Comet (tank)

Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34)
Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34)
	Comet tank in a museum
Type	Cruiser tank
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	December 1944 - 1958 (UK)
Used by	British Army
Wars	World War II ; Korean War
Production history
Designed	1943
Manufacturer	Leyland Motors Ltd
Produced	September 1944
No. built	1,186
Specifications
Mass	33 long tons (33 tonnes)
Length	21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Width	10 ft 1 in (3.04 m)
Height	8 ft 6 in (2.67 m)
Crew	5 (Commander, gunner, loader, driver, co-driver)
Armour	4 in (102 mm)
Main; armament	77 mm HV ; 61 rounds
Secondary; armament	2 x 7.92 mm Besa MG
Engine	Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 petrol; 600 hp (447 kW)
Power/weight	17 hp/ton (18 hp/tonne)
Suspension	Christie
Ground clearance	18 in (0.5 m)
Fuel capacity	about 120 Imperial gallons
Operational; range	250 km
Maximum speed	32 mph (50 km/h)

The Tank, Cruiser, Comet I (A34) was a British tank that first saw use near the end of World War II.

Design and development

Combat experience against the Germans in the Western Desert Campaign demonstrated to the British many shortcomings with their current Cruiser tanks. Hence, a request was made in 1941 to the Nuffield Organisation and Leyland Motors Ltd for a new heavy cruiser tank that could achieve combat superiority over German models. Additionally, for reasons of economy and efficiency, it had to use as many components as possible from the current model, the A15 Cruiser tank Mk VI Crusader tank.

The initial designs submitted were the A24 Cruiser Tank Mk VII Cavalier tank from Nuffield powered by a Nuffield-Liberty L-12 engine and the A27L Cruiser tank Mk VII Centaur tank from Leyland which was also powered by the Liberty L-12 but would be able to use the more powerful Rolls-Royce Meteor when it became available.

The Cruiser tank Mk VII A27M Cromwell was the follow up to the Cavalier/Centaur. The Cromwell's Meteor engine proved to be very reliable and gave the Cromwell good mobility but some problems did appear. The tank was prone to throwing its tracks if track tension was not maintained properly or if it turned at too high a speed or too sharply. There were also some problems with suspension breakage, partly due to the Cromwell's high speed.

After extensive combat in Normandy in June 1944 it was obvious the British needed a main gun that could fire a more effective armour-piercing round to deal with the up-armoured German Panzer IV tanks and the Panther and Tiger tanks.

The original plan called for issuing one Sherman Firefly, a Sherman tank fitted with the 17 pounder gun, to each Cromwell troop (giving three Cromwells and one Sherman Firefly) but this proved difficult due to the different maintenance requirements and associated logistics problems of supplying two different tank models. A 17-pdr equipped Cromwell was seen as the answer. A interim solution was found by the introduction of the 17-pounder equipped A30 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger tank.

With the A34 Comet the tank designers opted to correct several Cromwell flaws; the track shedding and broken suspension problems, and enhance the Cromwell's main strengths, low height and high speed. The designers used a new gun, the "77mm HV". This gun used the same calibre (76.2 mm) projectile as the 17 pdr, but the shell casing was from the older QF 3 inch 20 cwt gun (loaded to higher pressures), and therefore was non-interchangeable with the 17 pdr ammunition. It had a lower muzzle velocity than the 17-pounder, but the ammunition was much more compact and more easily stored and handled within the confines of a tank. Several other upgrades were added as well: armour protection was increased, both the hull and turret were of welded construction with a cast gun mantlet, ammunition was now stored in armoured bins, the suspension was strengthened, return rollers were added, and the turret was electrically traversed (a design feature taken from the earlier Churchill tank), with a generator powered by the main engine.

The Comet tank's top speed was governed down from the Cromwell's 40+ mph to a slightly slower but still respectable 32 mph to preserve suspension and engine components and to reduce track wear

The first prototype was ready in February 1944 and production models began to be delivered by September 1944. By the end of the war, 1,200 units had been produced.

The British 11th Armoured Division was the first to receive the new tanks in December of 1944 and the only division to be completely refitted by the end of the war. Because of its late arrival, the Comet did not participate in any major battles though it was involved in the crossing of the Rhine and the later Berlin Victory Parade in July 1945. The Comet's maximum speed of 32 miles per hour was greatly exploited on the German Autobahns.

During the following Korean War, the Comet served along with the heavier Centurion, a successor tank introduced in the closing days of WWII on an experimental basis, but too late to see combat. The Centurion was formally adopted in 1949 and was partly based on the Comet's design. The Comet remained in British service until 1958 when the remaining tanks were sold to foreign governments; up until the 1980s, it could be found in the armies of various nations such as South Africa.

41 Comet Mk I Model Bs were also used by Finnish Defence Forces armoured brigade until 1970. The tanks were stored until 2007 when four of them were auctioned out.

8 Comets were delivered to the Irish Army, beginning in 1959. Severe budget cutbacks were to severely harm the service lives of the Comets, as not enough spares were purchased. The Comet appealed to the Irish Army as it was cheap to buy and run, had low ground pressure, and good anti-tank capability. In retrospect it was an excellent buy, and would have stood the Army in good stead had vital spares been supplied initially.^{[citation needed]} However, faulty fuses meant the withdrawal of the HE ammunition, limiting the tanks role to an anti-tank vehicle. With stocks of 77mm ammunition dwindling in 1969, the Army began an experiment to prolong the life of the vehicle. It involved replacing the turret with an open mounting with a 90mm Bofors PV 1110 recoiless rifle. Lack of funds saw a cancellation of the project. The last 77mm Comet shoot occurred in 1973 and the tanks were withdrawn soon afterwards. One is preserved in the Curragh Camp, and two more survive in other Barracks.