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Churchill Mk I deep wading gear


gamevender

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In all the photos I can find, the Churchill Mk I's have only the two side intake trunks and the extended exhaust stacks. The photos of the Mk III's have three trunks, the two on the side and one at the back. However, I have found two after market parts companies that offer a Mk I wading fit that includes that third read trunk. My question is did the Mk I's use this third trunk or not?

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Well the Mks I and II certainly had the rear hull vent where the 3rd trunk later was.

 

Unless I'm much mistaken, the only time that Churchill I or II were fitted with wading gear was at Dieppe.  Some early Marks survived well into the Italian campaign, particularly a Mk I/II hybrid variant with 2 3" CS howitzers, in hull and turret.  But I don't believe they took part in any of the Italian amphibious landings.

 

The few Dieppe photos showing the wading gear still fitted suggests that the tanks there - including the few Mk IIIs - did not carry the rear trunk.  But I wouldn't call it conclusive.  Perhaps it was felt at the time that the pressure of the expelled exhaust cooling air through that vent was sufficient to keep the water out without a trunk, or that it just didn't matter for the short distance they were expected to wade.  Obviously you don't want to risk ingesting water into the engine and cooling air intakes or the engine exhaust.  I'm fairly certain that the rear vent exhausted both up and down.  This is about the best photo of the rear of a wading-equipped Mk I or II, which seems to confirm that.  It looks as if the lower vent had been covered over to prevent water ingress, with the covering now hanging off.  But around the rear vent is the flange we associate with wading trunking.  But was that standard on the Mk I?  The lower photo suggests not.

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Film of pre-Dieppe training shows Churchill Is without any wading gear at all, but landing feet/tracks dry directly onto the beach.  Was the wading gear essentially a hurried afterthought when someone stumbled on the Dieppe beach topography and tides?  Although photos do show landing craft right up to the beach.  Equally they show KO'd tanks in the surf but the tide may have changed by the time those were taken.

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