I have a question for the Churchill folks regarding the fenders and track covers. Is there a reason that the various parts will be missing and it looks not to "accidents", but planned removal of parts? It seems all of the AVREs had the front fenders removed and some vehicles have the entire section covering the tracks removed.

Was this vehicle specific or unit based?

Possibly to do with track changes.

I have read that some parts were removed because it was found that even slightly bent fenders could jam the turret from turning... So better safe than sorry and remove them before it could happen in combat.

Rick

Jim,
A couple of years ago, I built Tamiya's Crocodile with a scratch-built full interior, Fruil tracks, and a load of details. My intent was to display it in a diorama with US troops during the capture of he Cherbourg peninsula, since the US was dependent on the British for flame thrower support. I removed the top run of fender after doing some research. There is a great book by Ampersand which covers the Churchill "Funnies". In the book they mention the front fenders were removed when damaged to allow dirt to pass out the front over the track. More intriguing was the removal of the top run of fenders beside the turret. This was done because the fenders around the turret had very little clearance between the track and the bottom of the fender, and the turret would need to pass over this area. Since the track "slid" on top of runners around the hull, the fenders could bend upwards and jam the turret. Hope this is helpful.
VR, Russ

Rick's very right about this. This modification also appears to be more common with some units than others, and just from looking at photos, it would appear more common in Italy than later in NWE.

The hinged front fender parts also seem to be commonly removed from many Churchills that appear to have had longer service. This might be because it would have been faster and easier to adjust the track tension without these fender parts in the way (or perhaps they just got too damaged to be serviceable after extensive use).

Thanks for the input. I guess I will build one Churchill in factory fresh condition and the rest in various conditions, some fenders missing and atleast one without any at all.

I am looking at the AVRE with Snake for my stash. How far away was the Snake assemble before pushing it into the mine field? How did they "steer" it? pushing a long pipe from behind is not very accurate, once it hit a slope or an obstacle it will change direction. Or was this it serious shortcoming?

What happened to the ARK crews? were they used to replace lost crew members in the other combat Churchills? How many were in the crew?

artillery or near AT misses could also rip off fenders?

Well, Arty, more than AT, but Jim was specifically asking about fenders that appeared to have been purposefully removed as oppoed to removed by shellfire.