Following the battle experiences in North Africa, there was a need among Churchill tank crews for a better armament in order to support the infantry. Early Churchill tanks were armed with cannons that had relatively lackluster high-explosive capabilities like the 2-pounder and 6-pounder guns. An enterprising REME (Royal Electric and Mechanical Engineers) Captain, Percy Morrell, recognized that there were many M4 Shermans slated to be scrapped with still functioning 75 mm armament. In a bid to upgrade the Churchill tanks for combat, he suggested and proved the feasibility of taking the M34 gun mantlet and 75 mm M3 cannon off the M4 Sherman tanks and installing them onto the turret face of the Churchill tanks. The modified Churchills, mostly Mark IVs, were given top priority with 200 modified with the M4 Sherman mantlet prior to June 1944. The modified tank was designated “NA75” (for North Africa 75 mm) and was sent to the Italian theater to fight, most notably during the assaults against the Gothic Line.
It would be pretty equal to Sherman but much slower and a bit more armored. So pretty balanced. Planes and Panzerfausts would have no difficulty destroying it just like current Churchill with 57mm gun. NA75 would be a sidegrade to Churchill III as it has a bit less of a pen but much better HE shell. Other option would be to make Churchill VI (75mm too) model with Irish crew.
That would be a BR4 vehicle and be less than worthless. 75mm cannnon + upgraded armor = uptier. I want something new at BR3 not yet another BR4 tank that will not be playable and always uptier to BR5. It will be Jumbo but weaker and even slower so what’s the point?
Black Prince with 76mm could be a bit better at higher BR but still won’t be that playable without BR5 being separated first from BR4.
It has weak armor at BR4/5 and awful cannon at BR4 that can’t pen anything outside of Tiger 1
It should be replaced with
It could have 30 higher pen with it’s 3-K 76mm cannon so it could pen Panther and Tiger (1 and 2P) against a turret. Vs Tiger 2 H it would still be completely screwed just like 85mm tanks but it would still be better than currently are.
On the topic of higher tier Churchills I feel like an interesting potential option would be a 6 pounder Churchill uparmoured to match the Mark 7 assuming it actually exists (I’ve seen claims that they do but it appears to be very much up in the air). If given APDS and maybe a very high rof (making it shoot faster than the current 6pdr Churchill would probably be kind of odd but iirc Gaijin has stated that reload speed in WT is a fudgeable stat for balancing so it’s possible they would be willing to apply the same for Enlisted) it would probably be much less helpless against enemy tanks than the actual Mark 7.
I did look into this subject at one point, I beleive there is evidence for a limited number of tanks made with both the 6pdr and uparmoured to the mk7 standard.
We could also add the Mk6, which is what he refers to as the “Irish Crew” one, as the Mk6 is the churchill model the Irish bought, only 200 built though so thats why its a rarer model. (Basically the exact same performance as the NA75 anyway though)
The Mk5 or the Mk8 could be interesting options, outfitting with the same gun as the Alecto, the Mk8 just being the uparmoured variant.
Yeah. I sure do would like a TT Churchill, but also an event one would be awesome. It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t bought the premium Churchill III despite wanting it for a while for my BR III mixed Allies lineup. Because I’m hoping they release a better Churchill along the way, and I know I’m gonna feel like a fool buying that Churchill only to end up getting one for free lmao.
