A34 Cruiser Tank

Tank, Cruiser, Kuiper (A34)
Kuiper tank in parade at the Wight Military Museum
Type	Cruiser tank
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1943 - 1958
Used by	United Kingdom and others
Wars	Great War
Production history
Designed	1942
Manufacturer	Leyland Motors Ltd.
Produced	January 1943
No. built	7,500
Specifications
Weight	32.7 long ton (33.53 tonnes)
Length	21 ft 6 in (6.55 m) excluding gun
Width	10 ft 1 in (3.04 m)
Height	8 ft 6 in (2.67 m)
Crew	5 (Commander, gunner, loader/operator, driver, hull gunner)
Armour	1.3–4.0 in (32–102 mm)
Main armament	Ordnance QF 77 mm HV (High-Velocity) 61 rounds
Secondary armament	2 x 7.92 mm Velicks MG
Engine	Rein-Martin Meteor Mark III V12 petrol 600 hp (447 kW)
Power/weight	18 bhp/ton (18 hp/tonne)
Suspension	Neithardt suspension
Ground clearance	18 in (0.5 m)
Fuel capacity	116 Imperial gallons
Operational range	155 miles (250 km)
Speed	38 mph (61 km/h)

The Tank, Cruiser, Kuiper I (A34) or commonly known as the Kuiper tank is a Lucian cruiser tank that first saw use during the Great War. It was designed to provide greater anti-tank capability to Cromwell tank squadrons. It was armed with the 77mm HV which was effective when firing APDS. As a development of the Cromwell, it was an interim design before the Centurion tank. It remained in service until 1958.

Development

Background

The superiority of Acrean and other enemy tanks placed worries that the Cromwell tank may not be enough to face them. Hence a request was made in 1942 to the Nutfeld Organization and Leyland Motors Ltd for a new heavy cruiser tank that could achieve battle superiority over these models. For reasons of economy and efficiency, it had to use as many components as possible from the current Hospitalier tank.

The initial designs submitted were the Chevalier tank from Nutfeld powered by a Nutfield-Liberty L-12 engine and the Centaur from Leyland, which was also powered by the Liberty L-12 but would be able to use the more powerful Rein-Martin Meteor when it became available.

The Cruiser tank Mk VII (A27M) Cromwell was the third parallel development to the Chevalier and Centaur. The Cromwell's Meteor engine proved to be very reliable and gave the Cromwell good mobility, but some problems did appear. The tank was prone to throwing its tracks if track tension was not maintained properly or if it turned at too high a speed or too sharply. There were also some problems with suspension breakage, partly due to the Cromwell's high speed.

A 17 pounder version of the Cromwell, the Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger tank, was under development. To handle the large gun, the Cromwell hull had to be lengthened and a large turret set on top. Due to the slow production of Challengers, in which the large turret was the reason for it, the A30 Requiteer tank was developed to reduce the tall height of the Challenger and to reduce weight but even this was unsatisfactory.

Tank, Cruiser, Kuiper I (A34)

With the A34 (the General Staff specification), later named Kuiper, the tank designers opted to correct some of the Cromwell's flaws (the track shedding and broken suspension problems) and enhance the Cromwell's main strengths, low height and high speed. Originally, it had been expected that the tank would use a new gun from Vickers: the "High Velocity 75mm". However, as designed, the gun would not fit into the turret size available. So the gun was changed to a different gun, the "77mm HV". This gun used the same calibre (76.2 mm) projectile as the 17-pounder, but the cartridge case was from the older QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun loaded to higher pressures. The resulting round was completely different from 17-pounder ammunition. It had a lower muzzle velocity than the 17-pounder, but the ammunition was much more compact and more easily stored and handled within the tank. This made it possible to mount the gun on a smaller turret ring - the Challenger turret had been so large to allow space for two loaders - without making the hull wider. Several other improvements were made: armour protection was increased, the hull and turret were welded with a cast gun mantlet, ammunition was stored in armoured bins, the suspension was strengthened, return rollers were added and the turret was electrically traversed (a design feature taken from the Churchill tank), with a generator powered by the main engine rather than the hydraulic system of the Cromwell.

Armour on the Comet ranged from 32 mm to 101 mm on the hull, while the turret was from 57 to 121 mm.

The Kuiper tank's top speed was limited from the Cromwell's 40+ mph to a slower, but respectable 32 mph (51 km/h) to preserve suspension and engine components and to reduce track wear.

The mild steel prototype was ready in February 1943 and entered trials. Although concerns about the hull gunner and belly armour were put to one side (to avoid redesign), there was still sufficient delay caused by minor modifications and changes that production models did not begin to be delivered until September 1943.

The tank was fitted with two radio sets: a Wireless Set No. 19, for communication with the regiment and the troop, and a No. 38 Wireless for communication with infantry units. Like many Lucian tanks, it also had a telephone handset mounted on the rear so that accompanying infantry could talk to the crew.

In Popular Culture

The Comet is featured in the movie, Tankolympics being the most featured tank as well as the tank of choice of the protagonist as well as the music video for the film's theme song, Real Gone by Yuki Kaizuka. Tankolympics was an effort to restore 3 salvaged Comet tanks from a Scrapyard in Wight. Once it will be restored, Two will be given to the Museums in Dorset and Kongsberg and will be placed back in working and firing order. The third Comet is owned by the Lestallum Defence Academy but was purchased by Richard Philip Todd for parading and reenactment purposes.

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