I've had a Churchill Tank Troop box sitting on the shelf since March last year, ostensibly for some Normandy Tank War fun, however I've dragged out my 8th Army chaps for their first game and thought they could do with a Churchill for some (Heavy) moral support.
When I started looking into the history of the Churchill in North Africa, I remembered the story of Kingforce, 6 Churchill Mk IIIs that took part in the 2nd Battle of El Alamein wearing a rather snazzy two tone camo look.
Following their good showing at El Alamein, more Churchills took part in battles in Tunisia and performed very well under the circumstances - much more so then they had on the beaches of Dieppe.
The Warlord/Italeri Churchills are very simple to put together, and look excellent. The body/tracks are consistent across the marks, and it comes with two turrets and a selection of guns. A slight bit of drilling is required to make a Mk III, and I'll add a couple of little bits on to reference the Desert nature.
Pictures of Kingforce are hard to come across -there is this one that pops up -
And these two
There is some debate about the actual colours used on the Kingforce tanks., whether it was black over stone grey, or dark chocolate over light brown.
This photograph has been coloured but might well be more representative of an accurate colour scheme.
At El Alamein, Churchill crews suffered due to the large fan positioned beneath the drivers compartment sucking in dust and sand, so some Kingforce tanks have a front skirt of rubber to try and alleviate this problem. A more permanent solution was found when the Churchills fought in Tunisia.
Embed from Getty Images
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