- Yes
- No
IWM (STT 7935)
History
Once the new Churchill Mk. VII had been approved for production, an order was also placed for the creation of a Close Support version of it armed with the same 95mm Howitzer Mk. I that had been used on the Centaur IV, Cromwell VI, and the previous Churchill CS variant, the Mk. V.
The howitzer itself was originally developed by taking part of the barrel of a QF 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun, the breech mechanism of the 25 pounder howitzer, and the recoil mechanism of the 6 pounder anti-tank gun while the ammunition was modified from that of the QF 3.7-inch mountain howitzer.
The 95mm was built to be the same weight as the 6pdr but, due to it’s short length, the fitting of a counterweight at the muzzle was necessary to keep it balanced in its mounting. It was also thought to be capable of being fitted into any tank that could mount the 6pdr however, it was quickly found that neither the Churchill IIIs welded or IVs cast turrets were actually capable of fitting it, which lead to a new casting having to be made for the Mk. V.
The weapon wasn’t ideal with supposedly unsatisfactory accuracy at longer ranges and, despite having a fairly powerful Hollow Charge shell and decent HE, apparently some reports state it was only really effective for laying smoke making it not much of an improvement on the early war CS tanks.
Another new turret
Unfortunately, creating the Mk. VIII was not simply a case of mounting the 95mm in place of the standard 75. History would repeat itself and, just like the Mk. V, a new turret, based upon the Mk. VII’s, had to be built to house the weapon.
The turret bustle was around 4 inches longer than on the VII and to compensate for the increase in weight, the height of the rear portion of the turret was reduced by 1.75 inches. The turret front was also slightly taller than the VII’s with slight angling of the front plate above the gun mount’s trunnions. This caused the slope of the front portion of the turret to be shallower giving it a much more squat appearance than that of the Mk. VII.
The TP number is the part number for the casting and is often found cast onto one of the turret faces.
The gun embrasure was also squared off as was done to the Mk. V. This graphic shows the difference in their outlines.
The gun mounting was also modified so that the howitzer and BESA were misaligned. This meant that, when the 95mm was level, the BESA was at -7 degrees. This was done because the 95mm, being a howitzer, only really needed -3 degrees of depression at most, and having it any lower would risk the fuse not activating before the shell reached its target, whereas the BESA would be used against targets at distances much closer to the tank and needed that extra bit of depression.
Aside from ammunition stowage and some other minor internal stowage differences the hull remained pretty much unchanged between the VII and VIII.
During the production of the Mk. V more turrets had actually been built than there were howitzers to be mounted in them leading to their use on Mk. IVs and VIs and it’s possibly this lack of 95s, alongside the realisation that a new turret would be needed, that caused Mk. VIII production to get off to such a slow start. As such, no Mk. VIIIs were expected to be ready before October 1944 and none seem to have seen combat or actually even reached active units prior to the war’s end. 1600 VIIs and VIIIs were built altogether with an estimate of 200 of these being VIIIs but the true number is likely a bit fewer.
As mentioned, the 95mm overall proved to be a relatively disappointing weapon. Suggestions were being made to replace them with ordinary 75mm-armed tanks and in late 1944 the Department of Tank Design requested the development of a new howitzer based on the performance of the American 105mm M4.
For the Mk. VIII itself, as far as I can tell, its only significant service was with Australia which received 51 Churchills with a few of these being VIIIs. These were set up as Crocodiles which was relatively easy to do as all Mk. VII/VIII hulls were built with the capability to be converted being as easy as possible.
All in all it’s a rather forgotten variant of the Churchill which wasn’t really necessary to have been built and its production would’ve been much more useful going to Mk. VIIs instead.
In-game
As the British tree currently stands, I think the Mk. VIII would be best suited foldered with the Mk. VII and also put at 4.7 BR. It’s got the same strong armour as the Mk. VII and would have better raw armour penetration thanks to its Hollow Charge shells but overall worse gun-handling compared to the 75mm on the Mk. VII.
Specifications
Crew - 5
Weight - 41t
Length - 24’-2”
Width - 10’
Height - 8’
Engine - Bedford Twin-Six 12-cylinder (350hp at 2200rpm)
Max speed - 12.5mph (20km/h)
Armament
OQF 95mm Tank Howitzer Mk. I - Ammo: 60
2x Besa 7.92mm MG - 1 co-axial, 1 hull-mounted - Ammo: 4950
Max elevation/depression - 95mm: +25/-3. BESA: +18/-10
The internal stowage sketch states:
11 cartridges HC or HE (turret ready bin)
L/H pannier shell bin contains 23 cartridges HC or HE & 4 smoke
R/H pannier bin contains 20 cartridges HC or HE & 2 smoke
Ammunition
Shell H.E./A.T. - Hollow Charge - 50/50 Pentolite - 1700 ft/sec (518 m/sec) - 127mm penetration at 90 degrees, 110mm at 30 degrees from vertical
Shell Mk. IA - High Explosive - Filled with Amatol - 1050 ft/sec (320 m/sec)
Shell SE Mk. I - Smoke - 655 ft/sec (199.6 m/sec)
Armour
Hull Front - 152mm
Upper Hull Nose - 57.15mm
Lower Hull Nose - 139mm
Hull Sides Upper - 82mm
Hull Sides - 95mm
Hull Sides Lower - 57.1mm
Hull Sides Vent Covers - 63.5mm
Hull Sides Rear - 38.1mm + 25.4mm
Hull Rear Upper - 50.8mm
Hull Rear Lower - 25.4mm
Hull Roof - 19.05mm
Engine Deck - 15.88mm
Turret Front - 152mm
Turret Sides - 95.25mm
Turret Rear - 95.25mm
Turret Roof - 20mm
Images
IWM (STT 7990)
IWM (STT 7991)
Sources
The Churchill Tank - C. Shillito, S. Osfield
British Battle Tanks - David Fletcher
Churchill Tank Vehicle History and Specification - David Fletcher
Panzerserra Bunker- Military Scale Models in 1/35 scale: Churchill Mk VIII CS - Close Support - case report
Tank Archives: Slow and Thick-skinned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIBCNOnB6v0 - Tank Chats #119 | Churchill Mark VI and VIII | The Tank Museum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXH1vAT8VC8 - Evolution of The Churchill Tank | “No Damn Good”? | The Tank Museum
Churchill tank - Wikipedia
Ordnance QF 95 mm howitzer - Wikipedia
