The Mk IV Churchill was a British heavy infantry tank that was produced from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. The tank was named for Prime Minister Winston Churchill who, as First Lord of the Admiralty and the founder of the Landships Committee, had pushed for the development of new tanks during World War I. The tank was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war, and it was used by British and Commonwealth forces in North Africa, Italy, and north-west Europe during the war; a few hundred were supplied to the Soviet Union. 7,368 Churchills were built during the war.