8:50 most appropriate use of a C&B i've ever witnessed. Bravo Sir.

As an apprentice I worked at The Vulcan Foundry, a locomotive works, the old timers there would tell of building the Matilda tanks during WW II. John

A neighbour was a Matilda commander, in North Africa. I asked him about the 2 Pounder HE shells and he had seen them in depots but they were only allowed to be issued to 2 Pounder AT gun units for use engaging infantry.

Just a note about the "large numbers" of German 88mm anti-tank guns. There were never more than 14 of them in North Africa, though their effective range - the fact that they could knock out British armour long before it got close enough to shoot back - meant that these guns survived very well. Of course, everyone claimed to have been shot at by the 88's, but in fact it was almost always the far more numerous (and very effective) 75mm Pak 40 guns.

Great video again! "That Muppet" and his armband gave me a little chuckle.

The Matilda performed admirably with the Australians in the PTO where it excelled in an infantry support role against stubborn Japanese resistance. The battles on Bougainville and Borneo in 1945 come to mind.

There is one aspect of these tanks you do not touch on, and I think it was a very effective central policy of allied armour design. As I understand it the Matilda was powered by basically two bus engines. The fan boys of German armour design may well note this. Sure they were not fast, but they were fast enough for what they were required to do most of the time. Secondly the engine design was already proven to be reliable, as bus engines need to be, plenty of spares, and a whole bunch of people who knew how to maintain and repair these engines. German armour was plagued by expensive tanks that were difficult to build, maintain and repair, and a constant shortage of spare parts. This led to a lot of tanks lost because they were simply abandoned due to mechanical failure and no parts or people to fix them. The Matilda was an excellent tank, often overlooked in the publics perception by the Sherman and T34.

At 19:55 looks like a Australian Matilda that had the uparmored front fenders to stop Japanese AT gunners from shooting the track. Cant see if it has the uparmored commanders cupola, not sure if the heavy cupola was produced. Hope to see a video on the ANZAC and Soviet Matilda's and their modifications.

I had never noticed Hitler's arm band having the "heat-seeking moisture missile" on it before. Good information for figure modelers, for sure.

Amazing how small the Matilda was. Love Hitlers "Prick" arm badge. Nice touch.

I love the swazi replacement on Shitler's arm-band - respect is due 😂

Always my favourite tank.. my grandfather RE (pre reme) recovered a number of these (and a lot of other mechano) during the desert war... he said that their repair vehicle was constantly singled out for air attack... leading him and his mates to hide under the vehicle being recovered...

Another great video feller. I always look forward to these popping up in my youtube alerts! Keep up the good work.👍👍

Great video. I am not sure why, but the Matilda and Valentine are my two favourite tanks. The depth of your research is really impressive and appreciated.

Oh by the way, is A22 Churchill in your schedule? Tank Museum recently published some tank chats about it, but your materials have their own flavour we love.

Very informative. One of my favorite British tanks.

Great photo editing, as well as great informative dictation there. Thanks

*Thanks for informative video, liked & Shared!!*

Fascinating video, thanks for sharing

You could probably do a full video on the LittleJohn adaptor - as applied to the Matilda and others. I've read that apparently the squeeze bore shell was as effective as the 30mm GAU-8 projectiles when fired by the A10 Warthog.

Re: 2pdr HE rounds: In the scramble for resources and funding between the wars there appears to have been a disagreement between the Royal Armoured Corps and the Royal Artillery over who could shoot explosive rounds. The gunners felt they were the experts in blowy uppy stuff as part of the general advance while tankies were telling anyone who would listen that mechanisation should translate to a breakthrough army within the army, all under tracked armour and under their control. Without an SPG / HE capability (arguably an APC, SPAAG and CVRE capability too) the Grand Tank Fleet was impotent. Infantry and artillery senior officers saw this problem for the RAC and saw it was good (for them). Many were predicting the tmotors The tankies fought back with three options - go so fast the ATG can't hit you (cruisers), slap on more armour so the ATG can't hurt you (infantry tank) or spot and destroy the ATG before it could do more harm (HE round). Counter battery fire had long been the preserve of the Royal Artillery, it had to form part of the larger fire plan at Brigade and Divisional level, a Gunners job, so they argued for the later mission. It was settled around the time of the 2pdr's introduction, the deciding vote seems to have been the infantry who were desperate to keep control of the dismounted towed ATG. They didn't need a puny 2lb HE round for that business, they argued their 3inch mortar did it better, laying smoke and illumination as well. Sohowitzersquadron likehuge duplication and wastage of effort that the USA and France suffered from in much the same way. Russia and Germany slightly less so as both armies were enjoying a clean slate start and a murderous disinclination to whinge by Generals.

Some of those very early tanks look like the love child of a Dalek and bulldozer.

Looking forward to the CDL vid!

Who knew that wet grass could trip up a tank?!

Working through your back catalogue... thanks

Until I saw the tracks on the Matilda I would never have thought anyone could be stupid enough to put smooth metal against a slippery surface and expect it to work, and I could see that just by looking at photos.

Goodday well dun my regiment still runs a Matilda its The 1st 15th Royal Mew South Wales Lancers the Matilda served in Africa we also run a Cent it is also operational all the units are part of the Regiment Museum stay safe

Just came across your channel.Many thanks for the great content

There was a year delay in the introduction of the 2 Pounder gun, when it was found that the 127,000 APHE rounds, that had been produced from 1934, when the gun was under development, was below the minimum performance standard set by the WD in 1937. The WD required that the 2 Pounder gun should have a 70% probability of a penetration of a 25mm. FHRHA Vibrax plate set at 0 degrees at a range of 500 yards..... It had only recorded a 28% chance. even worst was the tendency for the fuse to part company from the shell in flight or on impact. Vickers quickly came up with a AP shot, which delayed adoption of the 2 pounder into service for nearly a year. I own an example of one of the useless 1934 pattern APHE shells, innert and complete with fuse.

Interesting Video. The failure to issue an infantry support tank with a high explosive round and then designing a "close support tank" that was supposed to fire smoke rounds mainly, well from an arm chair general perspective, that sounds crazy. Just like looking at those tracks and then thinking "the suspension must be the problem"

Learning a ton as always! Thanks 🙂

Late 1940: A9 Cruiser (40mm) TNHP 38 (37mm) T28M38 (76mm) Late 1941: Matilda II T34M40 (76mm) Panzer IIIJ (50mm) Late 1942: M3 Grant (75) T34M40 (76mm) Panzer IV "Special" (75mm) Late '43 M4A1 Sherman (75) T34M43 (76mm) (this version has the full TC cupola) Panzer IV "Special" (75mm) Late '44 M4A3 Sherman (76) T34M43/85 (85mm) Pz VG Panther (very high velocity 75mm) Imagine being a Panzer III (37mm or short 50mm) crew in Africa on the occasion of your first encounter with the Matilda 2. Lucky combat is an intricate affair with provisions made for just such an emergency. "The Panzergranate is just bouncing off, sir!" [The Panzer III's turret takes several glancing blows from enemy 2pdr weapons] "Damnit! Why do I always get company when I'm busy! Someone answer that door, will you?" "We're gonna need a bigger boat." [What follows mixes memes, specifically the "Chinese Fire Drill and "Oh bugger, the tank's on fire."]

Great! Very enjoyable.

Thank you! As one of the most important British tanks of WWII, I'm glad to finally see how she was developed...and yes, I've always tried to figure how the I became the II. Parallel rather than series development definitely makes sense. ALSO, didn't the Royal Artillery refuse to give the tank units HE because they claimed firing HE was strictly an artillery role?

Love a video on the Matilda service in the Pacific.

Some say Priscilla was queen of the desert, but we all know that she was really called Matilda ! … well according to my dad she was slow but faithful

Very interesting ! Thank you.

Regarding the name "Matilda", I've always seen an Australian connection. "Waltzing Matilda" was a popular song in Australia, penned around 1895. "Lancelot de Mole" (1880-1950) AKA "Lance" - an Australian has been given credit by some, as the inventor of the modern tank. It would be difficult to believe that the creators of the "Matilda" were not aware of Lances efforts. The Australian War Manorial in Canberra has a good model of his work, which has a remarkable resemblance to the Matilda.

It is not possible to become more British than this man.

Love that photo at 08:52 !

thanks ed - great vid! and yes - that armband! hahahahaha!

Love the armband

20 minutes!!! awesome! thanks Ed!

Very interesting and informative.

Thank

Can't wait for the next story.

My foster dad was a tanky in WWII. He was in 1st experimental armoured div later renamed 7th armoured. He told me the Germans had nothing to even take out the British light tanks let alone the cruiser and infantry tanks. He was in cruiser tanks and happily went around taking out German tanks. he also said the Italian tanks were better than the German tanks. Best tank Germany had was the PZ38(t) a vickers export tank. That got rejected by Britain as not having enough armour. It wasnt till the Panther and tiger tanks came out that Germany had a half decent tank. The PZ38(t) was downgraded for the sale to Germany in 1938. but the vickers A24 it was based on had thicker armour and that was sold to Poland as the PT7 and the soviets as the T24 and China as the type 24 . British specs for a light tank was 30mm armour the A24 only had 28mm. the PZ38(t) had 26mm. Crusier tanks armour was 50mm and infantry tanks was 100mm. The panzer I had 10mm. Panzer II 13mm and panzer III 20mm. Its why after Dunkirk and the fall of France Germany used the captured British and French tanks instead of their own. Rommel used them in N,Africa and if he couldnt get enough of them he used Italian tanks. Britians problem was relaibity due to having lots of diff models in service with diff componentes so it was a logistical nightmare getting the right parts and ammo to the right tank units. Britian used the weight of the shell not the caliber. So 1 2pdr gun shell wouldnt work with a 2pdr gun from a diff maker. Some tanks used AEC engines some used vickers some used Vauxhall and some used leyland depending on which company made the tanks. They all had the same specs in armour and gun but each company used their own components . But just cause they all had a 2pdr gun didnt mean they were all the same caliber lol. Plus when a tank broke down it was towed away and another given to the crew but it might not be the same make or model. My dad said his unit of 4 tanks had 4 diff makes and models and was a nightmare getting the right ammo for them. It was a case of ammo being dropped off and then look and see if it fitted ur gun lol. if not they had to wait for the next lot of ammo to arrive. The ammo might of only fitted in 1 tank model so the rest had to sit around waiting for more ammo. As for the 88mm that was an anti air gun not anti tank. and 1st used to take out tanks in N,Africa in 41 after British tanks came across them intending to take them out but they lowerd the barrels and fired at the tanks and surprissed how good they were in the anti tank roll so started using them for that. It was the only weapon Germany had that could take out British and French tanks. WWII should of ended in 1939 when France destroyed the German army in the west and Hitler surrendered but it got rejected by Britian and France. The French army advanced from t eMaginot line and was 5 miles into Germany when they got orders to stop their attack and fall back and never attack again. Same in 1940. BEF wiped out the Gertman army and marched into Holland only to be given orders to fall back. The French gave orders to the French army to pull back further and half the French army ordred to go to Africa. that left the BEF right flank open. that lead to Dunkirk. the BEF was undefeated but kept getting orders to retreat. All part of the plan to make it look like Germany was winning to give the RAF time to flatten as many German cites as possible. Churchill and Chamberlain both said in 1936 the war with Germany must last at least 3 years. So everytime Germany surrenderd it got rejected. Rommel said why r the French running away so fast when they defeated everything i threw at them. Other Germans said the French r retreating faster than we can advance. Thats cause the French army was fully motorised and the Germans didnt have many trucks so had to rely on horses to tow their heavy weapons and horse and cart to bring up supplies. Britain had an armoured div the only 1 in the world. That was a combined arms unit. light tanks for recce. cruiser tanks for break throughs and dragoons in fully armoured transports called rams. Rams were tanks with the turret taken off and room inside to carry troops so they could keep up with the tanks. 1 of Percy Hobarts creations setup in 1938. Rommel coppied that for when he went to N,Africa after he got totaly destroyed by it in Belgium in 1940. Britian tended to mix units so Infantry had tank support and tanks had dragoons supporting them. France however had diff rules Tanks were not allowed to engage infantry only other tanks and could not support infantry or be supported by infantry. Germany had the same rules as France.

Thanks for that, very interesting.

Great video part of me always wondered what would have happened if they had made a "Heavy Cruiser" Variant of the Matilda by replacing the Engine to something that could push out 350-400hp instead of the 190 as the twin engines of the Matilda do take a lot of physical space and the power pack is bigger than that of the Liberty engine used in the cruisers(although I would probably avoid the liberty like the plague but if you only pushed it at 300hp it probably wouldn't have had as many wear and tear issues as when they tried to push it to 400+ in real life) or the Bedford engine used in the Churchill maybe a earlier version with slightly with less power might allow such a vehicle to go at something closer to the 25mph on road and 15mph of the Crusaders. At that point they would have had a more usefull vehicle that could do both roles and may have sent the UK down the universal tank route that led to the MBT concept earlier than they did.

Great video Thanks for producing it...! I too, love the Armband Adjustment. I am tempted to wonder, How many German Officers thought that would have been Appropriate..!?? Cheers all from the Land Downunder..!! 😎

8:00 I love this picture. The stuck tank is interesting, with the Ben Hur name on the bow. The crew is also notable As in all armies the world over, one crew member is working to free the tank while the others stand about and watch. Wonder what he did to annoy the TC. LOL.

Many thanks 👍🏻

8:50 LMAO at the muppets armband!

Good looking tank in its time 👍

Brilliant video I do appreciate that you B/W that museum's Matilda with that dreadful sky blue! I mean why do they not see caunter scheme vehicles Matilda wasn't a stand alone different vehicle with a van Gogh paint job haha!

Bert, my favorite matilda tank.

@8.59 what an armband Hitler was wearing!!! :)

Thanks for the interesting information - especially the report from Brigadier Blagden, would you be able to share where this report can be found? I've found 1940 reports about some of the technical difficulties with the A12 in France but this report seems far more comprehensive (it it's the 3 pages you posted in the vid). Top stuff. Nick

the canal defence light was designed to defend the Suez canal from german aircraft minlaying, it did this by flashing its light across the canal causing rapid bright reflections ,stopping the bomb aimer from seeing well enough to hit his target and was used operationaly. Also used in 1945 rhine crossings .

Great video very interesting

My Fav tank...

Very good, thanks. I was surprised though that when listing the differences between marks towards the end, there was no mention of the change from wet-grass-slope-failing inverted treads to the more Churchill-like ones clearly visible @ 20:00. I'd have thought that would merit a mention... ?

Apparently from what I gather the HE round was issued....... To the armoured car regiments, so you saw daimlers and the like running about through the war with HE rounds just in case they needed them.

**sips tea**

English tanks did not carry high explosive shells because high explosive shells were the perogative of the artillery, a separate branch and they wanted control of tanks with HE.

Thank God for America

Range 80 kilometres (50 mi) With Internal + 157 kilometres (98 mi)with auxiliary tank Matilda Infantry Tank 1938-45 by David Fletcher, Peter Sarson page 28

Hornsby developed several tracked vehicles shown to army, even German, 1908. German language movies showing the qualities and abilities. Petrol and steam modles, of several size and style. With no interest the reghts went to Americans, Holt, now catapiller. A steam miniature is seen in England.

17:28 That appears to be a captured 88. Have you any idea how long it took to dig in a Flak 36? One big issue must have been that much of the shale (nominal desert) just couldn't be dug into.

First... Sorry, couldn't help it. Greats video as all ways.

Lets not mention the material wear problems going on with German tanks as they approached to Dunkerk. Or Herman injecting his 5 cents inot the problem either... I wonder if my book on RASC has anything on it. To say the section on France is chaotic is a understatement.

“Toddle pip”! Good heavens.

0:25 Mighty Matilda. Mighty Matilda. Come inside to the Mighty Matilda.

Can I suggest an episode on the Besa machine gun? I cannot locate this as a topic covered anywhere on youtube.

Just FYI Horwich is pronounced to rhyme with porridge, otherwise great video, and subscribed for more!

Damn poms flooded australia with Dorman diesel grenades. over 25c and they overheat and throw a leg. Not many left most have become anchors

Therapist: early Matilda cant hurt you Early matilda: 1:56

what about the matilda black prince, mounting the cromwell turret? Isn't it considered as a variant of the matilda?

that step on matilda at the front where driver is ,the leopard one has same type of step shape on its front .

It just seems to me that the turret ring could have been enhanced and modified to accept the 6pndr, making it more effective (at the time) against German armor and infantry!

"They didn't have a high explosive round" That is a myth. 11.000 rounds were made but never issued. So no, it's not a myth. No field crew had a high explosive round. And that IS a disadvantage.

I learned many things on a tank I thought I was quite familiar with I wonder if you intend a video on the Valentine development in like fashion ?

Gotta love the Matilda2, so very very British. The 2pdr gun might have started out ok but was soon shown to be to weak and with no HE issued it really let the tank down in many ways. A 6pdr might have been a better option?

This reminds me. Could you at some point cover the camouflage of British armour? I remember seeing Matilda painted in three colour camo with one colour being light blue, in a museum no less. I have Dick Taylor's book on Vally and it features color profile with what looks more like blueish green. So there is still some conflicting information floating around.

Used a few of these old girls for target practice with laws 66 and Carl Gustav's 84 .

Brilliant work as ever Ed. Only 1 thing, can't make trains. Maybe rail rolling stock or locomotives would be better. Train describes the assembled item.

So UK has only 26 battle worth tanks in the battle of France, not surprise why the german pass through.....

I like the new version swastika on Hitler's armband. It does make a statement

That drawing on Adolfs arm... :-D

Glad I didn't have to go head to head with one in an early Pz3 or 4.

VG vid! I like your work and efforts... However, can we use General Sir Hugh Elles and General Sir Percy Hobart, please?? They deserve it.

Really looking forward to the Russian and Australian matildas.

I am very curious about the work Mobiquity. I can't find any definition for in online

A larger turret ring and a single 300 + horsepower engine would have made this an effective tank till at least 1944. IMHO.

I learned from playing Panzer Corps that the Matilda was a troublesome little tank with incredibly thick armor, but very slow with a weak cannon. Still a tough nut to crack when all you have are Panzer III H's. Best tactic is to call in the Stukas and shoot some fish in a barrel.

Do you know how many of the 26 Matilda IIs with the BEF in France had tail sleds?

I never understood why British tanks' hulls were so tight, placing a bigger gun in the turret was pratically impossible, as in the Matilda, or without renouncing to a crewman (Crusader/Valentine) plus there were a lot of mechanical issues.

I have read somewhere that 37mm HE rounds were used by Anzac crews with a rubber band to make them compatible with the Matilda II main armament. Is this correct or another fail of the Internet? Keep on with these excellent videos 👍🏻

There is one mention of the Matilda being sent to France without their guns which came on a different ship. A company of Matildas went into action with black-painted brush handles cut down and fitted, pretending to be guns, with the TC firing a Lee-Enfield from the turret hatch!! Reference:- Peter Beale, "Death by Design", a book written by an ex-tank commander WW2, and he also refers to the Arras counter attack and how it all went wrong pretty quickly. I am irritated by the reference to 24 hours of the Arras delay, but not to the Battle of Lille and the Battle of Dunkirk where the French First Army held the NAZIS back for a total of nine days!!

A lot has not changed in MOD procurement