Churchill

"Success consists of going from failure to failure, without loss of enthusiasim."

– Winston Churchill

Still not as fat as the man it was named after.

The Churchill Tank (not to be confused with the Leader of Britain) was one of the heaviest tanks fielded by the British Army during World War II. It is notorious for having an incredibly flawed development cycle and for it's distinctive design.

In Real Life

The Churchill Tank's name is debated. Some say it was named in honor of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but others argue they are referring to his relative, who was in the House of Lords in the late 1800s. Others still argue it's really named after the Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill). Regardless, the Churchill was first ordered under the premise that World War II would be the same as World War I: static battlefields with lots of difficult terrain and anti-tank guns. Thusly, the tank had to be able to resist fire from German AT guns, provide support for Infantry and be able to cross trenches (hence the length). This resulted in it being a complete fatass compared to most other allied tanks, though the Churchill was still water weight compared to the Tiger.

After the fall of France, the design was revised to better support Infantry Formations, as British doctrine of the time dictated that fat heavy tanks act as mobile gun emplacements for infantry. Most of the early versions (MKI-VI) were shit: the Mark 1, for example, had exposed tracks, very wide and flat armor that was only thick at the front, an inferior 2pdr/40mm gun on the turret, and a hull-mounted 3-inch/76mm howitzer that was more meant to throw smoke than HE; all in all, the tank was absolute shit, couldn't fight other tanks even if it tried, and had to undergo immediate redesigning. That being said, if this sounds familiar to you, that's because it's a Russ with shittier guns. Seriously, because the Churchill took a lot of concepts from the MK1 trench tanks that the Leman Russ was modeled after, they even considered Sponsons in the original design, which they eventually decided to leave out, but they left side hatches anyway for quick bailouts, giving the crew a self-defense option when attacked by infantry on the sides, or for loading the giant mortar on the AVRE.

The tank was close to being removed from service after the British lost a ton of IIs and IIIs in Dieppe, and they were even working with the Americans to find a replacement. However, some (probably Australian) madlads in North Africa got the idea to strap a 75mm AT gun into the turret to replace the 57mm cannon found on the more common Mark III. When the War Office saw how effective these jury-rigged Churchills were, they were immediately standardized as the Mark VII and had 1600 of the things produced.

The Churchill saw reliable service across the world, though primarily in Europe it gained a reputation for being tough as nails. The massive design also meant that the Brits could modify the chassis to do pretty much anything, from Engineer support vehicles to tow tanks to bridge layers to minesweepers, there was a variant of the Churchill for just about everything; the two most successful of these variants was the Crocodile, which replaced the hull machinegun with a fucking flamethrower (since there was originally a howitzer in there, they not only had enough space for a flamethrower in the hull, but could also keep the turret's AT gun, which was the normal trade-off for the more inferior, less METAL BAWKSy tanks), and the Churchill AVRE, which carried a 290mm Mortar Round that was so big, it had to be loaded from outside the tank. Interestingly, the Churchill was also judged to be a superior Jungle Fighting vehicle, because of its good off-road capabilities and the fact only the big Japanese naval guns could really scratch it. In Soviet service, they were soon replaced by more efficient IS-2's, but the Reds liked them enough they were present at the Battle of Kursk.

Interestingly enough, the German analysis of the tank after the Dieppe landings indicated that the armor was at least equal to the armor of the Tiger, but as the armor was largely square shaped it had inferior protective qualities compared to the Tiger. Both tanks were also notoriously underpowered and unreliable in the field due to their weight. The Churchill was also slow as molasses (an inheritance from its Infantry Tank design), maxing out at around 10 mph. It did have the advantage of having a lot of torque due to its engine setup which was effectively a 12 cylinder inline, meaning it could reach those 10 mph on a level asphalt road or straight up on a muddy 30-degree incline full of vegetation in the jungle. By comparison, the Tiger could reach an acceptable top speed of 40kph with its Maybach 'V12' and keep up with the lighter Panzers, but off-road performance was notoriously worse than on-road.