1942 British Covenanter Tank

May 1942. British Movietone News. The Tank, Cruiser, Mk V, Covenanter (A13 Mk III) was a British Cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was named for the Covenanters, a Scottish religious faction in the British Isles at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The Covenanter was the first cruiser tank design to be given a name.
In an attempt to keep the vehicle as low as possible, a low-profile, horizontally-opposed engine was used. The configuration left no room for radiators in the engine compartment, and so the radiators were moved to the front of the vehicle. The unusual arrangement, combined with the rushed design process, resulted in serious problems with engine cooling. These problems meant that the Covenanter could not be employed in the North African Campaign. Instead, Crusader and American tanks were sent to Africa, while the Covenanters remained in the British Isles.
By late 1943 the Covenanter was considered too weakly armed and armoured to deal with new German tanks. It was decided that neither problem could be addressed without significant changes in the design, so the tank was declared obsolete and all vehicles except the bridgelayer variant were scrapped.
Except for a few trial vehicles, Covenanters were never deployed outside of the British Isles. The British 1st Armoured Division was equipped initially with them, but when it was sent to Egypt, the tanks were transferred to the 9th Armoured Division. Eventually a handful of vehicles were sent to the desert for service trials and were allocated to the REME for maintenance and evaluation. It is not clear if these tanks were ever used in combat although the unit markings indicate they may have been deployed alongside Kingforce with their experimental Churchill Mk II tanks. Covenanters were also issued to some Polish units formed in the UK; they were replaced before these units were sent to the frontline, except for a few bridgelayers the Poles retained and used in their advance through Belgium and the Netherlands. The only Covenanter gun armed tank known to have been lost to enemy action was destroyed by a German air raid on 31 May 1942 in Canterbury.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• British
• Army
• Tank
• Armour
• Covenanter
• Cruiser
• North
• Africa
• 1942
• 2-pounder

[skoblinI]

Thanks TBD!

[tutnallman]

who ever sold these to the British government deserved punishment.

[DrHavoc1]

tracks this narrow make me wonder how the hell did it even manage to move?

[pathdaly]

Interesting to see this. Ive always liked the look of the Covenanter, but it was notoriously unsound mechanically.

[jder06]

i liked this tank , it could if used write could backup motorize infantry. if only they had thought to give it a better gun.

[virgo47tp]

i am laughing at those 6" tracks

[3shacks1house]

A good thing that tank stayed on the island and did not go into battle. All it had on it's side was speed.

[tacticalbattledroid]

good clip to upload..;-)