Excelsior

Excelsior

Excelsior

Britain

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.0	4.0	4.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Heavy tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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Description

The Tank, Heavy Assault, A33 (Excelsior) was developed after early combat experience with Churchill infantry tanks. These tanks had very poor reliability and were also very slow for the modern battlefield. Thus, while the prototype A27 Cromwell was being developed, it was decided to use the A27 as a basis for a new universal tank meant to replace the cruiser and infantry tanks and combine them into a single vehicle. In 1942, the project was approved and the A33 Excelsior was born. However, the issues with the Churchill were fixed by 1943 and cruiser tanks were replaced by American M4 Shermans, thus the Excelsior was no longer needed and the project was cancelled.

It was introduced in Update 1.67 "Assault" as a reward for the 2017 "War Thunder Chronicles" event. The Excelsior is a weird tank, since it combines reliable armour, with good mobility and decent firepower for its BR. The gun is a 75 mm OQF Mk.V with good penetration values, although it lacks access to APHE shells like most British tanks of WWII, the gun handling is also great at -12 degrees of depression. The tank is also fairly survivable, especially if it is angled, and also has access to smoke launchers to easily retreat or change position. However the reverse speed is very poor and it should be taken into consideration, while the armour is decent, the Excelsior is a very large target and will easily be spotted from far away.

General info

Survivability and armour

Smoke grenades

Creation of a smoke screen in front of the vehicle

Armourfront / side / back

Hull114 / 76 / 76

Turret114 / 89 / 76

Crew5 people

Visibility85 %

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	114 mm (1°) Front plate 55 mm (74°) Front glacis 114 mm (18°), 55 mm (65°) Lower glacis	39 + 25.4 mm	32 mm (1°) Top 20 mm (18-62°) Bottom	20 mm
Turret	114 mm (1°) Turret front 63.5 mm (1-41°) Gun mantlet	63.5 mm	63.5 mm (1°)	20 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels and bogies are 20 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB42 / 3 km/h

RB and SB39 / 3 km/h

Number of gears5 forward

1 back

Weight40.0 t

Engine power

AB1 198 hp

RB and SB628 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB30.0 hp/t

RB and SB15.7 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	42	3	40	811	1,198	20.28	29.95
Realistic	39	3		555	628	13.88	15.7

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB1 070

RB1 127

SB1 421

Crew training10 000

Experts165 000

Aces470

Research Aces710 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 90 / 130 / 150 %

2 × 148 / 148 / 148 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Adjustment of Fire 75mm_britain_APCBC_ammo_pack Elevation Mechanism 75mm_us_M89_Smoke_ammo_pack Smoke grenade

Armaments

Main armament

75 mm OQF Mk.V cannon

Ammunition80 rounds

First-order28 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

6.5 → 5.0 s

Vertical guidance-12° / 20°

75 mm OQF Mk.V					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	80	-12°/+20°	±180°	N/A	19.4	26.9	32.6	36.1	38.4	6.50	5.75	5.30	5.00
Realistic					14.3	16.8	20.4	22.6	24.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M72 shot	AP	91	88	78	67	57	49
M61 shot	APCBC	103	100	89	77	66	57
M48 shell	HE	10	10	10	10	10	10

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M72 shot	AP	619	6.3	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°
M61 shot	APCBC	618	6.53	-	-	-	48°	63°	71°
M48 shell	HE	463	6.3	0	0.1	666	79°	80°	81°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
M89	259	3	13	5	20	50

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Excelsior

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty
80	55 (+25)	50 (+30)	48 (+32)	46 (+34)
5th rack empty	6th rack empty	7th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
29 (+51)	12 (+68)	1 (+79)	No

Notes:

• Racks 6 and 7 are first stage ammo racks.

Optics

A.33 Optics placement in Simulator Mode.

When in simulator mode the gun will fire slightly low and to the left of the aimed position due to the sight being offset, this should be kept in mind and accounted for when engaging targets.

Excelsior Optics
Which ones	Default magnification	Maximum magnification
Main Gun optics	x1.85	x3.5
Comparable optics	Churchill Mk I

Machine guns

2 x 7.92 mm BESA machine gun (coaxial)

Ammunition5 400 rounds

Belt capacity225 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate600 shots/min

7.92 mm BESA
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	2,700 (225)	600	N/A	N/A
Hull	2,700 (225)	600	±10°	±10°

Usage in battles

The A33 Excelsior is a fast moving highly manoeuvrable, well armoured heavy tank offering great speed of up to 40 km/h. It excels at flanking and catching the enemy of guard. To get the best from this tank in battle, use it speed and manoeuvrability to your advantage. Since the Excelsior is a heavy tank it armour offers up to 114 mm of protection and if angled it can further increase it to offer over 210 mm. Allowing the tank to become immune to virtually all enemy rounds. However, the thickest parts of the armour plate is on the front of the tank and front of the turret, so it is important to keep the front pointed towards the enemy in combat.

Combined with the 75 mm cannon, which has a reload of up to five seconds, it is able to cause mayhem on the battlefield. load M61 Shot round and fire away, always aim for the sides and rear of the enemy tanks, this is the weakest parts, when at range. However, when fighting tiger tanks get as close as you can, approach from the rear and shoot the rear of the turret, it will knock the tigers turret out allowing you to head to its side and knock it out with some precision shots.

The A33 Excelsior, does not have any turret mounted machine guns, its roof armour is only 25 mm thick allowing enemy aircraft to cause havoc. To evade the aircraft use smoke and head towards any additional smoke rounds which you may fire, this will prevent the aircraft from following you and allowing you to evade them.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Decent front armour thickness
• Quite fast
• Hull machine gun works
• -12 degrees of gun depression
• Access to smoke

Cons:

• Front armour is not sloped
• Large ammo rack in turret ring makes for easy detonation
• Very slow reverse
• Shells have no HE filler
• Weak side armour

History

Prompt

The early combat experience of the Churchill infantry tank raised concerns on its reliability and speed, with a suggestion that production be halted while development focus on an "universal tank" for the British armoured forces to replace the cruiser and infantry tanks. However, until such a design could be formulated, they still needed a tank for the assault role the infantry tanks would take.

Rolls-Royce Company, the company producing the prototype A27 Cromwells, suggested that the Tank Board use the A27 as an interim design with stronger armour, suspension, and armament. The suggestion was supported with the English Electric Company, whom plan to upgrade the A27 with thicker armour and elements from the American M6 heavy tank.

Development and Cancellation

On 07 May 1942, Tank Board approved for the production of these uparmoured A27 under the designation A33, though it would also have the name Excelsior. English Electric Company were in charge of producing the uparmoured A27 models and produced two prototypes. The first had the M6 suspension system and a 6-pdr cannon. The second had a wider track, different armoured skirts, additional frontal armour, and a 75 mm gun. Both used the same V12 Meteor engine as the A27.

Reliability issues with the Churchill were soon ironed out by 1943, to the point it became a very successful infantry support vehicle and multiple variations were made based off the chassis. The A33 Excelsior, meant to replace the Churchill, was no longer needed and the project was dropped in 1943.

Today, the second prototype can be seen at the Bovington Tank Museum.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Excelsior from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #302 - Pages of History section at 03:54 discusses the Excelsior.

See also

Other vehicles of similar configuration and role

• Churchill VII
• Churchill III / Pz.Kpfw. Churchill (Germany)

External links

• [Devblog] WW2 Chronicles vehicles: A33 Excelsior (GB)

References

The English Electric Company Limited
Jet Fighters	Lightning F.6 · Lightning F.53
Jet Bombers	Canberra B Mk 2 · Canberra B (I) Mk 6
Tanks	Excelsior
	The English Electric Company allowed the Glenn L. Martin Company to license-build Canberra bombers for the United States Air Force.