After looking at this British heavy tank project, I could only call it a Super Churchill. However, since a Black Prince got the Super Churchill name first, and this tank is even more super, the only name it is worthy of is Mega Churchill (aside from Super-Duper Churchill, to show off how silly it is).
The most interesting thing about this tank is the quad engine location. Even if your engine does get knocked out, you only lose a quarter of your engine power, and only an eighth once your crew repairs it. This is good, since at a mere 8.7 hp/ton (about the same as an elited Churchill I), this thing isn't going anywhere very quickly, especially at the projected 32 kph.
This tank appears to be a better Churchill I, and, since the British already have a tier 5 premium Churchill, is probably tier 6 material. While neither of those guns is particularly amazing at that tier, preferential matchmaking, and in the future, multi-turretedness, might make this thing worthwhile. Maybe those 20 mm AA guns will even be activated, to spray steel at those pesky lights and mediums that are going to be running circles around you.
However, until multi-turrets are implemented, it can have another role: a British premium TD! Disable that turret, and it's a bigger, (much) fatter, Alecto. With a bit of a boost to the gun, the Mega Churchill Gun Carrier could very well fill a tier 5 TD role.
Edit: apparently the 65 mm did exist. It was called the 8-pounder AT, but wasn't that much better than the 6-pounder, and the project was discontinued. That makes a Gun Carrier role that much more likely, since otherwise it would just be a fatter Churchill III. -EE
thought we'd already covered this?
ReplyDeleteYes, I did
DeleteBritish tank development is very well documented why has nobody in the UK ever wrote about this? It's nothing more than disinformation created by British spies or Soviet spies getting creative, the British had already learned their lesson on tank designs by 43. They had the comet and centurion on the drawing board already, why would they go for a sub-tog joke?
DeleteYeah, well, I read the convoluted and pointlessly troubled history of the Cromwell's developement process some time ago. After that I'm willing to believe almost any idiotic scheme having been hatched in some obscure corner by some Lord Whomever with considerably more creative imagination than common sense.
DeleteAlso isn't this the same period during which Nuffield was coming up with those bizarro ATs - nevermind now the outright brilliant dadaist performance piece that was the Great Panjandrum somebody devised to demolish the Normandy beach obstacles? Those wacky Brits seemed to have a thing for tossing really odd ideas around just to see what would stick...
I don't know how British archival rules work, but the way CAMD works is that every idiotic scheme hatched in an obscure corner by Lord Whomever (except in this case it would be Peasant Whomever or Red Armyman Whomever, which there were significantly more of) gets archived. Without exception, CAMD is home to every single document that has ceased to be useful, including scribbled notes. Maybe this is what happened here, Lord Whomever came up with a crazy plan, a British engineer shared it with his Soviet colleague, who decided to report on it just in case.
DeleteHow are you sure that this would be a Churchill-style layout? All we really know is that there would be a gun in the hull and a gun in the turret.
ReplyDeleteOkinoshima
Churchill style layout is likely, although it's possible that this was more of a TOG-like project, and the gun will be placed in a sponson.
DeleteSuper-Duper Churchill Gun Carrier, I would buy it just for the sake of that name.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 4 engines is both stupid and sound at the same time.
4 engines = 4 times as much maintenance and things that can brake down.
On the other hand you can use components from one engine to keep the others running, basically giving you 3 complete sets of spare parts for that last engine.
Could 65mm gun the 8 pounder antitank gun?
ReplyDeleteI have only heard of this abandoned AT gun project...
Interesting. The_Chieftain did some digging, and it turns out it wasn't that much better than the 6-pounder. http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/189921-royal-ordinance-quick-firing-8-pounder/page__pid__3465603#entry3465603
DeleteSo...what's the caliber of 8-pdr and 12-pdr......??
DeleteNow if they can buff the top speed of the Black Prince...
ReplyDeleteI mean it have more power than those 4 engines on the "Mega Churchill" combined.
Suspension limit, not specific power. It won't go faster than about 20km/h even downhill. (No idea why the prem Churchill can reach ~25 though...)
DeleteIn fact the premium Churchill III with a 28km/h top speed reaches 32KM/H down hill while having the same suspension and more armor than the Mk.1 (BTW the upgraded suspension for the Mk.1 is called Churchill III).Its all WG logic.
DeleteThere is no real reason that the Black Prince can't at lease do 25Km/h with the top engine, it have the same type of suspension.
The reports might be confused. a 25Lbr was often used to test recoil on a tank or SPG, so it could have been a confused mention of that discussion.
ReplyDeleteStill think its made up though.
hehe, the title made me think of a new Syfy movie: Mega-Churchill vs Giant KV-1 :D
ReplyDelete