Cromwell | BEST British Cruiser Tank? 

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Comet was the best British tank, which was basically an improved Cromwell, with a 77 mm gun.

That tank that jumped the canal is an interesting story. It was actually a training tank with ordinary steel instead of heavier armour plating. The commander wrote a very interesting book after the war, well worth reading. The real story is the tank accompanying it was a heavier armoured tank and seeing the first tank jump the canal tried the same thing... it teetered on the edge with the treads trying to gain traction until they bit and it barely made it. Still, you're right, one battle-Cromwell made the canal jump. Just thought I would mention the circumstances for those interested.

The Normandy hedges were often 15 or 20 feet high mounds of dirt that had hedges on them, so the classic hedge cutter was only somewhat effective.. going over these hedges exposed the thin belly armor of the tank with the expected results...

Cromwells were operated by the Finnish Defence Forces, too. When they became obsolete they were reused as stationery bunkers around airfields facing inwards as a defence against airborne surprise attacks.

Thank you. The Cromwell regiments were equipped with a mix of 6 pounder and 75 mm guns as the 6 pounder had better armoured penetration than the 75mm. Overall the 21st Army claimed 890 German tanks destroyed between D day and August 1944.this included 132 Tigers and 252 Panthers. The German army claimed to have destroyed 1935 tanks during the same period, although the British and Canadian army records indicate 1042 tanks destroyed. The German panzer units were drawn into an attrional battle often at ranges where they could be destroyed by 17 pounders, 75mm , 6 pounders and PIATs, supplemented by Ground attack aircraft and naval artillery. Looking forward to your other presentations.

There is a story about a Cromwell tank commander who noticed that his tank was always the first to arrive anywhere, and when he was called to ask about taking on an 88mm gun, it turned out that it was an 20mm anti aircraft gun. He reversed quickly and once around the corner, he looked and saw that the bullets which should have bounced off, had instead stuck into the armor. When he saw this he realized that he had accidentally been given a mild steel pilot model. He considered giving it back but realized that because it could move so fast and get out of trouble quickly, he decided to keep it. It proved useful just days later when the Cromwell company was ambushed from the left flank. The only way they could get out of it was to try to jump a canal to the right flank. It worked, because the Cromwells were able to disengage the transmission as soon as they landed and before they stopped, they immediately engaged the transmission and sped way. Of all the Cromwells, none were lost.

Always loved the look of the Cromwell

At Villiers Bocage, due to poor reconnaissance, most of the destroyed vehicles were in a sunken road with no chance to manoeuvre out of the way, especially as Wittman's tanks had hit the first and last vehicles in the column.

A lot of good info packed into just under 7 minutes.

That was extremely informative, and i personally appreciated your Dutch accent; very humble, yet PROUD

even just looking at it you can tell it was one of the better british tanks during ww2

When the first Cromwell’s were delivered, the tank men were furious and wanted them sent back. They couldn’t believe that the designers had produced a slab sided, riveted turret when they would be facing the enemies sloped armor and fully welded construction.

Thank you!

Great film about an otherwise merely adequate tank. It would have been an outstanding tank had it come out in 1942 or '43. (English tip: "reverse gear" rather than "backwards gear")

🏆 Labeling the photos and providing isometrics of the armor values are two small additions that help separate these brief military history modules from the numerous others like it. Cant wait for the Panzer III & IV 🇩🇪

Thank you .

Great job, thanks! Would LOVE if you could do something similar for the inimitably sexy Crusader ; )

Angling the armor on the Cromwell wouldn't have made that much of a difference against Tigers or Panthers, let's be honest. The Germans knew all about angling, but they did boxy designs as well. It's about the ergonomics. The Cromwell's pretty awesome, just late to the game.

hi, thanks for interesting story, but i have a quesion, could you tell me from what source did you get this data (3:16)?

I'm afraid the presenter is mistaken. The earlier versions of the Cromwell had a top speed of 64kph, decisively faster than the 53kph of the T34. They were roughly similar in weight so the extra 100bhp of the Cromwell also meant decisively greater acceleration and I believe it cornered faster too. So, yes the T34 may have been a better rank overall but in terms of acceleration, speed and maneuverability it was nowhere near that Cromwell. [en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwell_tank]

It was OK . A bit of an improvement on the Panzer Mark 4 .

75mm was only out of date is for tank on tank work, it was well up to snuff for anti infantry work and use against anti tank guns

The Cromwell was for me a strange tank that had very good performance, thanks to the Rolls-Royce Meteor but with vertical armour with a magnificent shot trap behind the cannon, a detail that both the Pz.Kpfw III and the Pz.Kpfw IV was already fixed after the invasion of Poland with a so so Ordinance QF 75 mm gun. It took years for England to produce a decent tank....

Nice video but now I’m wondering: what actually was the fastest tank if not the cromwell?

Horribly delayed it entered service just as the campaign it could have excelled at in North Africa was finishing. Not the sort of tank you want to be trapped in column in with towns hedgerows panzer faust 88mm and pak about let alone tiger tanks ! But the engine was a gem and once the gun was sorted a really good follow up was produced in the Comet and culminated in the centurion.

Cromwell looked right and it was right, I GET SICK OF PEOPLE STATING THAT Brit armour was rubbish.. With regards to the losses at Villiers Bocage, it wasn't such a defeat as some think, ie losses were not that bad, check out Paul woodich at ww2 TV.

No!!! Centurion was a completely new project, *not* a continuation of Cruiser tanks. That line ended with Comet. Check any number of David Fletcher’s books on the topic.

I must say,they performed much better than sherman aguess

Tank had lots of good points. But simply said it should of been a comet 77mm tanks would of made a difference in a big way 😂🇬🇧💥💥💥

The Cromwell did kill a Tiger and another one killed two Panthers. The 95mm was assigned as a support to other Cromwells but only fired smoke shell not HE rounds.

The British took way too long to come up with a descent tank. By the time the war was nearly over, the British started to learn how to build a good tank. To me the Cromwell seems on the same level as the much older pantzer IV - and the Sherman. In the end they finally learned the job; the Centurion was a world class tank, but that one only appeared just after the war.

That image you used for the thumbnails makes it looks goofy as hell lmao

By the time the Cromwell/Centaur was introduced in June 44 the Allies had such massive tank imbalance against the Germans another model was hardly going to make a difference.

Must have been ok,as they went to Korea.

Yeah probably the best tank made by Britain before we got it right with the comet.

Now it is 80 Likes 👍

Have there ever been an best British tank?

The Comet was the best British tank, the Centurion came in too late to see action

Did you know that the cromwell was a tank ?

Michael Wittman? They had no chance........

🇬🇧 I wouldn’t expect England or Britain being an island commonwealth to be masters of Tanks, maybe a very terrain specific defender of the homeland if need be....war is war true but think about that for a second...what is your nations foreign policy? Sounds to me like an aggressor state..Landlocked nations should surely have a fighting doctrine including mission specific machines.

The Crusader was not a good tank. Crews hated it because it was unreliable and poor armor. The Cromwell did fix many of the defects and because of the Cromwell’s speed and range the British were able to exploit breakthroughs to cover vast amounts of territory in Europe. It was the perfect tank for that.

Just looking at it, I can‘t believe that this was a usable tank in 1944. No sloped armour, no gun mantlet (WTF?), angular turret, narrow tracks - nah!

6th Airborne certainly had no tanks at all. Where did you get that from ? Crusader wasn't in service until 1941, so it wasn't obsolete in 1940 ! Maybe you mean the Mk III Cruiser ? Top speed (on road) and cross-country speed are two completly different things. Even today you won't go above 30 km/h (I stand to be corrected !) over a cratered field, because the squishy things inside the tank (aka the crew) wouldn't thank you ! Neither would your suspension. Cromwell wasn't exactly an off-roader to begin with; the tracks were way too narrow and the crews didn't wear helmets. You have no idea how many sharp edges and knuckels inside a tank only wait for you to bang your head against ! I've seen people vomiting after a short off-road trip in an M113, not mentioning the bruises. 🙂 That story about jumping Cromwells: this stunt only works if you have a ramp or the opposite bank is considerably lower. Otherwise gravity puts a very abrupt end to it. It doesn't work with busses either (as in "Speed"). I put this in the myth section. Cromwell led to Comet, which was essentially an upgrade, but neither of which had anything to do with Centurion. Centurion was a completley independent development which was already underway before Cromwell came out. And I won't say that Centurion was the first MBT. Sherman, T-34, Panzer III, IV and V all filled that role at some point. It only was the first British MBT when they finally got rid of the idea of dedicated infantry and cruiser tanks.

While the British were developing Cromwell, the Germans had completed Tiger and Panther and were developing the King Tiger. The tank was designed for the 75mm HV vickers gun. The Russians or Americans would have been able to fit it easily, but not the British. Cromwell failed at the administrative stage. It failed before it was even a tank.

Amazing! The Germans design the Panzer lll and lV in the 30’s and they lasted till long after the war, whereas we British took until the Centurian in the late 40’s before we could come up with a decent tank. Catch me in a slab-sided riveted box, not on your Nelly!

Can answere this question easily . The cromwell was crap, worse than that it was a death trap first modles it was a work of art for the driver bow gunner to actually get in the thing never mind get out, weak armour and well the gun not one of the best. Only thing going for it is it was fast.

you have to work on your unpleasant pronunciation...

The British designed, produced, and fielded very inferior armoured fighting vehicles. The Germans and the Soviets were well ahead of the British in the A.F.V. department. So too were the Americans to a lesser extent. At least the M4 Sherman was mechanically sound and reliable and easily maintained and on the battlefield adequate and battleworthy.