Tiger Vs Churchill: North-West Europe, 1944-45

This fully illustrated study assesses the origins, development, and combat record of the legendary Tiger and Churchill Tanks during World War II.

The Tiger and the Churchill are two of the most iconic heavily armored tanks to grace the battlefields of World War II. The first epic clash between them took place on April 21, 1943 in Tunisia, during which a Tiger was captured by the Western Allies for the first time. They also fought each other in Italy, on the Eastern Front (as part of Lend-Lease), and in North-West Europe 1944-45. The Tiger and Churchill were both were designed quickly (and suffered reliability problems), but they were technically very different and their repeated clashes had widely differing results. This fascinating and detailed work explores novel aspects of the design and operation of these well-known tanks. The roles that both vehicles played in combat, as part of a German Schwere Panzer-Abteilung and a British infantry tank battalion, and how the design features of each (armor thickness, outward visibility, rates of fire, and turret rotation speeds) influenced their head-to-head encounters, are covered in detail, with a particular focus on the fierce tank battles of the Normandy breakout in June and July 1944.