how to use use them um even if it had as good a gun as the German tanks even if it was as reliable until we the British learn how to use our tanks how to integrate them with anti-tank guns with infantry with artillery we're never going to get anywhere at the same time as the A9 was undergoing development the war office started to look forward to the next generation of Cruiser tanks so in 1936 the British war office sent officers on a fact-f finding mission to the Soviet Union their discoveries revolutionized British tank design what impressed them most was the outstanding off-road performance of the Russian BT tanks that incorporated a suspension system designed by the American inventor jwat Christie the US War office had rejected Christie's designs and it was only as the war progressed that his concept became recognized as one of the biggest Innovations in tank design by 1936 not only were Russ Russian tanks capable of hitting 40 mph but they were infinitely more reliable and as a result most remained in service after this report the British war office commissioned the nuffield mechanization company the tank building arm of the Morris group to Begin work on a fast Cruiser tank based on the Christy suspension system [Music] by December 1938 the first models of the a15 cruiser tank were leaving the production line the a15 evolved to replace the Aging 1930s A9 as the British Army's main Cruiser tank the a15 otherwise known as the Crusader had a f-man crew it mounted a two pounder gun gun and two 7.92 mm Bea machine guns the Crusader's armor was up to 40 mm thick its nuffield Liberty engine was capable of a range of 100 m a brake horsepower of 340 and a top Road speed of 27 mph the Crusader I believe was probably the the most handsome tank ever produced the amount of speed that it could produce was was quite phenomenal the anti-tank Gunners and the moror crews alike found it very difficult to range on it because it did move very quickly um you no sooner get your sight set on a particular point then it was off um and uh uh they didn't like it in terms of its gun armor combination the 2 pounder or 40 mm gun which it has in terms of its armor piercing capability is really quite good for 1941 by the time you get into 1942 The Situation's beginning to change and the the penetrative power of the two pounder gun is possibly inadequate by that period and also you've got a problem that the two pounder gun doesn't far explosive which you need for some purposes the problem with the Crusader in the western desert is is partly mechanically unreliable initially and it takes a long time to get that sorted out initially we lose more tanks to Mechanical breakdown than we do to the enemy the other problem was the gun uh the two- pounder just wasn't powerful enough to be of any use against even the German Mark III uh Mark Ford would bounce off once the Germans start bringing in Panthers and even tigers and they do bring 25 Tigers over to North Africa in the latter stages well the poor old Crusader just doesn't have a hope the Crusader made its debut in 1941 when the campaign in the North African desert was reaching a critical phase in September 1940 the Italian forces had steamrolled into Egypt from December 1940 the British Indian and Australian forces had doggedly pursued the Italian Army their two pounder guns were suited to this task and by February 1941 most Italian tanks had been knocked out Neville Gilman was a tank commander with a seventh Armored Division otherwise known as the desert wraths we arrived in Egypt at um the end of August 1941 Italy had come into the war you see and Libya was a an Italian Colony so uh the British troops had invaded Libya they had um uh really uh beaten the Italian Army and they went right back Beyond Bazi by which time the um British lines of communication were very strange with us we had our tanks which were crusader tanks the tanks were delivered by rail to us at amria as the place was called and then in early November we started to move westwards up to the what we called the wire which was the barb wire fence which ran down the frontier between Egypt and Libya and we had our first engagement on the 90 of November when we encountered what appeared to be a formation of we thought Italian transport intelligence reports have been that it was Italian lorries in fact the the lorries were uh were hiding anti-tank guns and the regiment went in and made a great charge and um there was a very heavy casual Tes Allied tank Crews were starting to put the disaster at Dunkirk down to bad luck and lack of preparation the German answer to the Italian debak was defiant they sent over their tank Ace roml who promptly and brilliantly drove the Allied Army back to the Libyan Egyptian border it was a shock for the allies there was another crucial reason why the Germans were enjoying success not only were their tanks protected with thicker armor and mounted with long barreled 50 mm guns but they had also found a new devastating use for their anti-aircraft gun simply known as the 88 I'm sure we were hit by a German 88 mm gun which were the ones we were all terrified on um because they were converted anti-aircraft guns and they they if they hit them they just blew the tank to pieces I mean they're enormous things colossal muzzle velocity and what not and the Germans being very thorough efficient people they decided to convert antiac and turn them into anti-tank guns which they used to enorm Effect one always hoped uh and the vast majority of cases you did bail out uh I bailed out three times and got away with it we had a sergeant who who bailed out of 15 tanks and got away with it the Unlucky ones were the ones who were wounded and couldn't get out when the tank burned that was the the worst scenario of all and of course you always had this at the back of your mind the problem for the Allies was not the speed with which their own tanks were being rushed into service or the show of Steel displayed by the axis forces the Germans simply knew how to use their tanks to devastating [Music] effect the real German superiority I think is in the way they use their armor the the Germans were usually much better at concentrating their tanks on the battlefield the British had a depressing tendency in 1941 early 42 to dissipate the Armor All Over the the battlefield you could almost say all over the theater of operations and this really wasn't any good when it came to dealing with German armor which was much more concentrated we really thought that our tanks were absolutely the last word we been sold on the idea that the nfield Cruisers the Crusaders they were we knew they were extremely fast they'd do 40 m an hour on on flat desert um they we knew that the gun was small of course the gun was minute a 2 pound gun about 37 mm caliber we kept on telling them in the desert but our tanks were puny little things armed with toy shotguns we went out armed with something called a two pounder which is a pathetic thing about that long and when I fired first at a German tank it went 500 yards and dropped in the sand no question of hitting a tank and if it hit the tank it wouldn't have hurt it we watched our shells from our two pounder guns bounce off the front of German Mark 3 and fours at 500 yards they were using an extremely powerful 50 mm gun on the Mark 3 and the Mark 4 had a 75 mm gun which uh would just come straight through the armor of a of a of a crusader even the frontal armor by the summer of 1940 it was painfully obvious that Britain needed a cruiser tank with a heavier armor and a bigger gun than the Cru Crusader as a short-term measure the six pounder gun was fitted onto a modified Crusader but this meant removing a member of the turret crew when it was common knowledge that using a turret was a three-man job so in November 1940 the department of tank design issued its specification for the new generation of Tanks the Liberty was absolutely had it by the time uh by the middle War years it it was an engine that dated back to 196 16 it was really well past its prime the meteor on the other hand was a d-rated Rolls-Royce um Merlin engine with a supercharger taken off a different transmission but that was an engine that had been rated for 1200 horsepower it was well-proved it was a wonderfully reliable engine and it did prove to be a fantastic Tank Engine um it was used in British tanks up until um the late 1960s one of the problems of British tank design during this period and and funnily enough it's a problem that reoccurs in in the70s and the8 80s of British tank design is we tend to underpower our tanks now with the arrival of the meteor we're starting to iron that out the meteor engine was a derivative of the engine being used in in the Spitfire which was a very reliable engine it was an engine which was was actually Al little more technical than what had gone before was in a funny way it was easier to maintain and Sly more reliable so we're beginning to get an engine that's going to work [Music] the cruiser Mark 7 better known as the Cavalier had a fiveman crew it mounted a six pounder gun with two beer machine guns its armor was up to 76 mm [Music] thick its nfield Liberty engine gave it a range of 65 M 410 brake horsepower and a top Road speed of 24 mph the Cavalier was never used in battle as a gun tank as faster and more reliable cromwells had become available by 1944 but it did see Service as an observational tank and was used in this capacity by the Royal artillery in Northwest Europe the Cavalier was um a natural attempt to improve move upon the uh Crusader um it was meant to be better armored and contain the potential for mounting a larger gun the problem really was that you're still using the Liberty engine and if you're up armoring and you've changed the whole design to a slightly larger one then you're giving the engine several more tons weight to cope with by mid 1943 British general staff had changed its policy on tank armaments experience in North Africa told that following a breakthrough the real targets were anti-tank guns and dugin infantry so rather than the usual armor piercing gun what was really needed was a tank that could fire a decent high explosive shell against these softer targets not only were the subsequent Cromwell marks fitted with this new lethal 75mm gun but the existing cromwells in service were withdrawn and their six pounder guns replaced developed from the six pounder and incorporating some of its components the 75mm gun used American and French rounds meaning that tank crews could rely on a consistent ammunition [Music] Supply [Music] the Second Heavy Cruiser tank to succeed the Crusader was like its predecessor called The Cromwell 2 this name was changed to the Centaur centaur's main difference from from the other chrom variants was simply the Liberty engine it was quite as simple as that it was originally intended to have the metor but um unfortunately meteor production didn't keep up with tank production but it was entirely interchangeable it was designed to be interchangeable and it had the advantage over the Cavalier that it had the efficient cooling system it did serve in the Royal marinees support group on D-Day they did Advance Inland quite a quite a long way acting as supplementary artillery the Centaur had a fiveman crew it mounted a six pound a gun with either one or two Bea machine guns its armor was up to 76 mm thick its nuffield Liberty engine was capable of a 160 m range a brake horsepower of 395 and a top Road speed of 27 mph had finally developed a tank that could realistically take on the German Panza division she had but not in nearly sufficient numbers to have a chance of threatening the might of the German armored Force so in May 1943 production of the Cromwell was transferred to Leland [Music] Motors The Heavy Cruiser a27 M otherwise known as The Cromwell needed a f-man crew it mounted a six pounder Gun 3 7.92 mm Bea machine guns and another 75 mm gun its armor was up to 76 mm thick its Rolls-Royce meteor engine was capable of a range of 173 Mi an impressive 6 100 brake horsepower and a top Road speed of 40 mph when chromw was originally designed it was it was intended to fight German tanks of the nature of the German Panza 4 with a short 75 mm gun or the um later Panza 3 variant with the the long barreled 50mm gun and these type of Tanks it was perfectly capable of taking on now unfortunately uh it really came in about 2 years too late and by the time it is in general issue um it's not a match um for for the Panther and second on a match for the Tiger but what it has got is speed now that is why when we land in Normandy the reconnaissance regiments which need to be able to move quite quickly are armed with the Cromwell um army tank brigades are armed with the Cromwell another another good characteristics of got is it's very good going up hills and when we get further into Normandy of course there are Hills and the crom was rather better going up a hill than than the shaman although the shaman was a much more more modern tank on paper the cromwells seem to answer the prayers of the hardpressed British tank Crews but would it pass muster with the men in the field there are descriptions of Cromwell Crews being briefed immediately before Normandy as they came home from North Africa seventh armor Division and were equipped with the new cromwells they had a lot of hope that they were finally going to get something very good when they were briefed by the commanding officer on the strengths of German tanks it was apparently a very very sobering uh experience we sent complaints back to the war office and our generals certainly did one or two resigned on the strength of it but we didn't get a good tank until the war ended bit late they put the ramp down and we came down off the landing craft and of course there was bodies everywhere on the beach and I remember the driver we were all on intercom he said good God cor where do I go I said you've got to go straight on I said but do your best now what's worried me ever since was was there somebody there alive just lying wounded because you had no option you just had to go straight to where you had to go and if there was something in the way there was something in the way and you can imagine when you got out later on and looked at your tracks that's my first initiation The Cromwell first saw action in the battle of Normandy following the D-Day Landings on the 6th of June the seventh Armored Division headed for the Calvados region just south of the S Basin the terrain could not have been more different to the desert the area to the South and East of K consisted of open rolling Countryside whereas the landscape to the south and west of Bayer was a maze of small sloped Fields boxed in with high banked thick hedge RS Villages were connected by network of narrow country lanes for a tank that relied on speed and maneuverability the Normandy campaign now presented a grim Prospect for the Allied tank Crews this seemingly idilic setting could not have been worse for the cromwells we drove right up the middle flat out and then paused for a night and went on in the morning and got to this little town of Villas and our leading Squadron had to take a high hill up the far end of it which was frankly inde defensible I've seen it since there were no cover no wood no Woodland no bushes no scrub and then the trouble started an entire British Armored Division is brought to a halt and forced to withdraw by one understrength company commanded by a leftenant even the stupidest most newly joined second liutenant does not send a column of armor up a single Road onto a High Ridge with trees either side you are asking for trouble tanks are useless in close country they can't see they can't maneuver what the command also the Comm of Landing should have done was to Dismount his infantry at the bottom of the ridge clear either side of the road and then send up his armor had he done that they would have found Lieutenant Witman and his tiger tanks hiding there rubbing their hands metaphorically and thinking that all their baths had come at once which of course it had I'd pulled back into a some for somebody's farmyard and then I suddenly saw a bloody great German tiger tank passing slowly across in front of me but I'd let my Gunner get out to spend a penny so it couldn't have sh and I wouldn't have helped if I had so I put my wireless operator in the Gunner's place got him to load the gun and decided to chase the tiger because the only way to get him with our feeble tanks was to hit him in the rear so I said to the driver down the intercom follow that tank and he did trouble was we followed him a bit down this Main Street and the bloody man had met one of our other tanks down the other end of the street and had turned around so we met each other facing at about 400 yards which was for me murder so I got in two shots cuz I knew he was there but they just bounced off the front of his tank he then had a shot and it didn't bounce off and when you got hit you had exactly 12 seconds to get out the turret because until you got out the driver could get out front but those in the turret couldn't get out until you did and so you used to put your foot on the top like that and just throw yourself out and roll and hope that you were going to hit the ground I was killed the mother man in front was killed jumping out driver got out he was safe and I was blown out the top and I'd been wounded in the face I didn't know it and so I ran across the street I grabbed the wirers and I was able to tell the rest of the regiment what was going on an entire British Armored Division is brought to a halt and forced to withdraw by one underst strength company commanded by a leftenant both British brigadiers were sacked the divisional Commander Bobby esin is sacked shortly afterwards and eventually during operation blue coat the core Commander buckel is sacked which is not bad if you're a lieutenant although the cromwells were helped by their close support 95 mm howitz are counterparts they relied on speed to get out of trouble a 17 pounder gun was developed which it was assumed would solve all of the cromwell's problems there was a problem fitting the 17 pound gun into British tanks the very big heavy weapon and the uh the turrets of earli British tanks were not really designed uh to cope with it it was difficult to in fact it turned out to be impossible to fit an adequate turret on the The Cromwell tank attempts to up gun The Cromwell to carry a 17 pounder failed miserably and by late 1943 there was an acute need for a fast cruiser with decent protection and a gun capable of taking out the later German tanks the first priority for this task was Finding and deciding upon a suitable gun that could be mounted onto a Cromwell easily and quickly this new tank would be built using as many Cromwell components as possible eventually vica's Armstrong came up with a design for a lighter and more compact version of the 17 [Music] pounder most people regard the comet as being a bit of a failure I'm not sure it was was the comet was never really given a chance it comes in right at the end of the war it never really sees very much action um it's then in issue with some units after the war and it ends up being used as a tank Target on a range because it's got quite a lot of armor so it's a tank that was never really given a chance it took a while to get the comic going principally because British production efforts were aimed at D-Day they were aimed at getting a maximum number of tanks into service requipping all the units by the spring early summer of 1944 so in in many respects anything that was going to come in either at the wrong moment in timing had to be held back slightly to ensure the success of the D-Day Landings so Comet didn't really come into service until the end of 1944 the beginning of 1945 um it proved to be a very very successful tank but was a little bit too late to have a major impact on the second world war although the Comet was only rarely intended to be an upgunned Cromwell by early 1944 it became clear that over half of the tank would have to be redesigned this finding was a setback the comet didn't reach units until Christmas 1944 the comet was a redesigned uh Cromwell larger hole similar suspension larger turret mounting the 77 mm gun which is a version of the 17 a gun uh this in fact placed it on a parity with the German Panther and probably slightly above parity with the paner long barrel paner Falls in January and AC 1945 a campaign leading up to the Ry the r cross and Beyond the Ry the comet um really tore away it the distance and there wasn't an awful lot left to stop it to be fair it it solded on until well into the 50s by 1945 Britain had finally produced a tank that propelled it to The Cutting Edge of Cruiser Design After more than a decade of cutbacks and indecision that had blighted tank development since its Heyday in the 1920s Britain eventually produced a cruiser that earned respect the Cromwell was an adequate battle tank in all departments but was not outstanding in any uh and it really appeared too late in the war to have a significant effect on its outcome its main weakness was the gun in all other respects it was it was it was quite a good tank the armor could have been a bit thicker but it was a good average for its day when you look at the comet the comet was a very good tank and had we had the comet slightly earlier um perhaps things might have been a bit different a high proportion of the British tanks knocked out and in the closing stages of the second world war 1944 1945 were not knocked out by a German tanks they were knocked out by anti-tank guns however that was no Comfort if you happen to run into a German tiger tank uh when you were in something like a Cromwell or a Sherman uh the Tiger tank definitely in terms of its gun armor combination had a major advantage over you had it come in two years previously then it might have made a real difference as it was by the time it does come in uh the Jammas have moved on several steps that said it is reliable it's very good at going up hills it's fast and it was really its speed that kept it out of trouble rather than its protection or its [Music] gun

Channel: War Stories

Views: 164,661

Keywords: Battle of Britain tanks, British military, War Stories, World War 2 history, armored regiments, armored units, armored warfare, armored warfare history, battlefield technology, combat vehicles, mechanized infantry support, military advancements, military breakthroughs, military machines, tank battles, tank battles history, tank design evolution, tank history, tank reliability, tank warfare, war innovations

Id: SxNqEiiaixA

Length: 47min 23sec (2843 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2024