Matilda II Tank: London Bus Engines, Rommel's 88s and the Jungle Hedgehog

The A12 Matilda II was a British infantry tank built for a doctrine shaped by the First World War. Thinkers such as Percy Hobart and Basil Liddell Hart split British tanks into fast cruiser tanks and slow infantry tanks that would walk alongside foot soldiers, crush wire and take enemy fire. Specified in 1936 after the two-man Matilda I proved too small, the Matilda II carried frontal armor up to 78 mm, roughly double that of early Panzer IIIs and IVs, and a 40 mm two-pounder gun in a three-man cast turret. To move 27 tons, designers bolted in two six-cylinder AEC or Leyland London bus diesels linked to one shaft, feeding a Wilson epicyclic gearbox shifted by compressed air. It managed about 15 mph on roads and 6 mph off them. When war began in September 1939, Britain had only two in service, partly because the cast nose came out too thick and had to be ground down by hand.

In May 1940 at Arras, 16 Matilda IIs broke into the rear of the German 7th Panzer Division as 37 mm shells bounced off, and Erwin Rommel had 88 mm anti-aircraft guns lowered to fire at them. In Operation Compass in 1940 and 1941 the tank earned the name Queen of the Desert against Italian tankettes and M11/39s. Then the Afrika Korps arrived with 88s, PaK 38s and PaK 40s, the twin engines and hidden springs choked on sand, and the two-pounder had no useful high-explosive round. A 54-inch turret ring left no room for a bigger gun, and by El Alamein in October 1942 the Valentine had replaced it. Australia received more than 400 and fought them in New Guinea, Bougainville and Borneo, where slow speed mattered little and armor mattered most.

• The bell crank suspension tucked its springs inside the hull behind armored skirts, which later trapped desert sand.
• Australian close support versions carried a 3-inch howitzer to fire high-explosive shells at Japanese bunkers.
• The Matilda Frog replaced the gun with a flamethrower fed by an 80-gallon fuel tank inside the turret and could reach 90 yards.
• The Matilda Hedgehog mounted a seven-tube naval anti-submarine mortar firing 65-pound bombs, aimed by pointing the whole tank, and the turret had to turn before the fifth tube fired.
• It was the only British tank in service from the first day of World War II to the last.