Hello, and welcome to our series of videos
where we’re going to look more in depth at some tanks.
In particular, we’re concentrating on the first series
in the British range of tanks.
We’re here located at the fantastic Bovington Tank Museum.
Named after Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill
the Churchill first appeared in 1941.
However, to start with it was absolutely full of mechanical problems.
It wasn’t until the Mark VII came around in 1943
that a lot of these problems were ironed out.
This particular one, as we’ll see later on
is actually the crocodile version, ie the flamethrower version.
The great thing about the Churchill, as you’ll see is the suspension
it has a very distinctive suspension on the Churchill
which we’ll look at later on.
The armour on the Churchill
was actually thicker than that on the Tiger
making it an incredibly strong vehicle with 152 mm.
However, this did obviously come at a cost
and it made the vehicle very, very slow
with a top speed of around 15 miles per hour.
That said, however, it did have an incredible ability
to climb, and this was very apparent in the conflict in Italy.
Unlike a lot of tanks,
the Churchill actually had a crew of five.
On the exterior of the vehicle, we have a closer look.
You’ve obviously got the main armament.
This particular case, it’s the 75 mm gun.
Just to the right of the main armament you can also see quite clearly
the first of what would have been two 7.62 mm machine guns.
Because we’ve already determined that this was the Crocodile version of the Churchill,
the other 7.62 mm machine gun, which was bow-mounted
is now replaced with a flamethrower.
We’re now on top of the Churchill
having a brief look at the turret.
The great thing about a Churchill, of course,
was it was a very, very simple design
as you can see from the turret itself.
There’s not actually a lot on there
when you compare it especially to some of the more modern battle tanks you’ll see today.
If you start at the front there, we’ll work our way back.
Very, very clearly, you can see the commander’s hatch
located to the left hand side
and also the loader’s or the operator’s hatch
located to the right hand side.
Again, a noticeable difference
if you look at a lot of the other main battle tanks that you’ll see around
is the size of these hatches.
They are particularly small.
Working our way backwards, you can see quite clearly,
the "Tuams" and the "Arphats" that were used in the radio installation.
Working our way backwards then,
we come to the transmission part of the Churchill.
You can see there very clearly on the back
we’ve got two mesh protective covers surrounding the engines.
The engines themselves developed
they were 21 litre engines
12 cylinder, and they developed 350 horse power.
As we swoop back,
you can see there very clearly located on the back of here,
is the trailer, which held the fuel for that.
The flamethrower itself,
the operator caused the spark
which ignited a petrol spray.
This in turn ignited flame fuel,
which obviously was projected from the front of the vehicle.
The problem, of course, with a flamethrower tank was,
although being extremely terrifying to the enemy,
it was also very dangerous for the crew located inside.
The petroleum fuel itself was very similar to that of napalm.
One of the most distinctive things about the Churchill is, of course, the suspension,
which is unlike any other tank that you’ll see.
The road wheels themselves,
we’ve got a total of 44 road wheels
arranged on 22 separate bogies.
You can see quite clearly that each one of these bogies
has the suspension arm on the link arm.
Servicing of these was done via a grease nipple,
which you can see on there,
and each one of the bogies has an individual grease nipple.
We’ve now moved inside the turret of the Churchill.
For the more observant amongst you
this is not actually the Churchill we were looking at
just now from the outside, this is the AVRE version.
The reason we’re using the interior of this
is purely because here at the Tank Museum in Bovington,
this interior is apparently in a lot better condition
than the gun tank which we just looked at.
You can see the driver’s compartment is actually quite roomy.
Located directly above me in the closed position
is the driver’s hatch, and the seat currently is
in the fully dropped down position
which makes it quite comfy for driving.
Located in front of me ate the controls for driving,
and you can see, quite unusually for many tank designs
you’ve actually got a tiller or steering lever here,
which controls it.
Just to the left of that
was the parking brake, or handbrake.
Directly in front of the driver
was the driver’s episcope, or periscope.
And to the right of that was the very very simple control panel.
A few of the key controls that were on there.
On the top left you’ve got a speedo.
To the right of that, you’ve got a fuse box.
Directly beneath the speedo, you have the tachometer.
And beneath that is a voltage gauge to indicate how much charge is in the batteries.
To the right of the temperature gauges is the petrol indicator.
And finally, on the right hand side,
just where I’m showing you at the moment is the master switch.
Instead of the gun fitted, we now have,
you can see the breach in front of us to the 290 mm mortar.
Of course, the AVRE really came into its own on D-Day
when the purpose of the 290 mm mortar
was to destroy pillboxes or fortifications.
The only other things which are quite apparent in the turret
at the moment are the traverse handwheel,
and directly above the traverse handwheel,
you can see one of the periscopes, or episcopes.
Obviously, not giving the greatest field of view at all.