Cromwell IV: experience and morale level

[sample]

In battle of Normandy, the British Army deployed 3 armoured divisions, 11th Armoured, the Guards Armoured and 7th Armoured Division
[i didn't count the 1st Polish Armoured Division, Canadian Armoured Divions and the 79th Armoured]; all the previous mentioned units deployed 3 armoured
regiments/battalions in one or two Armoured brigades, one motorised infantry brigade and also an Independent Armoured Regiment serving as Recce unit;
For 11th Armoured and the Guards Armoured the main battle tanks were Shermans in all it's variants; but here comes the problem [in my opinion]:
All Independent Armoured Regiments were equiped with Cromwells and also all these units were formely cavalery regiments
with a long tradition in British military history and a high level of 'esprit de corps'; also the
7th Armoured Division was entirely equiped with Cromwell and we couldn't say that the crews only 'see action';

So [of course, i could do by myself] but i think the level of morale and experience for the crews of Cromwell IV tank could be recence.

best regards

[VA44]

You're quite correct that the Recce groups in British armoured divisions used Cromwells. While their lineage are of the Cavalry, this doesn't necessarily translate into having very good tank crews. For example, the Guards armoured division was a converted infantry division IIRC. I'm not quite sure, but I think thier armoured components didn't saw action in the desert, and as such the cromwell tank crew's current experience level is good as is IMHO. The same could be said for the 11th armoured.

On the other hand, the 7th armoured division saw major action in the desert...however, their historical performance on the Normandy battlefield weren't exactly satisfactory if I'm correct. Montgomery even sacked Erskine because of this. The 7th's performance is quite odd in my opinion, considering that the 21st Pz was also a desert veteran. Though then again, the Normandy battlefield is very different from the desert...

[Nembo]

And you cant really call the 21st pz divison desert experienced, though it bore the same name and had a small core of men who were desert veterans it was fore the most part a completely new division.

Of course that has little to do with Cromwell crews does it.

[RedScorpion]

didnt the cromwell also have a 6pdr along with its 75mm?

[Atilla]

The unsatisfactory performance of 7nd armored in Normandy is the reason we decided to lower their experience. A lot of the crews of this unit had the feeling of having done enough already, which made them reluctant to fight. Apart from that, their experience was in desert fighting, which is an altogether different thing compared to fighting in the bocage. They had to learn things all over again.

The Cromwell Mk I, II and III all had 6pdr guns. The 75mm gun was the standard weapon of the Cromwell Mk IV however.

[blackjack]

one thing about the 7th armored is that the cromwell was a new tank at the start of 1944 and the 7th armored only had six moths to get to grips with it, before being sent to normandy and then being the first unit to use it in combat. they were inadequatly trained on the type and were rushed into combat, because monty was beng pressured to make a brake out.