Customer Reviews

Mr. Churchill's Tank: The British Infantry Tank Mark IV

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Mr Churchill's Tank - The British Infantry Tank Mk IV by David Fletcher 210 pages, large format hardback, fully illustrated.

During the Second World War, the British Army operated three classes of tanks. The Light and medium-weight Cruiser classes generally corresponded in their intended roles with those of other nations. However, in the heavier class, Britain used the Infantry Tank. This was designed purely for support of infantry in the attack, and was designed to be move at the general pace of a foot soldier, while its armour was usually heavier so as to be able to withstand anti tank fire as it moved forward. While four types of this tank were produced, the third - the Valentine - was used at times in a cruiser role, but the last was definitely an Infantry Tank. The Churchill was born out of an planned design which would have acted in a similar manner to the first heavy tanks of the Great War. Times had changed however, and with them the need for the original design. Vauxhall Motors were asked to design and act as developer and technical experts on the new series, which first appeared at a time when Britain's tank recourses and general fortunes were at a low ebb. It was built without the usual cycle of building and testing prototypes, which meant that when first introduced into service it had many problems to be overcome. From then on, the tank's fortunes waxed and waned. It came close to being taken out of production more than once, only to be reprieved and improved before finally becoming a useful vehicle in the field in its intended role and some new ones. Its story is very complicated, and intertwined with that of British tank development at this period. While it has been written about before, some of what has appeared has missed some points or left details out. This makes the coverage here all the more valuable. David Fletcher is ideally placed, not only as one of Britain's leading authors on tank matters with a thirst for knowledge and an ability to pass that knowledge on in a very readable manner, but as Librarian and Curator at the Tank Museum he has ready access to a store of information on the Churchill and related matters. He follows the tank from its early beginnings, through development, user trials, problems in service and their resolution, improvements and modifications. Much light is shed on other matters such as development of tank armament, as well as the often conflicting demands and sometimes confusion and interference in design and production. Some interesting might-have-beens and even some areas not well documented are included. As tank development is always a continuing tale, he also describes the original "shelled area" tank which spawned Churchill and ends with Black Prince, a sort of Super Churchill, which appeared in time to be made unnecessary by the replacement of two streams of tanks by one, universal design. Not only is the story of the machines themselves told, but also its actions, from a less than auspicious debut at Dieppe through more successful use in Tunisia, then through North West Europe and Italy, on to its final deployment in Korea. Details, sadly still sketchy after many years and much change, of its use in Russia and peacetime service in Australia and Eire, are also included. Churchills were not only used as gun tanks. Many were converted or built as specialist armour, which wisely are not covered here apart from the unusual 3" Gun Carrier. This leaves the way open for a full and detailed study of them at a later date, allowing more detail to be included in areas not usually covered. Some unusual field modifications are however covered. Alongside a text which should be read closely as it contains a wealth of detail which could easily be missed, are a fine collection of photographs of the many versions produced, including views in the factory and of such things as the turret basket separate from the tank, and many photos of the tanks in action. Even more detail is shown using original stowage diagrams and extracts from various handbooks to show specific components. While most wartime British armour had a bad press, and the Churchill itself had some adverse comments, it generally came through with a good reputation. Its full story has had to wait a long time to be told, but now it has been brought into the light in good form in a book which deserves a worthy place among studies of major armoured vehicles.

Ironic that the Brits invented the tank, yet their tank design was so poor in WW2 that they preferred using the US built Sherman tank. David Fletcher was the curator at the British Armor museum, an expert on the history of British armor and is honest to a fault when he writes about his own countries tank designs. Indeed, he adds a sense of humor rarely found in these type of technical works.

Mr. Churchill's tank is an excellent book - high quality glossy paper, crisp b&w photos - and instead of the usual line drawings, there are 3-D line drawings which add an interesting persepctive, giving the reader an insight as to what the interior looked like.

The Churchill was not a war winning tank. But it was an important step towards the creation of the Centurion, which was the best tank of the 1950's. Rushed into production, it was under armed and unreliable. It soldiered on and became a useful chasis for a wide variety of engineer and "funny" tanks which saved many lives for the British during the Normandy landings. All versions are reviewed. Also of interest are the politics behind the creation of any weapon system, including this one.

The book is not without fault - there is no color, no photos of the interior. The data & statistics on the performance are in the text, no easy references to glance at or compare the Germans tanks against.

For those interested in armor, British armor this is a must. Same for collectors. It is expensive, but worth it. I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed reading this book very much, it has a wealth of information on the development and history of the Churchill, an abundance of photos and quite a few amusing anecdotes.

Particularly valuable are the copies of original plans and diagrams.

The one criticism I have of this book is that for those interested in the harder technical and production detail what has been included has been scattered through the book in the text, inclusion of appendices like those in the Jentz books on German tanks would have been valuable - collating that data in one spot.

This is a well-researched treatment of a confusing subject. It is also a wonderful source of diagrams of the tank. For a person interested in this subject, this will be a very good purchase.