During World War II, the Allies supplied more than just resources to the USSR. A significant part of Lend-Lease consisted of various equipment: trains, trucks, SUVs, as well as aircraft and even tanks. The Eastern Front received both American and British vehicles to help. Among other things, there was one English tank, which the Soviet fighters loved more than others. What kind of car was that?
In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke about this tank: "The machine that bears my name has more flaws than myself!" As you might guess from the quote, the tank was called "Churchill". It is not entirely clear what the prime minister wanted to achieve with such a statement: to scold the British designers or to praise himself.
The Churchill tank was designed and built in 1939-1940. It was a heavy combat vehicle with a classic tank layout. Its weight (when fully equipped) was 37.9 tons. The crew consisted of 5 people. The heavy tank was produced throughout the war, and was used until the end of the 1950s. A total of 5,640 of these machines were produced.
The dimensions of the combat vehicle were 7442x3251x2450 mm. The ground clearance of the tank is 530 mm. The Churchill was driven by a 12-cylinder liquid-cooled carburetor engine with a return of 350 horsepower. The speed on the highway was 25 km / h. On rough terrain - 17 km / h. A full tank was enough for 250 and 170 km, respectively. The suspension of the ball machine is individual, on vertical springs.
The British tank had very heavy armor. For its creation, rolled and cast homogeneous steel was used. The frontal armor in various modifications ranged from 101 to 152 mm. For a long time, this made the Churchill one of the most tenacious machines on the battlefields of World War II. The armament could be very diverse. Depending on the modification, the Churchillies were equipped with various anti-tank guns (40 mm, 57 mm and 76 mm), small howitzers (75 mm and 95 mm), flamethrowers. The tank was also equipped with 2 to 3 large-caliber machine guns. Typically, these were 7.92mm BESA and 7.7mm Bren.
The battle path at Churchill was long and bloody, not always glorious, especially at the beginning of the war. This is because the first models had a number of significant design problems and could not boast of really great reliability. Most of the shortcomings were eliminated only in the later models of the tank, produced since 1943. However, even then, the suspension and tracks remained the weakest point of the car. "Churchill" saw Africa, France, Belgium and Normandy in 1944, after the Second World War they visited Korea. And of course, the Churchillies went through Lend-Lease to the USSR.
The first 10 units arrived in the Soviet Union in June 1942 with the infamous PQ-17 convoy. Another 74 tanks arrived in September. All other tanks were delivered in 1943. In the period from January to March, another 169 Churchills were brought to the USSR. Guards tank units were equipped with them. The first experience of using British vehicles was unsuccessful. Many shortcomings of the tank were identified, especially from the standpoint of its adaptability to combat in the conditions of the "Russian winter". Soviet engineers were forced to carry out their own modernization.
Despite a number of significant shortcomings, the Churchill performed well on the Eastern Front and was very fond of Russian tank guardsmen. British tanks performed well at Leningrad, fought at Stalingrad, and took part in the storming of Vyborg. As a rule, heavy vehicles rushed to the most difficult sections of the breakthrough. As a result, by June 1, 1944, only 54 Churchills remained in the Red Army, of which only 3 were on the move. There was an amusing episode in the Battle of Kursk when 4 Churchills were able to hold back the German offensive for many hours without carrying any loss. The machines completed their task. Soviet tank crews fell in love with the vehicle primarily for its incredibly thick armor.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why are tankers on helmets convex stripes are made.