The Churchill design continued to evolve through the course of the war, being up gunned several time, and even having it’s armour increased as well, by the time the Mk VII rolled off the production lines the tank was one of the most heavily armoured of the war, though was always under gunned. In 1942 the Churchill was substantially redesigned, and retained the hull mounted machine gun, with the main gun replaced by the far more effective 6pdr anti-gun. Whilst very heavily armoured this firepower was deemed insufficient, and the hull mounted howitzer proved to have very limited use, and was replaced with a BESA machine gun with the Mk II. The Mk I of the Churchill features a small turret armed with a 2pdr gun, and a hull mounted 76mm howitzer. Origins of the name are a little murky, with the obvious connotation being that it is named after Winston Churchill, however it’s possible the vehicle was also named after the Duke of Marlborough.

The first prototype of the A22 was produced at the end of 1940, with the designed being further refined and tested before entering production in June 1941. Weaponry was envisaged as being low velocity high explosive armament, capable of dealing with enemy infantry strong points, and unsuited for armoured combat.Įxperience in France however proved this design was entirely unsuited to modern warfare, and the design was further refined into the model A22. The A22 Churchill tank was the last ‘Infantry Tank’ to be adopted by the British army, and was in many ways a final evolution of the very first tanks designed during the First World War.Ĭhurchill evolved from a pre-war prototypical designed known as the A20, which featured a long hull, and briefly was designed with a sponson mounted armament before a turret was chosen for the armament. With the recent release of Bolt Action Second Edition, I thought it time to take a look at two of the most famous and iconic tanks of the Second World War, the German Panzer VI Tiger I, and the British A22 Churchill, Mk III in this particular case.

Modern tank vs the ww2 tiger