The Cromwell tank was used by the British Army during the later stages of World War II. The Cromwell was ordered in 1941 and intended to replace the lightweight Crusader "cruiser" tank by being more heavily armoured, and, it was hoped, more survivable in battle. Its greater weight was to be driven by a 600-horsepower Rolls Royce Meteor engine, a derivative of Rolls Royce's line of aircraft engines. Initial models, however, were powered by other engines and were designated Cavaliers and Centaurs when they entered service in mid-1942. The first genuine Cromwells with Meteor engines entered service in early 1943.

The Cromwell tank weighed about 27 tons and had a top speed of 38 miles per hour and a range of between 80 and 170 miles, depending on the terrain. It was initially armed with a 75mm gun and two 7.92mm machine guns. The Cromwell's main assets were its speed, maneuverability, and ease of repair. It first entered battle in large numbers in mid-1944, during the Normandy Invasion and the ensuing campaign across northern France. From Normandy on, Cromwells and American Sherman tanks formed the backbone of British armored divisions. Like the Shermans, however, most Cromwells were outgunned by the more powerful German Panther and Tiger tanks. Cromwell tanks served in British armies until the war ended in Europe in mid-1945.

Shown here is a 1:72 scale replica of a British Cruiser Tank, A27M Cromwell Mk. VI tank w/ 95mm howitzer that was attached to the 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, then advancing through Holland during January 1945. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 3-1/2-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches

Release Date: October 2009

Historical Account: "The Desert Rats" - According to Field Marshal Lord Carver, himself a former Desert Rat, the 7th Armored Division's name and emblem were inspired by a pet jerboa kept by a regimental signaller. Seeing the beast, the division's then commander, Major-General "Hobo" Hobart, is said to have remarked, "This little animal should become our emblem. We must learn to live as he does, the hard way, in the desert."

And, having trained its men to fight and win battles in the vast Western Desert, the division played a crucial, and decisive, role in the North African campaign. Three times - in 1940, '41 and '42 - German and Italian forces attempted to take control of the North African coast. Three times they were driven back, by the UK's Eighth Army, the heaviest fighting taking place near Tobruk in Libya.

The German commander, Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel - the charismatic and respected 'Desert Fox' - promised his men that, if they took Tobruk, he would build a monument to commemorate the victory. If they lost, though, the Afrika Korps would bury its dead there. The German cemeteries still to be seen on the Libyan coastline bear mute testament to Rommel's failure and the Desert Rats' hard-won success.

But it was victory at El Alamein in October 1942 - which came after one of the biggest artillery barrages of the war - that sealed Rommel's fate in North Africa and brought the Desert Rats, the Eighth Army and its commander, General Bernard Montgomery, eternal fame.

Not surprisingly, the Desert Rats' war did not end there. They fought in some of the war's bloodiest battles; at Salerno, in Normandy. and crossing the Rhine into Germany. And they ended the war by marching in the victory parade at the very heart of the Third Reich, Berlin itself.