List of specialist Churchill tank variants
Developed for the amphibious raid on Dieppe in 1942, the Oke flamethrowing tank was named after its designer, Major J.M.
The design was basically a Churchill tank fitted with the Ronson flamethrower equipment.
Three (named "Boar", "Beetle" and "Bull") were present in the first wave at Dieppe; they were quickly lost,[1] and abandoned.
Proposed by a Canadian engineer as a result of experience from the Dieppe Raid,[2] the Assault Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) was a Churchill Mark III or IV equipped with the "Mortar, Recoiling Spigot, Mark II" (or Petard), a spigot mortar[a] that throws the 230 mm (9.1 in) [3] 40 lb (18 kg) Bomb Demolition Number 1 ("Flying dustbin") with a 28-pound high-explosive warhead.
The Petard was reloaded by traversing the turret to point front, slightly to the left, with the barrel directly over the co-driver's sliding hatch.
The AVRE could also be equipped with numerous other attachments, such as the Small Box Girder bridge, which was carried at the front of the tank and laid across ditches or narrow rivers up to 30 feet wide, and the Canadian Indestructible Roller Device (CIRD),[6] which was used to protect the tracks of a tank from mines.
It could also carry fascines, which are large bundles of wood carried on the front of the tank and dropped into trenches to help the Churchill cross over them, devices to place explosive charges against obstacles, and bobbins: massive reels of canvas on drums that were unrolled in front of the Churchill to help it over soft terrain.
They were used during the invasion of Normandy to help the Churchill over soft sand,[2] and also served to leave a trackway for following vehicles.
Other versions that did not see active service were equipped with anti-mine ploughs, mine rollers, or special demolition charges to destroy reinforced concrete walls.
[2] Post-war, new Churchill AVREs were developed on the basis of a modified Churchill Mk VII armed with a breech-loading low velocity 165mm Royal Ordnance L9 demolition gun that fired a HESH round with about 40 lb (18 kg) of C4 explosive.
The "Italian Pattern" Ark Mk II (initially called "Octopus") was produced in Italy using US ramps on Churchill Mk III chassis and did not have trackways on the tank itself (vehicles drove on the tank's tracks).
This would be assembled at a safe distance from the gap and then pushed to the site by a Churchill AVRE with another aiding by towing from the front; the middle of the bridge was supported by Orolo unpowered tracked roller units.
The design used a fixed square thick plate superstructure with the gun in a ball mount low in the front next to the driver.
Vauxhall, the main designer and lead manufacturer of the Churchill was already set up for full production of the Gun Carrier with parts and armour ordered and complained with the result that the full order was re-instated before being cut back to 50.
[17] The prototype was built by Vauxhall and had a T-number, the other 49 by Beyer, Peacock & Company in Manchester, got WD numbers with an S prefix, the same as self-propelled guns.
[16] Requirements and tactics had in the meanwhile changed again to focus on the general purpose 75mm gun in the Churchill and a smaller proportion of 17-pounder tanks in use, of which work on the Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger was making progress.
Some had the gun removed and converted to the "Snake" mine-clearing line charge device and used for trials and training of that in 1942–43.
[17][14] One unrestored survivor is held at The Tank Museum, it had been used at Lydd Ranges as a target.
