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| Cruiser Tank A30 CHALLENGER Jan Hyrman |
| The A30 tank, known as Cruiser Tank Challenger, was not a very typical British design. Contrary to many of its predecessors, it had a very strong armament, yet everything else went against it. It was designed practically around the acclaimed 17-pdr Anti-tank Gun (read more about this gun here), based on a call for a battle tank destroyer which could take out any German panzer. However, the 17-pdr. gun was larger an heavier than any other weapon used in British armoured vehicles, and the original A27 Cromwell (read more about this tank here) chassis and hull had to be redesigned. The first problem was the breech and recoil system of the gun, which somehow had to be serviced by the crew. For this purpose, a large box turret was designed to house the gun and the crew. This, in turn, added to the weight and the chassis had to be reworked. It was lengthened and an extra pair of road wheels was added. The result of these changes was that the total weight shown to be far too high and the armour thickness had to be reduced. The Meteor engine, however, remained in spite of the added weight, cutting back overall performance. The question of the ammunition carried came into consideration as well - and the hull Besa machine gun had to be removed to increase internal stowage capacity. An associated design, the Avenger, with an open turret as an attempt to reduce weight, never got behind the prototype stage. |
| A photograph showing the turret of the Challenger tank and its crew. Note the high silhouette of the turret. Photograph is courtesy of Mgr. Jan Poncik |
| The crew was protected by an armour of the maximum thickness of 102mm, but due to the weight concerns the minimum thickness was as little as 20mm. The engine was the 600 HP Rolls-Royce Meteor (a redesigned Merlin aircraft power plant), giving the tank a maximum speed of 52 kilometres per hour. The fuel was stored in a 527 litres tank, giving the Challenger a range of 241km. The high silhouette reduced the Challenger's chances as a battle tank, but to its powerful gun, it took up the role of a tank destroyer, 1 one issued to each troop, backing up three Cromwell tanks. In this role it performed quite well. A number of these tanks were issued to the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group, where they had an altogether different role due to the stationary task of the Dunkirk siege, serving as self-propelled guns. The Challenger design had a powerful competitor in Sherman Firefly, which was available in large quantities. Hence, just over 200 units were built and only a limited number of them saw action on the battlefields of Europe. |
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| Nevertheless, the Challenger design was approved in February 1943 and the production continued until the end of the war. When combat-ready, the Challenger's weight was 33 tons, producing a ground pressure of .93kg per square centimetre; due to the lengthening of the chassis and the longer gun barrel, the Challenger tanks were 8.15m long. The width was 2.91m, 2.78m was the height. The tanks had a crew of 5 and an armament of a 17-pdr. Mk. II anti-tank gun and one 7.92mm Besa machine gun. |
| The A30 Challenger tank during testing in some ugly-looking mud. Photograph courtesy of the Tank Museum Bovington. |