A discussion area for the Black Prince I (A43), the final and unsuccessful model in the Churchill tank series consisting of six prototypes, of which only one remains at The Tank Museum, Bovington (one hull is privately owned in a state of progressive disrepair, and one mantlet & gun is presumably still held by Imperial War Museum Duxford).
Bearing the name of one of England’s most renowned military commanders, Black Prince was the final design in the otherwise successful Churchill infantry tank series. Let down by its low mobility, high weight, and slab-faced armour, it could have been a formidable opponent to the German Tiger in 1942 or 1943. Unfortunately for Black Prince the year was 1945, and it was quickly shelved in favour of the far more efficient and adaptable Centurion.
Adored by dozens and returning annually every Black Friday sale, Black Prince struggles in the War Thunder of 2026 due to its raised BR and now-dated, non-volumetric armour model.
That said I do enjoy using it and believe that with a little research and relatively few bug reports, this unique and rare British heavy tank has a lot of potential, and will able to rival the most formidable enemy vehicles around BR 6.0.
Further to the mantlet report, Black Prince’s armament mounting seems very similar to that seen on Comet, some decent pictures of which can be seen in the Comet Workshop Handbook;
Major elements such as the mantlet, rotor, gun cradle, splash guard, and trunnion bearing caps are similar to those on Black Prince.
Quick (bad) sketch of the rotor & right hand trunnion cap, which is currently modelled as 10 mm CHA.
current
Basics of the rotor, these are machined parts so should all be RHA. The BESA shroud should be 1 in (25.4 mm) CHA as it is on later models such as the Churchill III AVRE (see below).
I’ve updated the following reports to include a new primary source; ARMY OPERATIONAL RESEARCH GROUP REPORT No. 276, Report on Ammunition Stowage and Loading of the 17 pr. Gun in Black Prince.
They now contain primary source information detailing the arrangement of ammunition in Black Prince, including the fully-armoured side and forward ammunition bins, and the partially-armoured ready round bin.
