The Cromwell tank is a cruiser tank used by the British in the late world war II, in order to develop and produce itself, from its own point of view, it should belong to the main tank of the British army at that time. Under the influence of the Lend-Lease Act and the living environment, Cromwell tanks did not have a good living space, and even the number of sherman tanks in the British army was far less than that of Sherman tanks. However, most of the leased tanks were to be repaid, and the British army would not focus on them, so the Cromwell tank, as well as other seemingly unpopular British tanks, were indispensable.
<h1>The highlight moment of the cruiser tank, and the birth of the Cromwell tank</h1>
Cruiser tanks are a distinction between tanks in the British Army, and their role is similar to that of light tanks, but there is still a certain gap in essence. To put it simply, cruiser tanks have no requirements for armor, firepower and weight, and no matter how heavy and thick, as long as the mobility is up to standard, they can be used as cruise tanks. For example, after the war, the British army began to equip the Centurion main battle tank on a large scale, and before the concept of "main battle tank" was not formed, the British army positioned it as a "heavy cruiser tank". This difference now seems to be a sign of backward ideas, but the understanding of tanks during World War II, including Germany, was influenced by World War I, and tanks were more traditional. As the first country to use tanks, the British went a little more extreme.
In the North African Campaign, the British army was seriously injured by the previous defeat in France, and the use of weapons and equipment became hasty and tight, but fortunately the opponents at that time were not strong. Leaving aside the use of infantry tanks, cruisers have made a splash in North Africa. In the case of the Crusader tank, the armor could only resist light weapons, but no one required it to resist shells, and the main 2-pounder gun was almost under little pressure at that time. In addition, the open terrain of North Africa also greatly caters to its mobility, as for reliability and its own attributes, even the late models of the Crusaders can not catch up with the American tanks, but this unfair comparison in time and production environment can not negate the value of imperial tanks.
At the same time as the North African campaign, the British army had also begun to develop alternatives to the patrol tanks in service. In 1942, all three prototypes were formed, namely the Cavalier (A24), the Sagittarius (A27L) and Cromwell (A27M), and the appearance of the three was not much different, mainly in the internal power system. In fact, in addition to Cromwell, sagittarius tanks are also mass-produced, but the two are often confused. At the same time, most of the Centaurs had been replaced with the same engines as Cromwell before going to the battlefield, and the other part had been converted into support tanks or anti-aircraft tanks. In the same year, the new cruiser tank, mainly Cromwell, began to be mass-produced, and when it actually went to the battlefield, it would take a while.
<h1>The Cromwell tank, which acts as a second-line main force, and its own performance</h1>
Judging from the amount of British equipment at that time, it is undoubtedly the Sherman tank that played a leading role, only the 7th Panzer Division used mainly Cromwell tanks, mostly because its own defense power was not up to standard, but it was not excluded that American tanks did not use the ingredients for nothing, and those aid tanks did not provide much for free. Cromwell tanks weigh 28 tons and have a maximum thickness of 76 mm in front armor, making their actual defense far below this value. The maneuvering aspect is a highlight, with a top speed of 64 kilometers per hour and 21.4 horsepower per ton, which is already amazing at a weight of nearly 30 tons. The suspension was in the Christie style, like the Soviet T34. And its overall reliability is not attenuated by speed, and is not weaker than any tank of the same period.
In terms of main weapons, the British originally planned to install a 6-pounder gun on it, of course, they did the same, but most of the Cromwell tanks that appeared later carried a tank gun with a caliber of 75mm. This gun is not an upgraded version of the 6-pounder gun, but the product of the 6-pounder gun's expanded bore, and the penetration ability of the armor is not as good as the former's 57mm. The reason for using it is to increase the power of high-explosive bombs, after all, tanks fighting tanks has never been the mainstream situation. In terms of anti-tank, the British army was mostly borne by the fireflies equipped with 17-pounder guns, and the 6-pounder guns were difficult to deal with German armor at this time. From the outside, the tank and the Comet that followed resembled earlier German models, but Cromwell was a rear-drive tank.
It is clear that Cromwell's turrets were riveted, not due to hasty production and limited industrial capacity. In the absence of requirements for armor thickness, riveting is correct and necessary (welding and integral casting will make thin armor even less strong), and rivets will fly around under violent impact, but when this happens, the most lethal to the car group should not be rivets. So by the standards of cromwell tanks, it is naturally not okay to stand in front of dense anti-tank fire, but it is completely competent in the face of conventional combat, and besides, its job is like this. Excellent maneuverability allowed it to act as a reconnaissance vehicle, but this was never the main business, and using it for reconnaissance was a bit of an overkill, and the British army had more suitable reconnaissance vehicles.
<h1>After the end of the war, Cromwell was renewed</h1>
Whether a tank can be in service for a long time has little to do with its firepower and armor thickness, but depends on reliability. Cromwell is just like this, its own strength in the World War II period is not ranked, but with the reliability of the body, it has the value of continued use. After the end of the war, the British army also retained a certain amount of Cromwell tanks, in order to cope with the future threat, plus there are not many useful things in hand now, the British decided to upgrade the Cromwell tank, the birth of the Auriga tank. It is a bit far-fetched to call him a tank, after all, the armor and firepower are completely out of proportion, but closer to the tank destroyer, which is an emergency product itself, and the British did not list it for regular troops.
The Auriga tank uses a turret, which is very tall compared to the original turret, and the turret seat circle has also expanded by 0.2 meters, and the defense power can be ignored. The main weapon was also replaced by a 20-pounder gun (84 mm), which is said to be based on a German-made 88 mm gun, which can reach an initial velocity of 1465 meters per second when using shell-piercing shells. A batch of 20-pounder guns equipped with Auriga tanks also used pinhole smoke smokers, which greatly improved the interior environment. There was little change in the overall structure of the interior, but this enlarged version of the turret could only accommodate two people, the commander and loader, and the heading machine gun position was cancelled because it was unnecessary. Therefore, this car was only driven by 3 people, and later in order to solve the problem of the commander's observation (there was no command tower, smoke and dust affecting the line of sight, and there was no time to see if the hit was hit), another person was equipped in the machine gun position, and when fighting, he climbed out of the car to direct the correction of the ballistic track, which was also the only group equipped with - "observer".
Due to the increase in weight, the speed of the car was reduced to 51 kilometers per hour, which was still very fast, and according to the above fighting style, it should not have much maneuverability. However, all expectations are not necessarily reflected in actual combat, and how to play depends on improvisation. Later, the British also had plans to replace it with the L7 105mm gun, which was said to be successful but estimated to be ineffective. Cromwell was included in the original 17-pound settlement plan, but due to the limited body conditions, the British also specially produced a six-pair load wheel version of the body based on Cromwell, that is, the Challenger tank (not the main battle tank), which seems to have been exploited to the limit after the war. Eventually, most of these Auriga tanks were exported to the Middle East by the British, and some of them were in service until the 1980s.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
The Cromwell tank was naturally not a good tank in the environment of the late European battlefield, but its contribution to the victory of the war was still there. What's more, the British army did need it, and it didn't look at the point of preparing for the future, and it was not possible to fully open the American tanks in wartime, after all, Britain was also an old European power, and there was also competition for internal influence while agreeing to the outside.
References "Cromwell Cruise Tank 1942 1950", "British Armoured Vehicles During World War II", "Britain's Cruiser MK VIII Cromwell"