Kit Bashing Down Under | Matilda Frog, Matilda Dozer and Matilda Hedgehog in Australian Service

Рет қаралды 14,817

Жыл бұрын

In a recent video, we covered the history of the British-built Matilda II infantry tank in Australian service. Arriving in mid-1942, the 200 tanks imported straight from the British Empire made up the core of the Australian armored forces until the end of World War II, and were praised for their compact size and extraordinary durability in the face of enemy fire. But fighting in the Pacific theater was anything but conventional, and required both new tactics and new equipment to be rapidly developed and rushed to the front lines. Today, we’ll be discussing the three major variants of the Matilda II design that emerged from this environment; the Matilda Frog, the Matilda Hedgehog, and finally the Matilda Dozer.
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Article: tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/au...
Sources:
Infantry Tank Mark IIA* Specifications, The Vulcan Foundary Ltd by designer Sir John Dodd August 1940
Infantry Tank Mark II manual, War Department
Osprey Publishing, New Vanguard #8, Matilda Infantry Tank 1938-45
Hopkins, Ronald Nicholas Lamond and Australian War Memorial
Australian armour : a history of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, 1927-1972 D Fletcher
Matilda infantry tank 1939-1945 Bingham, James
Australian Sentinel and Matildas AWM54, 347/4/1, [Flame Projectors - Inventions:] Flame throwers, Submission of designs. Narratives of the development, design and production of flame thrower transportable No 2, Aust “Frog” and flame thrower Cordite operated, designed by Major A E Miller, 21 April 1945
Infantry Tank Mark II Specifications, by J.S. DODD The Vulcan Foundry Ltd, Locomotive Works, August 1940
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An article by Thomas Anderson
Narrated by Jeran Korak
Edited by ‪@BattlehammerWoT‬
Sound edited by Jeran Korak

Пікірлер: 48

@spacecase13 11 ай бұрын

A Matilda with a Hedgehog system makes me grin like a maniac. That is a cool tank.

@glynnmurdoch6243 Жыл бұрын

There is a second running Mk3 Dozer tank at the Australian Armour and Artillery museum in Cairns that is the dozer hull seen running at the end of the video

@mattmcmahon4576 5 ай бұрын

The Dozer tank, WDN 46101 seen running at the end of the video is actually mine... Part of the BATRAC collection in Oberon NSW....there are 3 dozers left...one in Cairns WDN 10277, Pucca 18766 and ours 46101. Both the Cairns & Pucca ones have no engines.

@mattmcmahon4576 5 ай бұрын

studio.kzfaq.info/love/dQAz-fWrhxgja5P1EF8HLQ

@kristoffermangila Ай бұрын

I wrote about the Matilda Hedgehog in a video about the Hedgehog antisubmarine mortar of the first USS The Sullivans by the guys of the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park (the group that also takes care of the cruiser USS Little Rock and the sub USS Croaker in Buffalo, NY) and they couldn't believe someone mounted that antisub mortar on a tank.

@donwalsh9426 11 ай бұрын

As a former Dozer tank commander, I'm disappointed that the dozer variant wasn't more successful.

@JamesRowell-fj7uq 7 ай бұрын

Aussie major general Rowell was my grandfather's frist cousin and I am a USMC tanker and my uncle is major general Ross E Rowell USMC retired and a MOH WINNER and one of the fathers of Air to ground support in WW 2 and both fought in WW 2

@panzerivkampfwagen3192 Жыл бұрын

there is a third Matilda Dozer wreck in Murrayville Victoria but it could be a postwar farmers conversion

@acedogboy8421 11 ай бұрын

Most likely a farmer one. Also where is it so i can buy it lmao

@janwitts2688 Жыл бұрын

Also these were wide neck matilda originally made to take the first 6pdr Cromwell turrets but just armed with basic turrets and discarded to Australia

@christopherwebber3804 Ай бұрын

16:26 Hedgehogs did not fire depth charges. They were simple mortar shells designed to explode on contact.

@trooperdgb9722 Ай бұрын

Part of the reason they were so effective... I read somewhere that 1 in 60 odd depth charge attacks resulted in a U Boat kill... for the (later) hedgehog it was 1 in 6. The 24 bombs were projected to land in a circle with a diameter less than the length of a U boat... so IF well aimed... (and being fired FORWARD the ship could maintain ASDIC contact throughout the attack) that isn't really surprising..it IS very impressive though!

@JeanLucCaptain Жыл бұрын

frankly that hedgehog makes a hell of a lot more sense the the US Calliope as it didn't massively increase the target profile.

@sueneilson896 Ай бұрын

The conditions faced by Aussies in the New Guinea/Indonesian campaigns were regarded as the toughest of any theatre. Says a lot that the basic Matilda could be operated there successfully.

@christopherwebber3804 Ай бұрын

9:28 the 57mm six pounder was smaller, not larger than the 87mm 25 pounder - as the names suggest, it fired a shell weighing a third of the weight, too. It just had a higher muzzle velocity for its armour piercing round, which was why it was best for use against bunkers

@christopherwebber3804 Ай бұрын

16:26 here you can see a sticky bomb being used in its intended role - to attack a tank. They sometimes got stuck to the clothing of the attacker and were rarely used outside Britain.

@petethebastard Жыл бұрын

Liked! We Aussies do some interesting stuff... and usually do it well! All Arms Assault in 1918 at Hamel would be the priority...We Aussie Diggers do good efforts.

@janwitts2688 Жыл бұрын

Never mentioned that they were bus engines.. hence spares were readily available... also the tank could run on one engine and this allowed many to return to repair areas or just keep going where more advanced types would have been ko straight off

@kristoffermangila Ай бұрын

Those Leyland engines are the same engines one might find on a London double-decker bus of the time.

@janwitts2688 Ай бұрын

@kristoffermangila Yup.. thus making availability trained service personnel somewhat easier.. I would think..

@kristoffermangila Ай бұрын

@@janwitts2688 indeed. The same focus on commercial off-the-shelf components can be found also in the Universal Carrier, which uses the Ford Flathead V8.

@MegaBloggs1 Жыл бұрын

Can anyone confirm that the 3 inch howitzer fitted matilda had an enlarged turret? visual images indicate it fitted two persons and was much wider??and it had two hatches

@TanksEncyclopediaYT Жыл бұрын

Same turret.

@christopherwebber3804 Ай бұрын

No, all the early war British cruiser tanks and the Matilda 2 has "CS" (Close Support") versions armed this way, primarily to fire smoke shells (stupid as that sounds, yes they only had a few HE rounds). They all used the same turret with a different gun and were issued something like one per headquarters troop.

@MurrayBayes Ай бұрын

YOU VE GOTTA LOVE THE GENTLEMAN ON THE PRODUCTION LINE DRESSED IN A SUIT....😊😊😊

@schulprojektgruppe0926 Жыл бұрын

Imagine if you were to take all these versions and put them onto one chassis

@PC-coolant-pipe-sucker 10 ай бұрын

If you look through archives hard enough, I can guarantee there is some obscure german Panzer III modification which fits this description.

@cablety 26 күн бұрын

Amazing video mate! Definitely going to make a point to head to Pukka for a look when it reopens!

@AkiWataru 17 күн бұрын

10:45 5 yards only ?! that's miracle!

@johnlansing2902 10 ай бұрын

Fighting in a tank in the jungle ….. how much fun can you have with high heat and 100% humidity ?

@janwitts2688 Жыл бұрын

One reason why crew have revolvers

@elsamu9458 Жыл бұрын

Hello, can you review the new WoT's tank the Tiger-Maus 120T? Is it accurate to the project?

@olofdahlstedt9918 Жыл бұрын

What about the dozer without a turret?

@KA-dx2kz Жыл бұрын

Probably a farm modification, most of the surplus tanks in Australia were sold off. Scrappers apparently waited outside the auctions to buy turrets. Most people modified the tanks for normal farm/construction work.