UK tanks. Modern tanks of Western Europe: Britain. History of the development of British tanks by model

Traditionally, the new research tree does not appear in the game completely, but in small portions. First of all, the British will acquire the main branches of research: heavy tanks up to the tenth level and medium ones up to the ninth.

But this is where the vaunted British traditionalism ends and island eccentricities begin. For example, what do the subjects of the crown care about the fact that everyone else at the first level of development has access to only light tanks? Nothing! The British boldly start right away with the average ones. And even if the Vickers Medium Mk I is “medium” only in name and only in quotation marks - but how proudly it sounds: “ medium tank first level." Residents of the continent are simply bound to be envious.

At the second level, the research tree suddenly diverges in as many as three directions - which is also unusual for a "release" option - two of which lead to light tanks. One of the “light” branches will eventually lead the player to a level nine medium tank, and the tanks of the second suddenly gain weight when moving from the fourth level (light Valentine) to the fifth - where the already heavy Churchill I tank is located.

Armament in English

This is the essence of British tank building: take one model and begin to consistently produce improvements and enhancements based on it, carefully labeling them “Mk I”, “Mk II”, etc. New gun - new "Mk". New engine - perhaps a new "Mk", or sometimes a completely different name.

The situation with armament for tanks is somewhat similar: the three-pound (light Tetrarch) and six-pound guns (Churchill and medium Ram II, M7) already present in the game, we suspect, will haunt the player for a long time. But then they will inevitably be replaced by something more lethal: for example, the famous 17-pounder, which was originally installed on tanks specifically to fight the German Tigers and Panthers.

On higher levels The situation with weapons is as follows: the Centurion tier nine medium tank is armed with a 105 mm caliber gun, the characteristics of which are comparable to that installed on the American M46 Patton. But the tenth level of heavy tanks... Actually, the FV215b project was originally supposed to be an anti-tank self-propelled gun with a turret rotating 360 degrees. And they wanted to install not just anything in this turret, but a 180 mm gun. There is a suspicion that it could shoot, but only once - after which it would have to be turned “from head to foot” for a long time. In reality, this project was abandoned for the sake of the more promising (and not inclined to acrobatic performances) FV214 Conqueror, but in the game they got by by giving the ten-tier FV215 tank a 130-mm cannon. Self-propelled guns are late again

Naturally, the UK tank research tree will not be limited to two and a half branches of technology. As expected, self-propelled gunners - both artillerymen and anti-tank self-propelled guns. How can one manage in a virtual war without such a recognizable T28 and T95 tank destroyer, similar to the American “sloths”, A39 Tortoise, or simply “Turtle”. The ranks of the Shermans will also be replenished; fortunately, the United States supplied Great Britain with a sufficient number of these tanks of various modifications during the war...

British tanks British tanks

“World of Tanks” continues to develop both in depth - new battle modes, the long-awaited introduction of a physical model into the game, and in breadth, growing with more and more new “research trees”. A little more, and this world will finally look like a small forest: in the distance, behind the British, you can see the contours of Japanese armored vehicles, and there it’s not far to the “European team”... One thing remains unchanged: steel monsters are still rolling out onto the battlefield and, felling trees and fences, they rush under the cover of artillery to where the vile enemy is hiding, who will certainly be destroyed.

The British are the pioneers in world tank building, for which we must thank W. Churchill. As you know, it quickly developed into a positional war. To give it at least some dynamics, in October 1914, Secretary of the Defense Committee Colonel E. Swinton made a proposal to create an armored vehicle on a tracked vehicle that could break through defense lines: cross trenches, trenches and wire fences. The Minister of War did not react to the idea, but the First Lord of the Admiralty (Naval Minister) W. Churchill supported the idea, and after some time the Land Ships Committee was created under the Navy Department.

History of the development of British tanks by model

The commander of the British troops in France, General J. French, impressed by the ensuing battles, formulated the basic requirements for the “land dreadnought”:

• Relatively small dimensions.
• Bulletproof armor.
• Crawler mover.
• Ability to overcome craters up to 4 m and wire fences.
• Speed ​​not lower than 4 km/h.
• The presence of a cannon and two machine guns.

In fact, these were the world's first requirements for tank performance. And in January 1916, the committee presented the world's first tank capable of taking part in battles. Thus, with the light hand of Churchill, tank building began in Britain, and a few years later throughout the world.

The first tanks were created exclusively to break through defenses and suppress enemy machine guns, which contributed to special shape housings. It was a parallelogram with tracks along the outer contour for overcoming vertical obstacles. That's how he was.

Even after tangible successes from tanks in battle, the British military leadership considered their use to be of little promise, and only thanks to the real successes of high-speed French Renaults, the idea mass production tanks captured the minds of military leaders. J. Fuller, a later famous tank theorist, for example, advocated the mass creation of high-speed tanks.

British tanks of the First World War

There were several tank qualifications in the British forces at the time.

The first is weight: up to 10 tons - light, from 10-20 tons medium and about 30 tons heavy. As is known, preference was given mainly to heavy tanks.

The second qualification concerns weapons: tanks with exclusively machine gun armament were called “females”, those with cannons were called “males”. After the first oncoming battles with German tanks, which showed the inadequacy of machine-gun models, a combined type with cannons and machine guns appeared, such tanks were called “hermaphrodites”.

As for the doctrine of using tanks in battle, the opinions of the military were divided into two halves. One half wanted to create and use purely “infantry” tanks, the other “cruising” ones.

Infantry type - used for direct support of infantry, had low mobility and was well armored.

The cruising type is a kind of “armored cavalry”, quite fast, and in comparison with infantry, lightly armored. On their shoulders, together with the cavalry, fell the tasks of quickly breaking through the defense, enveloping and raiding the enemy’s rear. The armament of both types was the same, mainly machine guns.

The British retained this concept of using tanks until the beginning of World War II. If you delve deeper into it, you will see that tanks play a supporting role, the main tasks are performed by cavalry and infantry.

Before the end of the First World War in England, after the heavy MK-I, its modifications were produced up to Mk VI and Mk IX and medium ones: Mk A (unofficially “Whippet”), Mk B and Mk C.

Of course, the quality of the first serial tanks it was quite low.

In the diaries German soldiers and in official reports there are many interesting facts. For example, due to gas pollution inside the tanks, there were frequent cases of suffocation of the entire crew. Due to the primitiveness of the suspension, the tanks created such a roar that, in order to disguise the movement of tank units, the British accompanied them with artillery cannonade. Due to the narrow tracks, there were cases when tanks became muddy in the ground right in front of the enemy trenches.

One case speaks about security.

In November 1917, in the battles near Cambrai, on the outskirts of the village of Flesquières, only one gun was left near a gun abandoned by servants. German officer, he, slowly, loading himself, aiming and shooting, destroyed 16 British tanks in order.

It seemed that even then it was necessary to think about strengthening the armor, but not one of the tank manufacturers did this until the conflict in Spain.

Be that as it may, the British attacked with their tanks new round waging wars, they transferred them to other speeds. Before the end of the war, they managed to be the first in the world to create amphibious tanks and communication tanks.

Tanks between the great wars

First world England ended up as a leader in tank building, but very soon all the advantages disappeared.

Firstly, due to the fact that they strictly separated the types of tanks and their use: the British continued to build “infantry” and “cruising” types.

Secondly, due to its geographical location, the command gave priority to the development of the fleet over the ground army.

The implementation of one of the tactical ideas of J. Fuller, by the way, almost all countries “fell ill” with it, was the creation of mechanized infantry. The Carden-Lloyd MkVI wedge was ideal for these purposes. In its entirety, according to the strategist’s plan, it was supposed to play the role of an “armored skirmisher.” Despite the fact that the wedge did not receive recognition at home, although they were built on its basis reconnaissance tanks and tractors, it was purchased by 16 countries, and Poland, Italy, France, Czechoslovakia and Japan acquired licenses for their production. In the USSR it was produced as the T-27.

Another tank that was not appreciated by its compatriots was the Vickers 6 tons. In the world tank building it played no less a role than the Renault FT in its time. Light and cheap to manufacture, with a machine gun in one turret and a cannon in the other, it was the embodiment of the idea of ​​World War I tanks: machine gun tanks act against manpower, while cannon tanks support them.

Among the tanks put into service at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s were:

• medium Mk I "Vickers-12 tons",
• heavy A1E1 “Independent”,
• various modifications of the Vickers-Carden-Loyd Mk VII and Mk VIII.

In anticipation great war, headquarters ground forces back in the late 20s, insisted on creating and releasing infantry tanks, but due to the economic crisis in the country, funding was not allocated.
After the conflict in Spain and Italy’s attack on Ethiopia, the British leadership, anticipating the approach of a “big conflict” and understanding the inconsistencies of the time of the equipment they had previously created, urgently financed the creation and production of new tanks.

Appear: “cruising Mk I (A9), Mk II (A10), Mk III, Mk IV and Mk VI “Crusader” (A15).

Mk IV and Mk VI were implemented on the famous wheeled-tracked base of the American inventor Christie, but using one propulsion unit.

In 1939, production of the first (!) tank with anti-ballistic armor began - the infantry A11 Mk I "Matilda", later another tank would be named by this name. Its speed of 13 km/h and machine gun armament made it a laughing stock. In general, during the period between the “great” wars, British designers created more than 50 real models of tanks, 10 of which were put into service.

British tanks of World War II

At the start armored vehicles England is noticeably outdated. Neither in quality nor in quantity could it compare with the equipment of the USSR and Germany. The total number of all tanks in the British army was about 1000, in larger mass lungs. The lion's share of which was lost in the battles for France.

During the war, English manufacturers were unable to satisfy the demands of the army; during the period 1939-1945, only 25 thousand units of armored vehicles were produced, the same number came from the USA and Canada.

All new technology was quite mediocre, it was one step behind the German and Russian ones.

Mainly cruiser and infantry tanks were produced, and light airborne tanks were produced in small quantities.

After Churchill’s famous post-war phrase, tanks all over the world joined the arms race, and their development, in general, is similar to each other. To counter our IP, Conqueror is being created. After the concept of basic battle tank"Chieftain" is produced. The third generation tank in England is the Challenger.

In addition to the main ones, after a long break, light Scorpion tanks began to be produced in 1972.

For a long time, the prevailing opinion among the British military was that reconnaissance should be carried out by wheeled armored vehicles (BRM - “combat reconnaissance vehicle”, English Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance). However, in the mid-60s, when armor based on aluminum alloys appeared, it became possible to create a lightweight air-transportable tracked vehicle using automotive components and assemblies, which significantly reduced the cost and speeded up production. In 1964, the Elvis company began creating such a tank.

In 1968, the first samples successfully passed tests, and in 1972 it was put into service under the name "Scorpio" FV-101. The car uses a commercial 6-cylinder liquid-cooled petrol engine "Jaguar" with a power of 195 hp. With. The transmission is mechanical, planetary with a differential rotation mechanism. The gearbox provides 7 forward and reverse gears. The design of the transmission is similar to that of the Chieftain, but is significantly smaller in size and weight. Individual torsion bar suspension with hydraulic shock absorbers on the front and rear units.

We continue to introduce you to the whole variety of armored vehicles that can be found in Armored Warfare: Project Armata. Today we will talk about British tanks from the Cold War to the present day.

Second World War firmly established the role of the tank as the basis of an independent branch of the military, but it also made its weaknesses obvious. Among the military leadership of world powers, voices were heard claiming that the tank as a type of weapon was outdated, but no one was in a hurry to scrap the armored monsters. The war may have ended, but it was too early to talk about peace: World War II was replaced by cold war, threatening to develop into a nuclear one, and tanks were being prepared in it key role. In addition to being a formidable weapon, they turned into a sign of military presence, an impressive symbol military power. Having your own tank and not depending on your allies has always been a matter of prestige for the great powers. Tank building continued to develop - but in each country in its own way.

The Ministry of Defense was hostile to the idea of ​​a “universal” tank, and only last years During the war, it gradually gained recognition and began to be implemented. And after the end of World War II, the British Army reduced its tank forces to one division, placing it in Germany as an unambiguous hint Soviet Union. By this time the shortcomings of the British military doctrine, which strictly divided tanks into “infantry” and “cruising”, which led to a cripplingly narrow specialization.

"Centurions" in the Negev Desert. Photo by Fritz Cohen (1913-1981); licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The main tank of the British army was the Centurion, which was put into service in 1946. He showed himself brilliantly in the Korean War of 1950-1953. His fighting qualities were valued so highly that different time it was in service on 20 various countries who bought it directly or, like Denmark and the Netherlands, received it as part of American military assistance. More than half of the 4423 tanks produced were exported. Discontinued in 1962, in some places it is still in service, if not the Centurion itself, then its derivatives, for example the South African Oliphant.

African "Oliphant" younger brother British "Centurion".Photo by Danie van der Merwe; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

In Britain itself, since 1966, the Centurion has been replaced by the Chieftain, a tank that is innovative in many respects. Thus, for the first time in the history of tank building, the driver was positioned in a reclining position, which made it possible to significantly reduce the height of the hull in the front part and at the same time increase the slope of the frontal armor. The engine, based on the German aircraft Junkers Jumo, was adapted to run on various types of fuel, from gasoline to diesel fuel, a feature that has become a mandatory standard for NATO military equipment.

"Chieftain". Photo by Peeteekayy; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

In parallel with the Chieftain, another, much more unusual armored vehicle was being developed. Thus, in the 60s, as part of the Project Prodigial program, a prototype of the FV4401 Contentious tank destroyer was created. Ultralight, with a crew of two, it was designed for air delivery and parachute into a conflict zone. To make the car lighter, the designers got rid of the turret. The 84-mm gun, located directly in the hull, had an extremely limited horizontal and zero angle vertical aiming: the gun was supposed to be aimed vertically using a hydraulic suspension, tilting it along with the hull.

FV4401 Contentious prototype.Photo by Simon Q from United Kingdom; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Other experimental machine COMRES 75 was created as part of the Anglo-German project “Main Battle Tank of the Future” and also did not have a turret: the gun was mounted on an external carriage, which reduced the weight of the vehicle and increased the protection of the crew. Interest in turretless tanks was spurred by the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 - a vehicle with a unique layout, whose gun, rigidly mounted in the hull, was aimed, like the Contentious, by turning the tank and tilting the hull on the suspension. In the end, however, the command of the British Army spoke out against turretless tanks, preferring the classic layout of armored vehicles.

Experimental COMRES 75 with an 83.8 mm cannon on a remote carriage.Crown copyright 1968

Until the end of the 70s, the Chieftain remained the leader among NATO tanks both in terms of protection and firepower. This was facilitated by continuous modernization. Although, despite hard work, it was not possible to significantly improve the weapon itself. The tank's combat power has increased noticeably thanks to the modernization of fire control systems: the tank received a laser range finder, an electronic ballistic computer, night vision devices, and a sight alignment system. Work was also carried out to improve the armor: the tank was equipped with Chobham combined armor with ceramic inserts. The modernized model of the Chieftain, released in 1980, was called the Challenger. In parallel, Britain produced an export version of the Shir tank for Jordan, where it was put into service under the name Khalid.

In 1998, it entered service with the British Army. new tank- “Challenger 2”, equipped with an improved 120-mm rifled gun (this is the only modern MBT with a rifled gun) and a secret combined armor new generation "Dorchester" with the possibility of installing additional anti-cumulative screens. All this could not but affect the weight and mobility of the tank: the 62-ton Challenger 2 develops on the highway maximum speed 56 km/h.

Crown copyright 2014

“Challenger 2” performed well during the Iraq War, demonstrating excellent maneuverability and phenomenal survivability: in 2003, during an urban battle, one of these tanks withstood a dozen hits from rocket-propelled grenade launchers, keeping the crew unharmed. In the battle near Basra, a group of 14 Challengers destroyed an equal column of Iraqi T-55s without a single loss. To date, Challenger 2 remains one of the heaviest and most protected tanks in the world. However, in 2009, the corporation that produced it, BAE Systems, announced that it was curtailing Challenger production and closing factories in Britain due to a lack of orders. Perhaps, when the time comes to rearm, the British army will have to master German or American armored vehicles.

That's all for today. Similar reviews will be published soon military equipment France and Germany.

British tanks during the Second World War could not boast of serious tactical and technical characteristics. Most British combat vehicles were in many ways inferior to American, German and Soviet models in one way or another. British tanks were divided into infantry and cruiser tanks. The functions of the former included, as the name already implies, direct support of the infantry in the offensive, suppression of firing points, and jointly with the infantry deterring enemy counterattacks. These tanks were distinguished by serious armor for the start of the war and extremely low speed, which, however, was explained by the fact that they had to conduct an offensive in the ranks of the infantry and simultaneously with it. On the contrary, cruiser tanks had good dynamics, speed and mobility, but their armor was rather weak. These tanks could enter a breakthrough and develop an offensive behind enemy lines, threatening his communications, suddenly attack enemy units on the march, and encircle large enemy groups with the support of aviation, artillery and infantry. It was the cruising tanks that had much greater potential, but the British often used these tanks in the same way as infantry ones - only to support attacking units, scattering tanks along the front, while Germany clearly demonstrated what large, mobile and mobile tank formations.

Defeats in Europe and the disaster at Dunkirk

Before the start of the German offensive in the West, the British had 12 divisions and over 500 tanks in France, 9 of these 15 divisions were located in Belgium as part of the joint Anglo-French North-Eastern Front, which was supposed to cover this direction from a possible German attack. The British Expeditionary Force in France was armed with Matilda (Mark II), Cruiser (Mark IIA) and Cruiser (Mark IIIA) tanks armed with 40mm guns, more than half of which had excellent armor for 1940 and were difficult to hit by German tank guns. In addition, do not forget that many German tanks in the French campaign were still armed only with a machine gun (Pz.I and Pz.II).
The French also had an impressive tank fleet (more than 3,000 vehicles) - among which were the Somua medium and B1 heavy tanks. Their armor and armament were also not inferior to the German ones. The only thing in which the Anglo-French tanks were inferior to the German ones was speed. As for tactics, operational leadership, crew training and the will to win, in this the Germans clearly prevailed over the Allies. On May 10, 1940, German troops began a rapid advance through Belgium. The attack of the German mobile formations was aimed at bypassing the French Maginot Line. Coordinated actions German tanks, aviation, artillery and infantry, led to the defeat and surrender of the Dutch army on May 14. After which the Germans quickly crossed the Meuse River and their tank groups rushed to the west. On May 21, they reached the English Channel and were surrounded by over 50 Anglo-French divisions in the Dunkirk area. The defeated Belgian army also surrendered on May 28. Having carried big losses and abandoning all remaining equipment to the enemy, the Anglo-French troops evacuated to England at the beginning of June.

See also:

British tanks in Africa

Initially, in Africa, the British were opposed by parts of the Italian army, the technical equipment of which left much to be desired - all Italian combat vehicles inferior to English models. When the first offensive of British troops in Africa against the Italian aggressors began in December 1940, the superiority of the British in technology made itself felt - the Italians retreated until the German command, which decided to help its ally, transferred a corps to Africa under the command of General Rommel. The counterattack of this corps, which has initial stage there were only 120 tanks, drove the British back to the Egyptian border and surrounded their base in Tobruk.
In November 1941, the British launched a retaliatory offensive, the goal of which was nothing less than the defeat of Rommel's entire tank group and a decisive turning point in the African campaign. Having twice more tanks than the enemy, the British failed to carry out their grandiose plan. Rommel maneuvered his tank formations, regrouped the scattered units and threw them into battle again, preventing the British from achieving a decisive advantage. Nevertheless, the Italo-German troops had to retreat further and further. In May 1942, Rommel decided to launch a powerful counterattack with all available forces, despite the lack of fuel and ammunition. The British command had approximately 900 tanks, which meant an almost threefold superiority over Rommel's advancing troops. Nevertheless, success initially accompanied Germany. Only at El Alamein was the German offensive decisively stopped. The German losses were enormous, Rommel had only about 50 tanks left, but despite the critical supply situation, the Germans resisted for a long time. The British force in Africa was constantly growing, while German reserves were drying up, there were no reinforcements, and supplies were terrible. The number of tanks the British had by the end of the African campaign, which ended with the surrender of the Italo-German troops in May 1943, had already exceeded a thousand, while Germany, shackled by the war against the USSR, could not help the African corps in any way.

Tank production in England during the war

Tank production rates in pre-war years in England were very low. In many sources, this is sometimes explained by the fact that there were many opponents of development in the British War Ministry tank troops. Some officials considered the development of tanks a waste of the budget. As a result, the British came to the conclusion that it was necessary to produce two different versions of tanks - infantry and cruising. By 1938, the British industry, according to the plan, was to produce over 600 cruiser and about 370 infantry tanks. However, it was actually possible to produce thirty cruising
and sixty infantry tanks, which was simply incredibly small considering the approaching war. A year later, the British replenished their tank fleet with just over 300 combat vehicles different types. And yet this was catastrophically not enough. Britain faced the war without even a thousand tanks. In addition, most of the available tanks were light. For almost the entire war, the British made tanks that were quite unsuccessful, both in terms of design and reliability. At the final stage of the war, the main enemy of the countries of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, Germany, already had such a serious superiority in tanks over Britain that it was not possible to name an English tank that could compare in combat value with the German Tigers or Panthers. During the war years, British industry produced 24 thousand tanks and approximately 4 thousand self-propelled guns. In the production of self-propelled guns and anti-aircraft guns self-propelled units chassis of obsolete tanks were often used. Many British tanks, produced in 1939 - 1945, never made it to the front and only served in the rear as training vehicles for training crews and developing tank operating skills.