British Crusader Armoured Squadron

“I want to impose on everyone that the bad times are over, they are finished! Our mandate from the Prime Minister is to destroy the Axis forces in North Africa...It can be done, and it will be done!.”
~Montgomery

The British Crusader Armoured Squadron includes:

• Six Plastic Crusader tanks
• Three Plastic Grant tanks
• Three Plastic Valentine tanks 
• Three Plastic Churchill tanks
• Four Plastic 25 Pdr Guns 
• Two Plastic Daimler Armoured Cars
• One Plastic Dingo Armoured Car
• Complete A5 Flames Of War rulebook
• One British "Start Here" Guide
• Two Decal Sheets
• Ten Unit cards.

The light squadrons of the armoured regiments embody the dash and daring of the British cavalry. Fast and manoeuvrable but not as heavily armoured as the enemy panzers, they use speed and cover to protect themselves. They are often relegated to scouting or protecting the flanks of the regiment while their heavy cousins, the Grants, take the fight to the enemy.

The Crusader entered service in November 1941, in time for Operation Crusader, the offensive in late 1941 that was named after the new tank. Although the Crusader is vulnerable to enemy fire and prone to certain mechanical difficulties, its speed and cross-country manoeuvrability are admired both by its own crews and their German and Italian foes. 

When the up-gunned Crusader III entered service just prior to the Second Battle of El Alamein, it was eagerly welcomed by the crews. The new tanks are shared out among the squadrons, giving each troop much-needed extra firepower.

British armoured regiments were delighted to receive the new American-made M3 Grant tank, which gave them a tank with a gun as good as those on the German panzers, with armour to match. Rushed into service to meet the urgent need for a heavy 75mm-armed tank it took the Germans by surprise. Its thick armour and powerful 75mm gun are superior to most of the German panzers. Its only real downside is its height, which makes it a conspicuous target in the desert. The placement of the 75mm gun makes it difficult to conceal the tank in a hull-down position behind terrain. At Alam el Halfa, with time to prepare a static defence, the British were able to partly overcome these difficulties by carefully choosing the placement of each Grant.

The Churchill had been rushed into production in the dark days after the evacuation from Dunkirk. The early versions were so mechanically unreliable that they were barely usable. The Tunisian campaign was supposed to be the Churchill's swan song, both its first and last battle. Instead, by doing everything asked of it and more, the Churchill proved that it had overcome its initial teething troubles and had matured into an outstanding tank.

Designed for a refight of the First World War, the tracks of the Churchill I ran along the top of the hull, and it had a 3-inch howitzer in the hull for tackling bunkers as well as a 2 pdr (40mm) anti-tank gun in the turret. The Churchill III that made up the bulk of the tanks in Tunisia was armed more conventionally with a 6 pdr (57mm) gun in the turret and a hull machinegun. Only a few of the original Churchill I tanks were retained as CS (Close Support) tanks in the company HQ for artillery support.

In the ongoing race between tank armour and anti-tank guns, even the 6 pdr would not be powerful enough for long. The answer was the huge 17-pounder. The barrel was ready by May 1942, but the carriage still needed work, so in an effort to rush the gun into service to deal with the arrival of heavy German panzers like the Tiger, a temporary hybrid solution was created by mounting the gun on a 25 pdr carriage. The resulting 17/25-pounder, codenamed the ‘Pheasant’, first saw action at the Battle of Medenine in March 1943.