The Infantry Tank Mark II, best known as the Matilda, was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
infantry tank
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily vehicle armo ...
of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.Jentz, p. 11.
The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the
machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
armed, two-man A11 Infantry Tank Mark I. The Mark I was also known as Matilda, and the larger A12 was initially known as the Matilda II or Matilda senior. The Mark I was abandoned in 1940, and from then on the A12 was almost always known simply as "the Matilda".
With its heavy armour, the Matilda II was an excellent infantry support tank but with somewhat limited speed and armament. It was the only British tank to serve from the start of the war to its end, although it is particularly associated with the North Africa Campaign. Only two were available for service by the outbreak of the World War II in 1939. It was replaced in front-line service by the lighter and less costly Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine beginning in late 1941.
Development history
The split between the infantry tank and cruisers had its origins in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Medium Mark B
The Medium Mark B was a British tank of the First World War developed as a successor to the Whippet, but ultimately unsatisfactory and production was cancelled at the end of the war.
History
The engineer Lieutenant Walter Wilson and the indust ...
and
Medium Mark C
The Medium Mark C Hornet was a British tank developed during the First World War, but produced too late to see any fighting.
Development
In 1917 Sir William Tritton had developed the Medium Mark A Whippet without involving his former co-worker Wa ...
. During the
interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
, British tank experiments generally followed these basic classifications, which were made part of the overall doctrine with the work of Major-General
Percy Hobart
Major General Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, (14 June 1885 – 19 February 1957), also known as "Hobo", was a British military engineer noted for his command of the 79th Armoured Division during the Second World War. He was responsible for ...
and the influence of Captain B.H. Liddell Hart.
In 1934, Hobart, the then "Inspector, Royal Tank Corps", postulated in a paper two alternatives for a tank to support the infantry. One was a very small, heavily armoured, machine gun-armed model that would be fielded in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy defences. The other was a larger vehicle with a cannon as well as machine guns and heavier armour proof against enemy
field artillery
Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement.
Until the early 20t ...
.Chamberlain & Ellis p54 Vickers designed a tank to a General Staff specification based on the first option as the A11 Matilda. Within the limitations of military finances, the
Master-General of the Ordnance
The Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855–1895 and 1939–1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general. The Master-General of the Ordnance was ...
,
Hugh Elles
Lieutenant General Sir Hugh Jamieson Elles (27 May 1880 – 11 July 1945) was a British officer and the first commander of the newly formed Tank Corps during the First World War.
Early life
Born in British India on 27 May 1880, Hugh Jamieson E ...
, went for the smaller machine gun tank and the larger cannon-armed version did not proceed. This requirement was passed to
Vickers-Armstrongs
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...
which had a prototype (A11E1) but with armour proof against current anti-tanks guns ready by September 1936.
The first suggestion for a larger Infantry Tank was made in 1936, with specification A12. The design was produced by the
Royal Arsenal
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...
,
Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
, and
Vulcan Foundry
The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside).
History
The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossi ...
was selected as the manufacturer. A12 used a number of design elements of the A7, a medium tank that was built in limited numbers in the early 1930s whose mechanical layout was used for many following designs. With its greatly increased armour, a lack of power was seen as a problem. The solution was to use two AEC straight-six water-cooled diesel engines, used in London buses, providing up to 87 hp each. These were linked along a common shaft. Suspension was to use the "Japanese Type" bell crank suspension used on the A7.
Vulcan received a contract for two wooden mock-ups and two mild-steel prototypes in November 1936. The first mock-up was delivered in April 1937 and the A12E1 prototype in April 1938. The prototypes proved excellent in a test, resulting in only a few changes to improve the gearbox, suspension and cooling. When war was recognised as imminent, production of the Matilda II was ordered and that of the Matilda I curtailed. The first order was placed shortly after trials were completed, with 140 ordered from Vulcan in June 1938.
Design
The Matilda Senior weighed around , more than twice as much as its predecessor, and was armed with an
Ordnance QF 2-pounder
The Ordnance QF 2-pounder ( QF denoting "quick firing"), or simply "2 pounder gun", was a British anti-tank gun and vehicle-mounted gun employed in the Second World War.
It was the main anti-tank weapon of the artillery units in the Battle ...
(40 mm)
tank gun
A tank gun is the main armament of a tank. Modern tank guns are high-velocity, large-caliber artilleries capable of firing kinetic energy penetrators, high-explosive anti-tank, and cannon-launched guided projectiles. Anti-aircraft guns can also ...
in a three-man
turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
. The turret traversed by hydraulic motor or by hand through 360 degrees; the gun could be elevated through an arc from −15 to +20 degrees. One of the most serious weaknesses of the Matilda II was the lack of a
high-explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
round for its main gun. A high-explosive shell was designed for the 2-pounder but was rarely issued, as the bursting charge was so small. The main weapon against unarmoured targets was its machine gun.
The Matilda II had a conventional layout, with the driver's compartment located at the front of the tank's hull, the fighting compartment with the turret in the centre and the engine and transmission housed in the rear. The driver's position was normally accessed by a single hatch in the roof of the hull, and protected by a rotating armoured cover which could be held locked in either fully open or closed positions; emergency egress was made possible by a large escape hatch under the driver's seating position. The driver also had a direct vision viewing port with manually operated armoured shield and a single Mk IV periscope to use when buttoned up.
Like many other British
infantry tank
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily vehicle armo ...
s, it was heavily armoured. The front glacis was up to thick; the nose plates top and bottom were thinner but angled. The sides of the hull were and the rear armour, protecting the engine to sides and rear, was .
The cast, cylindrical three-man turret was seated on ball-bearing ring mount and its armour was all round. The turret was laid out such that the gunner and commander were seated in a laddered arrangement on the left side of the gun, and the loader on the right. The commander was given a rotating cupola with a two-piece hatch and a single panoramic Mk IV periscope installed in the forward-facing hatch door. The same device was also mounted in a fixed position in the turret roof, forward of the commander's cupola, and giving the gunner some situational awareness and target finding capabilities. The loader used a single, rectangular hatch in the turret's roof on the right side. The turret was equipped with a basket around which much of the ammunition stowage was contained. The turret had a power traverse system used under normal conditions, and a manually-operated mechanical emergency assist.
The turret roof, hull roof and engine deck were . The armour varied in strength from IT.80 to IT.100
The armour of the Matilda was the heaviest of its era. Contemporary German
Panzer III
The ''Panzerkampfwagen III'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight oth ...
and
Panzer IV
The ''Panzerkampfwagen'' IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the ''Panzer'' IV, was a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161.
The Panze ...
tanks had hull armour, while the
T-34
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...
had (angled at 60 degrees). Matilda's side and rear armour was relatively heavy even at the end of the war when tanks like the
M4 Sherman
}
The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most widely used medium tank by the Military history of the United States during World War II, United States and Allies of World War II, Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman prove ...
carried about 40 mm, and late models of the
Panther
Panther may refer to:
Large cats
*Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis''
**''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards.
***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...
carried 50 mm. The shape of the nose armour was based on Christie's designs and came to a narrow point with storage lockers added on either side. The heavy armour of the Matilda's cast turret became legendary; for a time in 1940–1941, the Matilda earned the nickname "Queen of the Desert".
While the Matilda possessed a degree of protection that was unmatched in the North African theatre, the sheer weight of the
armour
Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...
on the vehicle contributed to a very low average speed of about on desert terrain and on roads. At the time, this was not thought to be a problem, since British infantry tank doctrine valued heavy armour and trench-crossing ability over speed and cross-country mobility (which was considered to be characteristic of
cruiser tank
The cruiser tank (sometimes called cavalry tank or fast tank) was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry, as distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were develop ...
s such as the Crusader). The slow speed of the Matilda was further exacerbated by a troublesome suspension and a comparatively weak power unit, which was created from two AEC 6-cylinder bus engines linked to a single shaft. This arrangement was complicated and time-consuming to maintain, as it required mechanics to work on each engine separately and subjected automotive components to uneven wear-and-tear. It did provide some mechanical redundancy, since failure in one engine would not prevent the Matilda from using the other. The combined power of the engines went through a six-speed
Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
epicyclic
An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...
gearbox, operated by compressed air.
The tank's suspension system was that which had been developed by Vickers for their Medium C prototype in the mid-1920s The tank was carried by five double wheels
bogies
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
on each side. Four of the bogies were on bellcranks in pairs, with a common horizontal coil spring. The fifth bogie at the rear was sprung against a hull bracket. Between the first bogie and the idler wheel, was a larger diameter vertically sprung "jockey wheel". The first Matildas had return rollers; these were replaced in later models by track skids, which were far easier to manufacture and to service in the field.
The turret carried the main armament, with the machine gun to the right in a rotating internal mantlet. Traverse was by a hydraulic system. As the gun was balanced for ease of movement by the gunner, much of the breech end was behind the trunnions. Two smoke grenade launchers were carried on the right side of the turret. The grenade launcher mechanisms were cut down
Lee–Enfield
The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's st ...
rifles, each loaded with a smoke grenade. Its camouflage scheme was designed by Major Denys Pavitt of the Camouflage Development And Training Centre based on the dazzle patterns of First World War ships. The design incorporated block colours, visually breaking the tank in half.
Production history
The first Matilda was produced in 1937, but only two were in service when war broke out in September 1939. Following the initial order from
Vulcan Foundry
The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside).
History
The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossi ...
, a second order was placed shortly after with
Ruston & Hornsby
Ruston & Hornsby was an industrial equipment manufacturer in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, England founded in 1918. The company is best known as a manufacturer of narrow gauge railway, narrow and standard gauge diesel locomotives and also of ...
. Some 2,987 tanks were produced by the Vulcan Foundry, John Fowler & Co. of
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, Ruston & Hornsby, and later by the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...
at
Horwich Works
Horwich Works was a railway works built in 1886 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) in Horwich, near Bolton, in North West England when the company moved from its original works at Miles Platting, Manchester.
Buildings
Horwich Works ...
;
Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
, and the
North British Locomotive Company
The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...
Glasgow. The last were delivered in August 1943.
Peak production was 1,330 in 1942, the most common model being the Mark IV.Boyd
The Matilda was difficult to manufacture. For example, the pointed nose was a single casting that, upon initial release from the mould, was thicker than required in some areas. To avoid a needless addition to the tank's weight, the thick areas were ground away. This process required highly skilled workers and additional time. The complex suspension and multi-piece hull side coverings also added time to manufacturing.
Combat history
Battle of France 1940
The Matilda was first used in combat by the
7th Royal Tank Regiment
The 7th Royal Tank Regiment (7th RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army from 1917 until disbandment in 1959.
History
The 7th Royal Tank Regiment was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps. The regimen ...
in France in 1940. Only 23 of the unit's tanks were Matilda IIs; the rest of the British infantry tanks in France were the smaller machine-gun armed A11 Matilda. Its 2-pounder gun was comparable to other tank guns in the 37 to 45 mm range. Due to the thickness of its armour, it was largely immune, but not impervious, to the guns of the German tanks and anti-tank guns in France. The Germans found the 88 mm anti-aircraft guns were the only effective counter-measure. In the counter-attack at Arras of 21 May 1940, 18 British Matilda IIs (and Matilda Is) were able to briefly disrupt German progress, but, being unsupported, they sustained heavy losses (30 tanks lost) after breaking through to the rear area of 7th Panzer Division. A gun line of artillery and later
88mm flak gun
The 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41 is a German 88mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun, developed in the 1930s. It was widely used by Germany throughout World War II and is one of the most recognized German weapons of the conflict. Deve ...
s, personally organised by General
Rommel
Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...
was needed to repel the attack. All vehicles surviving the battles around
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.BEF evacuated.
North Africa 1940 to 1942
Up to early 1942, in the war in North Africa, the Matilda proved highly effective against Italian and German tanks, although vulnerable to the larger calibre and medium calibre anti-tank guns.
In late 1940, during
Operation Compass
Operation Compass (also it, Battaglia della Marmarica) was the first large British military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. British, Empire and Commonwealth forces attacked Italian forces of ...
, Matildas of the British 7th Armoured Division wreaked havoc among the Italian forces in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. The Italians were equipped with L3 tankettes and M11/39 medium tanks, neither of which had any chance against the Matildas. Italian gunners were to discover that the Matildas were impervious to a wide assortment of artillery. Matildas continued to confound the Italians as the British pushed them out of Egypt and entered
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
to take
Bardia
Bardia, also El Burdi or Barydiyah ( ar, البردية, lit=, translit=al-Bardiyya or ) is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya, located near the border with Egypt. It is also occasionally called ''Bórdi Slemán''.
...
and
Tobruk
Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...
. Even as late as November 1941, German infantry combat reports show the impotence of ill-equipped infantry against the Matilda.
Ultimately, in the rapid manoeuvre warfare often practised in the open desert of North Africa, the Matilda's low speed and unreliable steering mechanism became major problems. Another snag was the lack of a high-explosive shell (the appropriate shell existed but was not issued). When the German ''
Afrika Korps
The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...
'' arrived in
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, the 88 mm anti-aircraft gun was again pressed into service against the Matilda, causing heavy losses during
Operation Battleaxe
Operation Battleaxe (15–17 June 1941) was a British Army offensive during the Second World War to raise the Siege of Tobruk and re-capture eastern Cyrenaica from German and Italian forces. It was the first time during the war that a significan ...
, when sixty-four Matildas were lost. The arrival of the more powerful 5 cm Pak 38 and
7.5 cm Pak 40
The 7.5 cm Pak 40 (''7,5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40 -'' "7.5cm armour defence cannon 90") was a German 75 millimetre anti-tank gun of the Second World War.
The gun was developed in 1939–1941 and entered service in 1942. With 23,303 ex ...
anti-tank guns also provided a means for the German infantry to engage Matilda tanks at combat ranges. Nevertheless, during
Operation Crusader
Operation Crusader (18 November – 30 December 1941) was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army (United Kingdom), Eighth Army (with Commonwealth, Indian and Allied contingents) ...
Matilda tanks of 1st and 32nd Army Tank Brigades were instrumental in the break-out from Tobruk and the capture of the Axis fortress of
Bardia
Bardia, also El Burdi or Barydiyah ( ar, البردية, lit=, translit=al-Bardiyya or ) is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya, located near the border with Egypt. It is also occasionally called ''Bórdi Slemán''.
...
. The operation was decided by the
infantry tank
The infantry tank was a concept developed by the United Kingdom and France in the years leading up to World War II. Infantry tanks were designed to support infantrymen in an attack. To achieve this, the vehicles were generally heavily vehicle armo ...
s, after the failure of the
cruiser tank
The cruiser tank (sometimes called cavalry tank or fast tank) was a British tank concept of the interwar period for tanks designed as modernised armoured and mechanised cavalry, as distinguished from infantry tanks. Cruiser tanks were develop ...
s of the 7th Armoured Division to overcome the Axis tank forces in the open desert.
As the German army received new tanks with more powerful guns, as well as more powerful anti-tank guns and ammunition, the Matilda proved less and less effective. Firing tests conducted by the ''Afrika korps'' showed that the Matilda had become vulnerable to a number of German weapons at ordinary combat ranges. Due to the small size of the turret and the need to balance the gun in it, up-gunning the Matilda, without developing a larger turret, was impractical. There was at least one instance of the turret from the A24/A27 cruiser tank series being fitted to a Matilda, complete with 6-pounder gun. As the size of the Matilda's turret ring was 54 inches (1.37 m) vs. the 57 inches of the A27, it was possible that a larger turret ring had been superimposed on the hull. The Churchill Mark III also had a 54-inch turret ring but was armed with a 6-pounder and that might have offered an alternative route.Fletcher, p. 14. It was also somewhat expensive to produce. Vickers proposed an alternative, the
Valentine tank
The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during World War II. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in eleven marks, plus various specialised variants, accounting for approximately a quarter ...
, which had the same gun and a similar level of armour protection but on a faster and cheaper chassis derived from that of their "heavy cruiser" Cruiser Mk II. With the arrival of the Valentine in autumn 1941, the Matilda was phased out by the British Army through attrition, with lost vehicles no longer being replaced. By the time of the
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa ...
(October 1942), few Matildas were in service, with many having been lost during Operation Crusader and then the Gazala battles in early summer of 1942. Around twenty-five took part in the battle as mine-clearing Matilda Scorpion
mine flail
A mine flail is a vehicle-mounted device that makes a safe path through a minefield by deliberately detonating land mines in front of the vehicle that carries it. They were first used by the British during World War II.
The mine flail consists of ...
tanks.
Minor campaigns
In early 1941, a small number of Matildas were used during the East Africa Campaign at the
Battle of Keren
The Battle of Keren ( it, Battaglia di Cheren) took place from 3 February to 27 March 1941. Keren was attacked by the British during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. A force of Italian regular and colonial troops defended th ...
. However, the mountainous terrain of East Africa did not allow the tanks of B Squadron
4th Royal Tank Regiment
The 4th Royal Tank Regiment (4 RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army from its creation in 1917, during World War I, until 1993. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
History
The regiment ori ...
to be as effective as the tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment had been in Egypt and Libya.
A few Matildas of the 7th RTR were present during the
Battle of Crete
The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island ...
and all of them were lost.
Australian use in the Pacific theatre
A total of 409 Matilda IIs were supplied by Britain to the Australian army between 1942 and 1944, and a further 33 close-support Matildas were transferred from New Zealand to the Australian army in 1944, as New Zealand made the decision to use only close-support Valentine tanks in the Pacific theatre, to minimise supply problems. The
Australian 4th Armoured Brigade
The 4th Armoured Brigade was an armoured formation of the Australian Army established during the Second World War. It was formed in February 1943 to provide armoured support for infantry units operating in the South West Pacific Area. Its compos ...
used them against
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
forces in the
South West Pacific Area
South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific War. SWPA included the Philippines, Borneo, the D ...
, first in the
Huon Peninsula campaign
The Huon Peninsula campaign was a series of battles fought in north-eastern Papua New Guinea in 1943–1944 during the Second World War. The campaign formed the initial part of an offensive that the Allies launched in the Pacific in late 1943 ...
in October 1943. Matilda II tanks remained in action until the last day of the war in the Wewak, Bougainville and
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
campaigns, which made the Matilda the only British tank to remain in service throughout the war.
The tanks were often employed in dense jungle with limited visibility, and could be subject to point-blank fire from hidden Japanese heavy artillery pieces. The Matilda's heavy armour (enhanced by the crews with spare track links) proved to be reasonably effective protection against this. In this fighting, the close-support version of the Matilda, armed with an Ordnance QF 3-inch howitzer, was preferred by the Australians as it was more effective against Japanese bunkers. Local modifications to the tanks included improving the waterproofing, and adding an outside infantry telephone so supporting troops could more easily communicate with the tank crew. Guards were fitted to the suspension to stop it from being tangled with jungle undergrowth, and metal panels fitted to make it harder for Japanese soldiers to attach adhesive demolition charges to the hull.
The Matilda Frog, an Australian-modified version of the tank that replaced the gun with a
flamethrower
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...
saw some successful use against the Japanese on Borneo. Another Australian version, the Matilda Hedgehog, which could fire seven mortar shells, was successfully tested but was developed too late to see combat service.
Matilda IIs remained in service with the Australian Citizen Military Forces until about 1955.
Soviet use
The Red Army received 918 of the 1,084 Matildas sent to the USSR.Bean, pp. 147–148 The Soviet Matildas saw action as early as the
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January ...
and became fairly common during 1942. Unsurprisingly, the tank was found to be too slow and unreliable. Crews often complained that snow and dirt were accumulating behind the "skirt" panels, clogging the suspension. The heavy armour on the Matilda was comparable to that of the Red Army's KV-1 heavy tanks, but the Matilda had nowhere near the firepower of the KV. Most Soviet Matildas were expended during 1942 but a few served on as late as 1944. The Soviets modified the tanks with the addition of sections of steel welded to the tracks to give better grip.
Captured use
Following Operation Battleaxe a dozen Matildas left behind the Axis lines were repaired and put into service by the Germans. Several vehicles were transported to
Kummersdorf
Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde, around 25 km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. Until 1945 Kummersdorf hosted the weapon office of the German Army which ran a development centre for future weapons as ...
where they were evaluated, including trials by live fire. The German designation was ''Infanterie Panzerkampfwagen Mk.II 748(e)'' translating roughly as "Infantry Tank Mk.II Number 748 (English)". The Matildas were well-regarded by their German users although their use in battle caused confusion to both sides, despite extra-prominent German markings.
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
*Czech, ...
historian writes that the
Romanians
The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...
had also captured some Soviet Matildas, but no other source mentions this, so it may be a confusion.
Egyptian use
Egypt used Matildas against
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
during
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
.
Variants
Major variants
* Infantry Tank Mark II (Matilda II)Jentz, p. 12.
: First production model armed with a
Vickers machine gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...
.
* Infantry Tank Mark II.A. (Matilda II Mk II)Fletcher, pp. 12–14.
: Vickers machine gun replaced by
Besa machine gun
The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army"TK" from ''těžký kulomet'' "heavy machine gun"; "vz" from ''vzor'' "Model").
The name came f ...
. The "A" denoted a change in armament.
* Infantry Tank Mark II.A.* (Matilda II Mk III)
:New Leyland diesel engine used in place of AEC engines.
* Infantry Tank Mark II (Matilda II Mk IV)
: With improved engines, rigid mounting and no turret lamp
* Matilda II Mk IV Close Support (CS)
:Variant with QF 3 inch (76 mm) howitzer, firing high explosive or smoke shells. In British service these were generally used by HQ units (usually a single command vehicle), whereas entire Australian squadrons often appear to have used them – frequently in a
direct fire
Direct fire or line-of-sight fire refers to firing of a ranged weapon whose projectile is launched directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user. The firing weapon must have a sighting device and an unobstructed view to the target, w ...
role, against Japanese
strong point
In military tactics, a strongpoint is a key point in a defensive fighting position which anchors the overall defense line. This may include redoubts, bunkers, pillboxes, trenches or fortresses, alone or in combination; the primary requirement ...
s.
* Infantry Tank Mark II (Matilda II Mk V)
:Improved gear box. Westinghouse air servo used.
Other variants, field modifications and prototypes
;UK
* Baron I, II, III, IIIA
:Experimental Matilda chassis with
mine flail
A mine flail is a vehicle-mounted device that makes a safe path through a minefield by deliberately detonating land mines in front of the vehicle that carries it. They were first used by the British during World War II.
The mine flail consists of ...
– never used operationally.
* Matilda Scorpion I / II
:Matilda chassis with a mine flail. Used in North Africa, during and after the battle of El Alamein.
* Matilda II CDL/Matilda V CDL
Canal Defence Light
The Canal Defence Light (CDL) was a British "secret weapon" of the Second World War, based upon the use of a powerful carbon-arc searchlight mounted on a tank. It was intended to be used during night-time attacks, when the light would allow enem ...
:The normal turret was replaced by a cylindrical one containing a searchlight (projected through a vertical slit) and a BESA machine gun. The searchlight was intended to disorientate and confuse enemy at night.
* (Prototype) Matilda with A27 turret
:Matilda II with modified chassis and
Ordnance QF 6 pounder
The Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt,British forces traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately . The approximate weight of the gun barrel and breech, "7 cwt" (cwt = hundredwe ...
in an A27 turret. One produced, no documentation other than photographs of it remain.
* (Prototype) Matilda II "Black Prince"
:Radio-controlled prototype produced in 1941 using A12E2 with Wilson transmission. Planned uses included use as a mobile target, for drawing fire and so reveal hidden anti-tank guns, or for demolition missions. Planned order for 60 cancelled as it would require conversion of Rackham clutch transmission to the Wilson type. Used a QF 6-pdr Mk. V A gun.
;USSR
* Field modification of Matilda Mark III with 76mm ZiS-5 (redesignated as F-96) gun
:One Matilda Mk.III supplied to the USSR was refitted with the 76.2mm ZiS-5 gun as used on the KV-1. This modification was found to be unsuccessful due to the space taken up by the breech of the ZiS-5 in the Matilda's turret, no production was started.
;Australia
* Matilda Frog (25)
:A
flamethrower tank
A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, dur ...
, this was fitted with a flame projector in place of the main gun, disguised with a tube to make the Frog resemble a normal, gun-tank. To avoid the complication of engineering a rotating, high-pressure joint, the flamethrower's fuel was in an tank inside the turret along with the tank of high-pressure air, which propelled the fuel. This left space for only a single crewman who operated the flamethrower. Several other flame-fuel tanks, totalling were fitted in the hull and used to replenish the turret tank. The flame projector had a range of and fired about with each shot. A problem with the system was that it required a thirty-second interval between shots to build up pressure. The Frog tanks saw action on Borneo and were considered very effective.
* Murray and Murray FT
:Flamethrower tank. Similar to the Frog but with a larger turret fuel tank - . It used cordite instead of compressed air as a flame-fuel propellant. The type never saw action.
* Matilda Tank-Dozer
:Bulldozer tank. A hydraulic operated bulldozer blade of similar design to those fitted to the American M3s.
* (6)
:Officially known as the "Matilda Projector, Hedgehog, No. 1 Mark I",Fletcher, David. ''Matilda Infantry Tank 1938-45'' (Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey, 2002), p.42. this fitted a
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introducti ...
7-chambered
spigot mortar
A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount and a ...
in an armoured box on the rear hull of several Australian Matilda tanks. The projector was elevated by
hydraulic
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...
s adapted from the Logan traversing mechanism used in M3 Medium tank turrets. The mortars were fired electrically either individually or as a salvo of six (from the 12 o'clock position;Fletcher, p. 43. the fifth tube could not be fired unless the turret was traversed to move the radio antenna out of the bomb's flightpath. Each bomb weighed and contained of high explosive. The range was up to . Aiming was accomplished by pointing the entire tank; the mounting had no independent traverse,''Paul Handel—Dust, Sand and Jungle'', 2003 RAAC Memorial and Army Tank Museum, . so accuracy was not spectacular, but adequate for the task. Trials at
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Irish ...
, Queensland, in May 1945 were pronounced a complete success, and the Projector would have been impressive against enemy bunkers, but the war ended before it was used operationally.
Surviving tanks
Around 70 Matilda IIs survive in various degrees of preservation. Around 30 are in Australia, either in museums, displayed as public monuments or in private ownership. A notable collection is that of the
Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum
The Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum is located at Puckapunyal, an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, in central Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The base is the home of the Ro ...
, at
Puckapunyal
Puckapunyal (more formally the Puckapunyal Military Area, but also known as the Puckapunyal Camp or Puckapunyal Army Base, and colloquially as "Pucka") is an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, in central Vi ...
, Australia, which has five Matilda IIs on display, including a Matilda Frog flame tank, a Matilda Hedgehog and a Matilda Bulldozer.
Tanks in running condition are owned by
The Tank Museum
The Tank Museum (previously The Bovington Tank Museum) is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. It is about north of the village of Wool and west of the major port of Poole. The collection ...
Bovington in the United Kingdom, the
American Heritage Museum
The American Heritage Museum is a military history museum located on the grounds of the Collings Foundation in the town of Stow, Massachusetts, west of Boston. The collection consists of over 100 artifacts, most of which were formerly part of t ...
in the United States, and several private owners in Australia. The Tank Museum completely restored a Matilda II tank from 2015 to 2018, with updates provided through YouTube. While a gearbox fault prevented it running at the 2018 Tankfest (its first advertised running event since 2013), the issue was corrected and the tank has run at several events since. The Tank Museum at Bovington also displays the only surviving Matilda Canal Defence Light, currently housed in the Vehicle Conservation Centre. The WW2 Tank Stories display has a Matilda in desert Caunter camouflage scheme In the UK, the
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...
also has a Matilda - listed as a Mk V - with additional turret ring armour on display in the Land Warfare Hall at their
Duxford
Duxford is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, about south of Cambridge. It is part of the Hundred Parishes area.
History
The village formed on the banks of the River Cam, a little below its emergence from the hills of north Essex. One of the ...
site. The Royal NSW Lancers Museum in Parramatta in Sydney has a MKII "ACE" fitted with a 3 in. howitzer in place of the 2 pounder.
Other examples are displayed at the
Kubinka Tank Museum
The Kubinka Tank Museum (Центральный музей бронетанкового вооружения и техники - Tsentral'nyy Muzey Bronetankovogo Vooruzheniya I Tekhniki -Central Museum of Armored Arms and Technology) is a larg ...
in Russia, the
Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History
The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History (french: Musée Royal de l'Armée et d'Histoire Militaire, often abbreviated to MRA, nl, Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en de Krijgsgeschiedenis, KLM) is a military museum that occupi ...
in Belgium, the
Yad La-Shiryon
Yad La-Shiryon (officially: The Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum at Latrun; he, יד לשריון) is Israel's official memorial site for fallen soldiers from the Israeli Armor Corps, armored corps, as well as one of the most diverse tank ...
museum in the
Latrun
Latrun ( he, לטרון, ''Latrun''; ar, اللطرون, ''al-Latrun'') is a strategic hilltop in the Latrun salient in the Ayalon Valley, and a depopulated Palestinian village. It overlooks the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 25 kilometers ...
, the
Musée des Blindés
The ''Musée des Blindés'' ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or ''Musée Général Estienne'' is a tank museum located in the Loire Valley of France, in the town of Saumur. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 un ...
Ahmednagar
Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 ...
in India.
See also
*
List of tanks of the United Kingdom
These are lists of UK tanks to enable cross-referencing between the design names and the service names.
General Staff numbers
This is a list of UK tanks up to the end of the Second World War that received designations starting with the letter ...
Tanks in the British Army
This article on military tanks deals with the history and development of tanks of the British Army from their first use in the First World War, the interwar period, during the Second World War, the Cold War and modern era.
Overview
Tanks fir ...