British infantry atop a Challenger tank 7 April 1945
Cromwell and Challenger of the 8th Hussars, Hamburg 5 May 1945
Challenger A30 T271904
Challenger T271940 of 11th Armoured Division Holland 17 October 1944 3
Challenger T271940 of 11th Armoured Division Holland 17 October 1944 2
Challenger tank of 11th Armoured Division, Holland 17 October 1944
Challenger T271938 of 11th Armoured Division Flers 17 August 1944s
Challenger of 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars 4 March 1945
Challenger T271941 of 11th Armoured Division Holland 17 October 1944
The Tank, Cruiser, Challenger (A30) was an attempt to mount the 17 Pounder gun on the Cromwell tank chassis to give a tank with more anti-tank firepower to add to the Cruiser tank units.
In order to accommodate the large weapon and a second loader, a turret larger than that of the Cromwell was required and as such the hull had to be enlarged. It was lengthened and an extra road wheel added. As a consequence of the weight increase, the armour had to be reduced and the hull machine gun was removed for stowage of the long 17pdr cartridges.
Unfortunately, due to some short sightedness no provision had been made for deep wading trunking and thus the A30 was unavailable to participate in the Normandy landings, the tank having to wait until ports had been secured and the Mulberry harbours completed. The Challenger, despite its high centre of gravity was liked by its crews as it was somewhat faster and more agile than the equivalently armed Sherman Firefly. The Firefly design which had been a backup strategy proved to be easier to build and production of the Challenger was stopped with about 200 units built. Many of the A30s were issued to units using the Cromwell to ease maintenance logistics, as they shared many of the same parts.