Trying to do a little research into the Matilda Tank. Particualry interested in the battle of France. Both Heinz Guderain and Hans Von Luck's book talk about the trouble the Matilda caused. Both books mention a breakout by British tanks on the 10 of May around Arras. Heres a cut from wikipedia " But the condition of the Allied divisions was far worse. Both in the south and the north they could in reality muster but a handful of tanks. Nevertheless Weygand flew to Ypres on 21 May trying to convince the Belgians and the BEF of the soundness of his plan. That same day, a detachment of the British Expeditionary Force under Major-General Harold Edward Franklyn had already attempted to at least delay the German offensive and, perhaps, to cut the leading edge of the German army off. The resulting Battle of Arras demonstrated the ability of the heavily armoured British Matilda tanks (the German 37mm anti-tank guns proved ineffective against them) and the limited raid overran two German regiments. The panic that resulted (the German commander at Arras, Erwin Rommel, reported being attacked by 'hundreds' of tanks, though there were only 58 at the battle) temporarily delayed the German offensive. Rommel had to rely on 88mm anti-aircraft and 105mm field guns firing over open sights to halt these attacks. German reinforcements pressed the British back to Vimy Ridge the following day." Von Luck mentions the Britsh crys of foul play on using Anti aircraft guns, wasnt fair and Guderain's book mentions that the (green) SS Totenkopf division was at near panic. Trying to identify the unit involved (assume 4th or 7th tank battalion) and get a colour scheme. Try and find out exactly what happened and why the attack failed after such a good start. Can only assume the low speed allowed guns without proper ground sights to be used and lack of any real anti infrantry gun (the 2 pounder had no HE option??), I never understood why it had a 2 pounder anti tank gun on an infantry tank, surley British infrantry tanks should have had large calibre low velocity gun???) meant its undoing. Dead interesting, more I learn about the Matilda, more I want to. Quite an impressive record, Far east, Western desert , Western Europe, Russia. Loads of conversions. Anyone help? Kev
Some German accounts say the Totenkopf actually routed. Quick summary of forces at Arras from the RTR regimental History: Martell in overall command created 2 mixed columns for the attack, he had 16 mark 2's and 58 Mark 1's servicable along with a tired infantry component, they were divided into equal forces each having a tank battalion, field battery, AT battery and an MG company: Column 1: 4th RTR (35 mark 1's & 7 Mark 2's) & 8th D.L.I. Column 2: 7th RTR: (23 mark 1's & 9 Mark 2's) & 6th D.L.I. German forces were 7th Panzer in the van with Totenkopf to it's left and 5th Panzer on a preplanned advance to the east. The Germans appear to have passed obliquely in front of the advancing British. There is an excellent letter in the history that describes the action from a contemporary perspective, I'll transcribe it later. I like the Matilda2 a lot as well kev, not as much as my brother though, he named his daughter after it . Colour schemes? Germans would be standard Panzer Grey, Matildas would be the usual Green, If you fancy a desert Caunter scheme I warn you, for some reason they're a real pain in the arse to get right, one interesting Matilda2 scheme was worn by a handful in Crete, they were painted to blend with stone walls, can't find a pic of the one I have in mind just yet though. Couple of my low-rent vids from last year : Tilly 1 at Tankfest 2006. Tilly 2 at Tankfest 2006.
Adam it was MALTA that had the stone wall camo scheme. see here missing-lynx.com - Art gallery - Matilda Infantry Tank <!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
Thanks VP, so what colour scheme and marking would 4th and 7th RTR have been at thetime. I have a 72nd Atalia (sp??) and its a lovely model. Guderian goes on to say that the episode caused alarm at Group who where very jumpy at Rommels/Guderian exposed attack. Imagine the Germans fetching out the pak36's and 38's and finding them useless. The thing with Guderian is that nothing is wasted, he's learning all the time. Why couldnt the British learn from this, no they made the Churchill which was pretty much the same thing only bigger with none of the limitations solved.
Kev, The battle is described well in Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man byHugh Sebag-Montefiore which I raved over last year.
Brian Perrett's book Matilda has a very detailed account of the Arras battle including a number of personal stories by the various crews. Yes, the Matildas did cause the Germans alot of trouble but on the other hand most were the Matilda I model with just a .303 machinegun so the damage wrought did not last and the British did end up losing alot of their tanks.
Another thing about the Matilda that interests me particulary is that they where made about 10 minutes from where I live now. the place was still there untill recently.
Kev, Do you know Barry Beldam's "Armoured Acorn" site ? Part 23 of Non-Canadian Vehicle markings shows a Matilda of 7RTR in BEF service. Parts 31 and 35 are also worth a look. ARMOURED ACORN - The Canadian Armour Website Rich.
Kev, Do you know Barry Beldam's "Armoured Acorn" site ? Part 23 of Non-Canadian Vehicle markings shows a Matilda of 7RTR in BEF service. Parts 31 and 35 are also worth a look. ARMOURED ACORN - The Canadian Armour Website Rich. I dont Rich, your a star... im on my way.
I never understood why it had a 2 pounder anti tank gun on an infantry tank, surley British infrantry tanks should have had large calibre low velocity gun???) meant its undoing. Kev There were a few 'CS' (Close Support) Matilda variants built with a 3" howitzer instead of the 2 pdr. This had (IIRC) such a desparately low velocity that its range must've been very limited. I don't know if these were ever used in action, but there was no real chance of British tanks replying to the 88 until Grants became available with their medium-velocity 75. Even had there been an HE round for the 2 pdr., it's hard to imagine that it would've carried more clout than a grenade or two. Regards, MikB
Kev, another BEF Matilda on Armouredacorn part 41 http://www.armouredacorn.com/Refs-%20Thumbprints%20&%20Images/NCVM/NCVM%20Part%2041%20(Pro%20Tanto).pdf
Whilst looking for something completely different found this very interesting photo I'd not seen before. Pancerne ciekawostki. - Ogólnopolski miesiêcznik ODKRYWCA
That is quite interesting funny too (the Sentry looks well cheesed off). Remarkably little damage cosidoring both tracks are lost. All the bogies look intact too. Driver hatch is open so looked like he made it. Kev
This excerpt from a 1947 speech by Lieutenant J.E. R. Wood, M.C. offers a tongue in cheek comment on the performance of the Matilda Mk. 1. "The other was 'Scarlet O'Hara', that red-nosed character sitting down at the end of this table, who grew up in Montreal and found himself in the Royal Tank Corps. During the German Blitz in France he found himself in a Mk. 1 Matilda Tank. It weighed 8 tons, powered with a Ford V8 engine. Flat out it went five miles an hour. On the retreat back from the Dyle Scarlet insists he had a great race with an old Belgian woman in carpet slippers. She was pushing a cart full of pots and pans and so on. When she got going good Scarlet says she passed him, and when he got going good he passed her. She won!"
Sitting in the IWM archives there's a pretty damn good account of the Arras attack written by Martel. There's an amusing little battle where the lead troop of A.12's run into a Platoon of Panzer IV's. They sit there shooting at each other for ten minutes until everyone's out of ammo, and neither side has caused anything more than a scratch on the other, and then pop smoke and withdraw.
I managed to dig up a number of PDFs from the website using archive.org. Part 23: Dropbox - BritishBEFFrance0.pdf - Simplify your life 31: Dropbox - BritishBEFFrance1.pdf - Simplify your life 35: Dropbox - BritishBEFFrance2.pdf - Simplify your life 41: Dropbox - BritishMisc.pdf - Simplify your life 51: (has another BEF Matilda) Dropbox - BritishBEFFranceGreece.pdf - Simplify your life
