The Cromwell Cruiser Tank (A.27(M))

Even in 1940, before the Crusader and Covenanter tanks had entered production a replacement for them was sought and the War Office issued specifications for a Cruiser tank with 75mm of frontal armour and a 6' turret ring and by January 1941. It was clear that the production of these new tanks hinged on the production of new engines and in June 1941 it was arranged to have 500 Liberty and 500 Meteor engines ready by the Autumn of 1942.

The first Cromwell was running in January 1942 were it proved to be very good after trails and a few months later it was agreed to increase production. Delays in the provision of the engines and problems with armour plate production meant that it was not until December 1942 that the first Cromwell was completed. 

In trails the Cromwell proved to be exceedingly reliable, something that certainly could not be said for the Crusader series. The Cromwell's armour was generally rolled homogenous plate, initially the hull front was 64mm thick, the turret 76mm thick and the turret sides 64mm, some sources list the turret front as only being 64mm this is most likely due to them forgetting to include the 12.7mm carbon manganese backing plate attached to the front 64mm of rolled plate, in later versions this was a single plate of 76mm thickness.

The 6 Pounder was the gun of choice, later these were modified to be 75mm to allow them to fire an effective high explosive shell.

So how does the Cromwell compare to German tanks of the period?  Armour wise it was similar to that of the Panzer 4, the armament was inferior but both vehicles were capable of defeating each other at range, the Cromwell had a massive advantage in speed, being 50% faster than the German machine. The Panther which entered production in January of 1943 was in a different league than the Cromwell, being around 15 tons heavier and having significantly superior frontal armour and a much more powerful gun. Surprisingly the Cromwell's side armour was equal or better to that of the Panther and also the Cromwell had a large advantage in both speed and reliability but the Panther is clearly the more powerful vehicle.

In 1943 attempts were made to improve the armament of the Cromwell by mounting a new high velocity 75mm gun made by Vickers, performance wise it would have probably been superior to the 75mm gun mounted on the Panzer 4 or Stug, unfortunately the gun proved to large to be mounted inside the Cromwell's turret, the gun was later modified and became the high velocity 77mm gun mounted in the Comet. Armour was also increased by the welding of armour plates to the front and sides of the Cromwell, this increased frontal armour to 101-102mm (similar to that of the Tiger tank). Some crews also welded tracks to the tank for extra protection and although officially it was suggested that this would not add any benefit there are instances of these tracks stopping German anti tank shells.

A 95mm Howitzer was also mounted on the Cromwell, this could fire a large high explosive shell as well as a HEAT round capable of penetrating 110mm at 30 degrees at any range it could hit - due to accuracy issues this was generally limited to 700 yards.

Production of Cromwell Tanks by year (UK Only)