Cromwell Cruiser Tank 1942-50

Reviewed by John Prigent

Summary

FirstRead

This is a very welcome addition to the New Vanguard series.

It deals with the predecessors Cavalier and Centaur as well as with Cromwell, and the later Comet, Avenger and Charioteer are covered as well. This makes it clear that wartime pressure to build almost anything after the loss of tanks in France, as well as bungling and bureaucracy, were the causes of the lateness into service of a decent British cruiser tank.

Excellent tables give lots of information about builders, armament and user units, and there are splendid tables of all the differences between the Marks and hull types of Cavalier, Centaur and Cromwell, including the reworked Cromwells and the Charioteers converted from Cromwells. These are worth the cost of the book by themselves!

There is no room in such a fact-packed book for combat stories, alas, but every variant on these hulls is covered from the anti-aircraft and Royal Marine Support Group Centaurs to recovery tanks and the mine-roller and rocket-firing tests conducted with a Cromwell. Modellers will find this book invaluable whether they’re building the Tamiya Cromwell and Centaur kits, Accurate Armour’s Challenger and Charioteer, Cromwell Models’ Cavalier, or the IMA Avenger.

The photographs are good, showing all the types, and the colour plates also show a variety of tanks though oddly enough their captions do not comment on camouflage colours, so although an RMASG Centaur CS in shown you’re still on your own in deciding whether it was green or brown.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review sample