This is a nicely produced book which is probably the only book you will ever need on the Churchill tank gun versions.
The book starts with the story of the A20 developed by Harland and Wolff before moving onto the Vauxhall A22 tank, the A22 being the Churchill. The story covers the gestation of the tank in great detail, the various twists and turns and development through to production. The Churchill was a very unusual design and the development process was far from trouble free. The book goes into quite a bit of detail on how the tank was manufactured, the use of casting and welding, engine development, the unusual suspension and wheel arrangement and of course armament.
As an infantry tank the Churchill was heavily armoured but rather slow, British tank doctrine of the time was based on developing heavily armoured infantry tanks to work with infantry and faster, more lightly armoured cruiser tanks for mobile warfare. The Churchill was extremely well protected, especially the later heavy Churchill tanks. Despite being slow, the odd track and wheel arrangement gave it superb mobility and it could climb hills and cross obstacles better than most other tanks of the period.
As if the track and wheel arrangement wasn't unusual enough, the first models were provided with a 3" howitzer as secondary armament where the hull machine gun might be expected along with a 2 pdr gun in the turret. The howitzer was replaced by a Besa machine gun on the Mk.II and later models (and of course a flamethrower on crocodile models) and the turret gun was upgraded to the excellent 6 pdr anti-tank gun then a 75mm duel purpose gun. The Churchill initially suffered from the same problem as other British tanks in that although the 2pdr and 6 pdr guns were superb anti-tank weapons for their eras they weren't dual purpose weapons with HE ammo. HE ammo was made for the 6 pdr but it wasn't considered to be particularly satisfactory. This seems a very odd situation for an infantry support tank. Some Churchill's were provided with 95mm howitzers to improve performance against softer targets and although the 75mm gun wasn't a brilliant anti-tank gun it was probably a much better gun for an infantry tank.
The book provides a good account of the service history of the tank, from the ill judged Dieppe raid, North Africa, Normandy, Italy and NW Europe. The book tells the story of the Black Prince development too but sadly not the special versions which are such a big part of the Churchill story. This is for reasons of space, I understand why the author restricted himself to telling the story of the gun tanks but it'd be nice to see a similar volume on the other variants produced to the same standard. The book is profusely illustrated (all b&w) including many superb drawings showing interior arrangements and construction details. The book is printed on nice glossy paper and has a nice feel. The text is very readable and well written and shows flashes of humour. Given the development process and initial reliability problems, not to mention the generally problematic nature of British tanks of that period the Churchill tank settled down to serve the army extremely well. Although slow its first class mobility and excellent armour made it very tough and it protected its crews very well indeed.
Overall a first class book, 5*, highly recommended.
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MR.CHURCHILLS TANK: The British Infantry Tank Mark IV Hardcover – Illustrated, 26 Jun. 1999
by
DAVID FLETCHER
(Author)
This is the full story of the Churchill tank; from the design of an oversized prototype in Belfast in 1940 to its final achievements against Communist forces in the Korean War some ten years later. For those with an interest in technical matters this book goes into a great deal of detail. For those interested in the mechanics and politics of war production it explains the systems, processes and pitfalls in depth. For those studying war history it examines the Churchill tank in action from the beaches of Dieppe to the mountains of Tunisia; from the Gothic Line in Italy to the Siegfried Line in Germany and in the harsh terrain of Korea. The Churchill is examined mark by mark, from the A20 prototype through to the heavyweight Black Prince design of 1944. Details are given of its service with every British regiment that operated Churchills and of its use by Australian, Canadian, Irish and Russian forces. The author has drawn heavily on original research material held in the library of the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset, UK.
- Print length1 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSCHIFFER PUBLISHING LTD
- Publication date26 Jun. 1999
- Dimensions23.5 x 1.91 x 28.58 cm
- ISBN-100764306790
- ISBN-13978-0764306792
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Product details
- Publisher : SCHIFFER PUBLISHING LTD; Illustrated edition (26 Jun. 1999)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 1 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0764306790
- ISBN-13 : 978-0764306792
- Dimensions : 23.5 x 1.91 x 28.58 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 921,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,054 in History of Military Vehicles
- 1,360 in Military History of Encyclopaedias & Pictorials
- 1,571 in Military Vehicles
- Customer reviews:
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4.9 out of 5 stars
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VINE VOICE
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5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2014
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This is a terrific book. It's a heavy thick book, very well illustrated and printed to a high standard. It contains a well written account of the early development of this tank, including the doctrine around "infantry" tanks, and some of the prototypes and predecessors. Often this kind of account of committee decision-making and Sir Monty Farquarr said this, and Lord Bufton said that can be very dry, but Mr Fletcher brings is all to life in a very entertaining way. Then on the tank proper it describes all the many and various models, their armaments, details of construction and combat experience. There are pictures on every page, whether photographs (all high quality), engineering drawings or whatever.
Although I'm not remotely qualified to comment on the scholarship that's gone into this, it certainly appears to be very well researched and credible. One small example - there's a photograph illustrating some trial or other, but he's careful enough to caption it as "not necessarily the incident referred to in the text", although it's definitely showing something very similar. This is the stamp of someone taking great care over his work.
Sadly he doesn't cover the fascinating special purpose variants much beyond a mere mention: flame thrower (Crocodile), nor the demolition mortar AVRE models etc, but in fairness the book's already a good inch thick with no wasted space, so this is hardly cause for realistic complaint - maybe we can hope for a follow up volume? I for one would order it like a shot.
Areas which could have been even better, would have been to included tables summarising production numbers and technical details for each mark. Although it is covered in the narrative, summaries are helpful, and indeed usual for this sort of book, possibly in an Appendix. Also, I'd have valued more analysis on whether the thing was actually any good or not. Whilst Mr Fletcher has certainly done his work in digging out details of say, gunnery trials against it, or breakdown stats and the like, and doesn't hold back on its faults, I'd have valued his expert opinion on whether this was on a par with its rivals, or with the Sherman. A "conclusions" chapter would also have been good - and probably wouldn't have taken him long to write - after all he'd done all the hard work already !
For all that, a terrific well written, superbly illustrated book, and would be a bit harsh to drop a star. Well worth the £30 cover price.
Although I'm not remotely qualified to comment on the scholarship that's gone into this, it certainly appears to be very well researched and credible. One small example - there's a photograph illustrating some trial or other, but he's careful enough to caption it as "not necessarily the incident referred to in the text", although it's definitely showing something very similar. This is the stamp of someone taking great care over his work.
Sadly he doesn't cover the fascinating special purpose variants much beyond a mere mention: flame thrower (Crocodile), nor the demolition mortar AVRE models etc, but in fairness the book's already a good inch thick with no wasted space, so this is hardly cause for realistic complaint - maybe we can hope for a follow up volume? I for one would order it like a shot.
Areas which could have been even better, would have been to included tables summarising production numbers and technical details for each mark. Although it is covered in the narrative, summaries are helpful, and indeed usual for this sort of book, possibly in an Appendix. Also, I'd have valued more analysis on whether the thing was actually any good or not. Whilst Mr Fletcher has certainly done his work in digging out details of say, gunnery trials against it, or breakdown stats and the like, and doesn't hold back on its faults, I'd have valued his expert opinion on whether this was on a par with its rivals, or with the Sherman. A "conclusions" chapter would also have been good - and probably wouldn't have taken him long to write - after all he'd done all the hard work already !
For all that, a terrific well written, superbly illustrated book, and would be a bit harsh to drop a star. Well worth the £30 cover price.
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2018
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This is an excellent and very detailed book about all variants of the Churchill tank, including the 3" Gun Carrier and Black Prince,but not the specialised types. The book consists of 211 pages, all of thick glossy paper. Most pages have at least one image, either a high quality black and white photograph or a detailed line drawing.
It is hard to imagine that anyone is going to write a better book on the Churchill tank anytime time soon. Highly recommended.
It is hard to imagine that anyone is going to write a better book on the Churchill tank anytime time soon. Highly recommended.
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2016
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Everything you wanted to know about this iconic tank, which started off as an unpromising design with a bus engine but morphed in to a well armoured (if slow) assault tank with a variety of guns and demolition mortars. The glamorous armoured divisions had the Cromwells and Shermans for the fast breakthrough or flanking movement, but it was the the independent tank brigades with the Churchill who broke through in the first place. Highly recommended
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 August 2014
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Excellent book - without doubt the best available for a much maligned British Tank. It covers every variant (other than the "Specials" for the 79th Armd Div) from its inception through to it's final days post war.
Highly recommended.
I had been tempted to buy a cheaper book from the US but delivery charges were high - I bought mine from the UK at a very reasonable price (Less than £30 including delivery)
Highly recommended.
I had been tempted to buy a cheaper book from the US but delivery charges were high - I bought mine from the UK at a very reasonable price (Less than £30 including delivery)
VINE VOICE
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This is the best single ref on the Churchill gun tanks.
Beware it doesn't cover any of the specialist vehicles, you will be surprised by the journey this tank travelled through the turning point of British tank design and how well recieved and thought of the tank was regardless of its limitations.
Beware it doesn't cover any of the specialist vehicles, you will be surprised by the journey this tank travelled through the turning point of British tank design and how well recieved and thought of the tank was regardless of its limitations.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2015
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Great book on the Churchill, superb photos, best book on the subject
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2015
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Love this book







