Ordnance QF 95mm tank howitzer for infantry support dated 1943

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Super condition example of a very rare case. 

The Ordnance QF 95-mm tank howitzer was designed to be fitted to some later British tanks so they could lay smoke screens or fire HE or HEAT/Hollow Charge shell against concrete targets like pillboxes in the "close support" of infantry. A HESH round may have been issued after World War II. The 95 mm howitzer used fixed ammunition with a 25 lb (11 kg) projectile, rather than separate charge and round common for artillery howitzers. The tank howitzer was used to arm the Churchill Mark V and VIII, the Cromwell VI & VIII and the Centaur IV tanks.

The howitzer was built up from a section of a QF 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun barrel, the breech mechanism of the Ordnance QF 25 pounder field gun/howitzer and the recoil mechanism of the Ordnance QF 6 pounder anti-tank gun. The ammunition came from the QF 3.7-inch mountain howitzer; for tank use the rounds had to be modified so they were 'fixed' rather than separate projectile and propellant. The tank howitzer version was also fitted with a large counterweight at the end of the barrel to help balance the gun. In most regiments, the 95 mm-armed tanks were issued to regimental or squadron HQ troops at the rate of two vehicles per HQ. The only variant of the Centaur tank (a Cromwell tank with a less powerful engine) to see action was the 95 mm-armed Mark IV. For the Normandy landings, the Royal Marine Armoured Support Group was formed with an establishment of eighty Mark IVs.