British cruiser tank CROMWELL Mk. IV COBI 2269 - World War II

You know that:

• The history of the fastest tank of World War II began in a chicken coop. No, it's not a joke. It was by chasing chickens out of a chicken coop in Birmingham that Nuffield Mechanizations and Aero was founded in 1935, and it was out of sheer enthusiasm that the company first set about developing and manufacturing aircraft.
• Change came only in 1941 when the British General Staff had to accept the bitter truth about the obsolete tanks being produced in the UK's prisons and decided to develop a new machine. 
• The Nuffield designers were very capable and innovative, but catching up with German tank development was a difficult task. The proposed technical solutions became obsolete before they were approved, and so they started all over again.
• The development lasted until the end of 1943, when the decision was finally made to go into series production.
• And it wasn't a bad tank at all. It was slightly behind in armour and firepower, but it was agile, fast and, above all, easy to maintain.
• The real weakness, however, was the Roll-Royce petrol engine. Not perhaps because it suffered from low power or poor reliability, but simply because petrol engines easily caught fire either after a hit or when they failed.
• The Cromwell tanks were deployed during the Allied landings in Normandy, during Operation Market Garden, and the Czechoslovak Tank Brigade rode the tanks all the way to Pilsen on 9 May 1945.
• Production ceased in 1950 and the last units were scrapped by the British Army in late 1955.
• Several operational pieces are still in the collections of the Bovington Museum, the US Army Ordnance Corps or the Lešany Military Museum.
• Very interesting is the figure of Polish General Stanislaw Maczek whose figure is included in the package. S. Maczek was the commander of the Polish 1st Armored Division, which with incredible tenacity resisted the German superiority during the invasion of Poland. 

Technical parameters:

• dimensions length 6.4 m, width 2.91 m, height 2.5 m 
• weight 28 000 kg
• armour up to 76 mm
• power unit Rolls-Royce Meteor 12-cylinder petrol engine with 450 kW
• number of gears 5 forward + 1 reverse
• top speed 64 km/h (road) to 29 km/h off-road 
• range 275 km  
• wading distance 0.91 m
• main weapon Ordnance QF cannon 75 mm calibre (64 rounds)
• secondary weapon 2 x BESA MG machine gun 7,92 mm calibre (4 950 rounds)
• crew of 5