COBI A22 Churchill Mk. II CS Set 2709

COBI's A22 Churchill Mk. II CS is a 1:48 model built from 301 blocks, 14.5 cm long, with a movable gun, a rotating turret and working tracks. All markings are printed.

The guns are the other way round

CS stands for Close Support, and this version is the mirror image of the standard Churchill.

The Churchill I carried a 2-pounder anti-tank gun in the turret and a 3-inch howitzer in the hull front. The Mk. II CS swapped them: the howitzer went into the turret, and the 2-pounder into the hull.

That sounds like a detail and it changes what the tank is for. A howitzer fires high explosive at things that need blowing up — bunkers, buildings, gun positions — and a turret lets you point it anywhere. A hull-mounted gun can only shoot roughly where the tank is facing.

So the Churchill I was an anti-tank vehicle that could also lob a shell, and the Mk. II CS was an infantry-support vehicle that could also shoot at a tank if one appeared in front of it. A troop would field both, and the CS was the one the infantry actually wanted.

Very few were built. The whole argument was settled from the Churchill III onwards by a 6-pounder that fired both kinds of ammunition from the turret, which made the swap unnecessary.

In the COBI range

Set 3064 is the Churchill I with the original arrangement, at this scale — the two together show the swap. Set 2717 is the Mk. IV and 3046 the Mk. III at 1:35.

Specifications

Pieces: 301 · Scale: 1:48
Model dimensions: 14.5 × 6 × 8 cm (5.7 × 2.4 × 3.1 in)