A33 Excelsior - British Experimental Assault Tank

At the onset of the Battle of France, the British Army found that their fleets of Matildas and Valentines were in need of a heavier infantry tank to supplement them, one completely immune to the 3.7 cm and 5 cm anti-tank guns fielded by the Wehrmacht. As such, the A20 project - which had been initiated shortly before the start of the war - was redesigned and designated A22. This would become the A22 Infantry Tank Mark IV, also known as the Churchill. The Churchill was first used in large numbers at Dieppe to… not much success.

After the Dieppe Raid disaster, the British Army was concerned as to the effectiveness of the new Churchill design and it was suggested that Churchill production cease entirely by 1943 and be replaced by a new infantry tank; the concept of a ‘Universal Tank’ - which would eventually become the Centurion - was under early development, but an interim infantry tank would still be needed. Given the Cromwell tank was already in the final stages of design, Rolls-Royce proposed essentially an infantry-Cromwell under the ‘Cromwell Rationalization Program’. This proposition went through multiple phases of design - an up-armored Cromwell designated A27M, a version with Churchill-equivalent armor dubbed A31, a version with new suspension named A32 - before finally landing on the final design A33, produced by English Electric.

The final A33 prototype was based on the hull and turret of an A27 Cromwell. The suspension was an improved version of the Christie design, and the tracks were widened versions of the tracks used on the original Cromwell. It retained most features of the original Cromwell - a QF 7.5 cm gun, a Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 engine - but with much increased armor, the thickest being 114 millimeters. It had a modest top speed of 24 miles per hour, lowered to only 12 off-road - enough to garner a change in designation, being designated Assault Tank A33, as this was a considerable increase over existing infantry tanks. It had a full combat weight of forty tons.

A note: the name Excelsior is not seen in any official Army documentation, though it may have been an internal name within English Electric. There was a brief time in 1943 when A33 suddenly was referred to as the ‘Commodore,’ but this name was dropped soon after. I’m using the name Excelsior as it is the most commonly used.

Sadly for the A33, the Churchill’s many issues were gradually ironed out and it proved its worth in North Africa. The A33 was deemed unnecessary and the project was canceled; there were two propositions to upgrade it, the A34 which would have mounted a 77 mm gun and the A37 which would have been lengthened by one wheel and would mount a 17 pounder, but neither of these went forward. The single surviving A33 prototype is in the Conservation Centre at the Bovington Tank Museum.

Simple enough file. Take care with the spotlight on the turret, as well as the radio antenna mounts. Print at 0.1mm in FDM - resin would probably come out better, but I don’t have a resin printer. Use supports.