One of the most distinctive tanks of the Second World War, the British Churchill heavy infantry tank may have looked a little ungainly, but was actually an extremely capable fighting vehicle and one of the heaviest Allied tanks to see combat. Possessing exceptional hill climbing capabilities, the relatively slow, yet extremely reliable Churchill had frontal armour protection which was thicker that that used on the feared German Tiger and despite first entering service in 1941, large numbers of these tanks would be deployed following the D-Day landings. Several special purpose variants of the Churchill were also produced, which included flamethrower, bridge layer and bunker buster tanks.