A new developer diary dropped late last night and with it we have an update on the Churchill Mark IV tank coming to Tank Crew. There’s also a quick note about Normandy. Let’s go!
All about the Churchill Mark IV
The Churchill Mark IV, a British tank, sent to the Soviet Union during World War II was the only Allied heavy tank to be sent. The tank is technically an infantry tank in British terminology and was intended to be a supporting asset equipped with heavy armor and gun.
This week’s update gives us new screenshots and some new details about the tank. There are new features included with the tank including a 2-inch mortar launcher, and two pyrotechnic smoke dischargers are also mentioned. The mortar is shown in operation while its unclear if the smoke system will be available for use – it may very well be a test case to add such a feature to Tank Crew.
We’ve also learned that the Churchill Mark IV that we’re getting will be specifically armed with the Mark V QF-6 with a slightly longer barrel. According to the devs, this cannon has high armor penetration but no high explosive fragmentation rounds.
The Churchill also has exterior marker lights, a type of formation light, and even a UV spotlight. Reportedly, the complexities of this tank including its relatively unique armor style required a lot of detail work by Digital Forms and by the 1CGS team. Should be an interesting tank to interact with!
There’s a ton of screenshots too which show the details both inside and out. Here are the exterior images:
And now feast your eyes on these interior shots.
There are even more images on the dev diary itself.
Normandy testing continues
A small Normandy update snuck its way into this dev diary. Han, from 1CGS, reports that they are release candidate testing. That usually means that the final update is not too far away. It could be a week or maybe a few weeks but the indication is clear – Normandy is almost here.
That is great news.
Stormbirds 
Infantry Tank with no HE rounds? Interesting.
LikeLike
Yeah I thought that interesting too. I don’t know enough about tanks and their history to be able to speak well on this. I assume that the gun itself had HE rounds but perhaps the British did not supply them?
LikeLike
The British 6-pdr Churchills definitely had HE, although from what I’ve read it was a bit rubbish. Maybe they’re reckoning it was never supplied to the USSR?
LikeLiked by 1 person
why would you need need HE rounds anyway in a game that there’s no infantry?? Its only tank battle and plane in il-2 🙂
LikeLike
Well for one, we’re starting to see some infantry. See recent dev diary updates to see an early example.
The other perhaps more practice aspect is that lighter targets often go down better from HE rounds in some circumstances. For example I’ve hit a light truck with an AP round which I assume blasted it’s way through without doing very much at all. Truck continued on. Switched to HE round which exploded on contact destroying the truck. They have their moments.
LikeLike
I think the British theory was that the gun was for anti-tank use, if you want to kill infantry then the co-axil machine gun was the weapon of choice. I think they did the same thing with early war tank with the 2 pdr gun. No HE. It’s one of the reasons the Sherman was so popular in UK service since it had a more general purpose gun and HE.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s great info Mike. Thanks for sharing it!
LikeLike
Before D-day, most of the Churchills had the gun bored out to fire 75mm for this reason. I have a hazy recollection that 1 tank in each troop retained the 6lber, because it had better armour penetration than the 75mm. Also the mark IVs mostly had armour added to hull front and sides, the marl III (with welded turret) had armour added to turret also. There were also support versions of the Churchill with a short barrelled 95mm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish I could get excited about the impending release. I would definitely like to buy Battle of Normandy but I’m not sure if I can in good conscience give money to Russian developers while their tax money probably gets used to fund the invasion of Ukraine. As someone who also lives in a country bordering Russia that has a similar history of facing Russian imperialism, it all hits close to home.
LikeLike
The war has made that aspect more complicated. Everyone will have to make purchasing decisions on their own.
LikeLike
That is a good question…
It’s not the topic here but I am too curious about the situation. And I ask myself still can support this Company. Sorry Shamrock, I use this opportunity to talk about here….
It’s a Russian developer but the company adress moved to Cyprus.(Maybe just briefcase)
With Jason they have important employee in the USA.
Not long time ago they changed the masterserver, maybe out of Russia?
The slow progress of Normandy and FC2 maybe because the studio moves to elsewhere?
I really hope it’s going this way… Because I really love the Great Battle Series but I can’t be responsible for my money going to the wrong government in the form of taxes!!
If this prevents the company headquarters from being in Cyprus, that would be sufficient for me.
LikeLike