Churchill mk. VI w/ Merlin Engine

WiseMinerva · October 22, 2023, 1:28am

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Salutations everybody

This is a suggeston for the Churchill mk VI that was modified by the Republic of Ireland to take a Rolls-Royce V12 55M Merlin engine

After a successful training stint in England the Republic of Ireland was leased three churchill mk VI in 1948 followed by a fourth in 1949. Ireland continued to rent the vehicles until 1954 in which it was asked if they could be outright bought, which they were. The Churchills were driven to Glen of Imaal twice a year for gunnery training and demonstrations however this caused problems with the local townships as the tanks were tearing up the roads. To solve this the military purchased a single Diamond T transporter truck from America, which could only take one tank at a time. Though this was alleviated slightly when one tank became stuck in the mud at Glen of Imaal and they simply removed the gun and left the tank there.

Problems began to surface in 1955 as the Churchill was by this point outdated and spare parts were becoming a problem. One Churchill was cannibalized for parts, but it was only a temporary solution. However Cpt Collier of the calvary workshops suggested replacing the outdated Bedford engine with the more powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin. The Churchill selected was ZD 5052 due to the engine having been removed due to problems in 1954. The engine was salvaged from a retired Supermarine Seafire, a Merlin V12 55M, along with some other parts that were taken for experiments in cooling. While they did get the engine in in 1956 and some tests completed the project was considered a failure and the idea dropped without records as to why. Though the most likely reason was that less than a year later Ireland had completely run out of ammo for the Churchill.

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(Note: this article refers the the Churchill as a mk X LT, this is incorrect it’s a mk VI with appliqué armour as David Fletcher explains in Mr. Churchill’s Tank.)

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Stats

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Weight	40.7 t (40.1 long tons)
Length	24 ft 5 in (7.44 m)
Width	10 ft 8 in (3.25 m)
Height	8 ft 2 in (2.49 m)
Crew	5 (commander, gunner, loader/radio operator, driver, co-driver/hull gunner)
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Armour	102 mm hull front, 89 mm hull side, 51 mm hull rear, 89 mm turret front, 76 mm turret side and rear
Main
armament	QF 75 mm
Secondary
armament	Two 7.92 mm Besa machine guns
Engine	Rolls-Royce Merlin 55M liquid-cooled V-12, 1,230 hp (917 kW) at 3,000 rpm
Transmission	Merritt-Brown 4-speed constant-mesh epicyclic gearbox
Suspension	Coiled spring
Operational
range	56 miles (90 km)
Speed	?
Steering
system	Triple differential steering in gearbox