The Prince goes to War.
With the Churchill Mk III in service and popular with its crews there was still concern in the RAC that their tanks would be outgunned. It was no secret that the German Panzer IV with its long 75mm gun could engage Allied tanks at longer ranges than units equipped with the Mark III could fight back, and the Grant tank was quite outclassed despite its potent 75mm gun.
The Sherman tank was seen as a good answer with its own 75mm gun but the British army still wanted something more. This recived a shot in the arm when the British got a good look at a monster German tank that was disabled and captured outside of Leningrad.
Able to see the tank for themselves in January 1943 this new vehicle sent a tremor of real fear through the Army that went all the way up to Churchill who demanded an answer to the German Tiger and for it to be deployed as soon as possible.
Whilst design teams looked at new vehicles, the gentlemen at Vauxhaul looked at the Churchill. Up-armouring was an obvious solution to the threat of the Tiger’s gun but the tank still retained its 57mm 6lber gun, and thanks to the size of the Churchill there wasn’t really a way to fit a bigger weapon into the rather small turret. Whilst it could have taken the American 75mm gun similar to those on the Sherman or Grant, it was still seen as ‘not enough’.
To fit a bigger gun the turret ring would need to be expanded and thus the hull widened and lengthened but this was seen as fairly easy to do and work began on what was initially called the ‘Stretched Churchill’.
As size and protection went up, so too did the tanks weight and it was obvious that at around 50 tons the standard Churchill’s 350hp Bedford engine would struggle to push the machine along and a replacement was needed.
Mainly through pleas and back channels a de-powered Merlin was obtained from Rolls Royce and whilst re-working the engine bay and deck took some work to fit the new engine the 600hp allowed the tank to perform without too much of a speed loss and whilst slower than the Mk III it was not too slow, capable of 14mph vs the 16 the Mk III could do.
With the gun there was only one option, the newly developed 17lber gun was a high velocity and long ranged weapon which in tests had shown superb performance. It took longer to develop the turret to mount the gun but by September 1943 with the design teams working round the clock the first ‘Super Churchill’ was presented for trials.
Although the somewhat rushed tank did have ergonomic issues and flaws, on tests the ‘Super Churchill’ performed well. The longer, wider tank (with its wider tracks) was still capable of handling terrain like other Churchills and the broader tracks even reduced ground pressure. There was plenty of room in the turret and the engine didn’t break down although to quote one Mechanic ‘the bloody thing pissed oil and guzzled fuel.’
Still it was an amazing feat for 9 months of almost endless work and the tank was authorized for production by the Prime Minister himself. Churchill also insisted that it be given a new name as he thought ‘Super Churchill’ sounded rather silly, before settling on calling it the Black Prince.
Produced alongside the Churchill Mk VII (itself just an up-armoured version of the Churchill) the tank was put into production whilst the ergonomic issues were worked on and several fixes were applied as the tank was being built.
By April 1944 the new Black Prince tank was in regular production and was starting to spread to units equipped with Churchills, with them being given to one Company in the Regiments that got the tank.
Black Prince tanks were the first ones to be sent ashore once the beaches of Normandy were secure and the Allies began moving inland.
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Would this be plausable if there was a more severe reaction to the first encounters with the Tiger, and assuming that the Allies learn about them in late 42 when they were first seen outside Leningrad?