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A20 was a British tank design by Harland and Wolff to meet an Army requirement for an
infantry tank The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily vehicle armo ...
that could replace the
Matilda II The Infantry Tank Mark II, best known as the Matilda, was a British infantry tank of the Second World War.Jentz, p. 11. The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the machin ...
and Valentine tank. It was designed in the expectation that conditions would be similar to those of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The specification was produced by Superintendent of Tank Design at
Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
with design by the Mechanization Board and passed to Harland and Wolff for detail work and to build a pilot. Four pilots were ordered in February 1940. Two - A20E1 and A20E2 - were built. The first pilot took part in trials in June 1940.Chamberlain & Ellis p66 It was shipped from
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
to
Vauxhall Motors Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...
(without a turret) in August; thereafter to
Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...
at
Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...
. The
Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
indicated that
trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...
was not going to be the case in the Second World War. A new specification, A22, was drawn up and Vauxhall who had been engaged to find a suitable power plant - their Bedford "twin six" engine - for the A20 were instructed to bring a tank based on the A20 into production as soon as possible. This would enter service as "Tank, Infantry, Mark IV" later named
Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
. The first pilot Churchill was finished by November 1940. The decision to cancel the order for 100 A20 was made in June 1940 and that the four pilot models - constructed of mild steel - would be used for component testing. After the MWEE, the A20E1 moved to the Experimental Bridging Establishment,
Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
then back to Farnborough, this time to the Wheeled Vehicle Experimental Establishment. There it was used as trial load to test a twenty-wheel 70-ton capacity tank transporter trailer built by Cranes of
Dereham Dereham (), also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District of the England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about 15 miles (25 km) west of the city ...
.


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* * * Infantry tanks World War II tanks of the United Kingdom Heavy tanks of the United Kingdom Abandoned military projects of the United Kingdom Trial and research tanks of the United Kingdom {{World-War-II-stub