The Crusader proved to have many flaws, mostly relating to its poor reliability. The R975 radial engine used in the M3 was not locally available, so three V8 petrol engines were consolidated into one unit to provide propulsive power to the AC Sentinel. Read More Ram – Canada’s Only Homemade WWII Tank The AC1 had a lower hull design derived from the M3 Grant, small numbers of which were starting to equip the Australian Army.Īs excess production of rolled armour was not available for this project, the solution was to cast the hull and turret as single pieces, and temper these components in specially designed furnaces. This penultimate design of an Australian tank had an interesting genesis, and it is necessary to examine the earlier models from which the AC4 was descended from, as the previous marks contributed to the final design of the Woomera. This became the base for a number of improved and up-gunned versions of the AC1 which culminated in the Australian Cruiser Tank Mk IV, or ‘Woomera’. Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial. This sad state of affairs came about because of lingering effects of the Great Depression, and national rearmament programs that only commenced in the 1930s when it was recognised that war was inevitable.Īustralia in particular found itself vulnerable, especially after December 1941 with the majority of the army campaigning in the Middle East, the greater part of the Royal Australian Navy on operations in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, and the Royal Australian Air Force critically short of modern combat aircraft.Ī Demonstration of an Australian Cruiser Tank in 1943. The commencement of the Second World War saw all the Allied nations almost universally unprepared for the conflict. This vehicle, and its subsequent derivatives, were developed by a country with almost no experience in designing or building tanks.ĭespite this, they managed to produce a vehicle that in many ways could rival the staple Allied tank of the war, the Sherman.Įarly versions were rather under-gunned, but one variant, the AC4, was fitted with the mighty 17-pounder gun.
Australia’s role during the Second World War was not one of tank development, but they still produced interesting tank, the AC Sentinel.
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