For the next in our series of videos
we are now going to look at the Cromwell cruiser tank.
The Cromwell cruiser was in service from 1942 to 1952.
It had a crew of 5
an armor of 76 millimeters,
which is actually quite good for a cruiser tank of that particular period,
and also weighed about 27 and a half tons.
The Cormwell cruiser was used predominantly
by seven armor brigade more famously known
or referred to of course, as the desert rats
At that particular time the rest of the British armor brigade,
were then adopting the American shermans.
From the front profile of the Cromwell
you can see actually how small this vehicle is.
Above me you can see very clearly
the main armament
and also just to the left of me there
you can see the first of our two 7.92mm machine guns.
The first one mounted here
and the second one just mounted to the right of the main armament,
Also another thing that’s very obvious when you have a look at the Cromwell
is the size of the hatches
certainly when we go inside there
you will have a much clearer example of how tiny it is
when comparing that 5 people actually manned this particular tank.
The drivers compartment
is located just behind me there,
and you can see quite clearly to the left and the right
there are also episcopes.
Ok so now were on top of the Cromwell
first of all I want you to get an impression
of how small the actual complete size of it is.
It's absolutely tiny compared to a lot of tanks that you’ll see.
If you look at the front of the turret
you can see quite clearly on the left and the right there
there are two episcopes or periscopes
that the crew could actually see out of very badly
when they were inside and closed down.
Another thing I want you to get an appreciation for
is again the size of the hatches that you find on the Cromwell
obviously like most tanks we’ve got the loaders hatch and also the commanders hatch.
But if I open one of these hatches
you can see that the space is absolutely tiny.
On either side of the episcopes or periscopes
we can see its got a very very very simple
means of extracting the fumes when the gun fires.
Obviously a lot of the fumes that fire
when the main armament goes off are toxic to the crew.
Moving across then to the back decks of the Cromwell
very very sleek the actual design of the cromwell
you can see there’s not a lot of rubbish
located on the back decks of here.
The transmission compartment and the engine
was a V12 27 liter developing 600 horse power
and it was actually a modified version
of the same engine you find in the Spitfire
the modified Merlin engine.
The suspension on the Cromwell is very straight forward,
as you can see quite clearly, Christie suspension,
obviously with no top rollers,
and also 5 sets of road wheels,
located on each side.
Each one of these road wheels
is secured by the means of a locking nut.
To the rear of the Cromwell,
then of course you’ve got the sprocket wheel.
Here we are now inside the turret of the Cromwell.
As you can see not a lot of room as well in here.
A few things major things to point out.
Firstly we can see, in a really nice condition
the original radio set.
This was the wireless set number 19.
Underneath there, the storage container
which contained the periscopes or the prisms.
If we move across,
you can see there are numerous storage compartments
which contained ammunition
one to my front right and also im sat on one at the moment.
The breach mechanism opening device, located just here.
and also the breach itself.
Just to the left of the breach there
you can see the stock or the butt of the machine gun.
you’ve got a brow pad for the sight located directly underneath it.
just to the left of that you can see one of the episcopes or periscopes
and directly beneath that you can see the traverse gearbox.
Some of the controls,
the handle down at the bottom there,
is a very simplified version as if to give you left or right traverse
and just to the right of that there is a very obvious elevation hand wheel.