CHAPTER NINETEEN - PART TWO
London
December 9, 1937
Late evening
A Private Flat
Under a cloudy haze of cigar smoke and looking over the documents scattered about the table in front of him and the sofa on which he sat, the man shook his head in disbelief and began reading over the information a second time.
On August 16 the British Army’s Home Army under the command of General Lord Gort welcomed the Highland Fusiliers to the massive Aldershot Army post. Attached to the new regiment was a full brigade of the British Army’s new combat engineers, to assist the Fusiliers in crossing rivers and other such barriers, as well as combat fixed fortifications. The same day had the Royal Highland Army’s General Harold R.L.G. Alexander receive the Duke of Albany’s Highlanders regiment in Edinburgh.
The fourth of September had General Alexander mustering in the Queen’s Own Highlanders regiment, which had been especially trained for alpine fighting. Having such specialized regiments forming could only allude to the Empire anticipating some sort of warfare in mountainous terrain, and from the reports it was clear that the Imperial General Staff was intending for the Queen’s Highlanders to be used as a training cadre for further alpine regiments.
General Charles Willoughby Norrie finished his formation of the Imperial Armoured Army based near Birmingham and was able to report to the Imperial General Staff on November 16 that the Gloucester Hussars (taking the nickname of the 13th Hussars,
The Green Dragoons), the Royal Hussars (keeping the nickname of the 17th Lancers,
The Death or Glory Boys) , the Queen’s Dragoon Guards and the Imperial Light Horse regiments were at full compliment and in all intents and purposes ready for deployment anywhere within the Empire. While the creation of an entire army made up primarily of tanks was shocking enough, the fact that all four regiments had brigades of the British Army’s new “heavy” tank was enough to make many in military circles around the world sit up and take particular notice.
Command Staff of the Imperial Armoured Army
The workhorse of the I.A.A.
The new heavy tank, developed by Leyland Industries in the beginning of August, was designed along the lines of the British Infantry tank. That concept, the Infantry tank, was developed by the British in the years following the end of the Great War, coming from the principle of separating tank functions into two areas - the Infantry tanks geared toward support infantry units in making breakthroughs in enemy lines of defense and Cruiser tanks which followed the traditions of the cavalry by charging through those breakthroughs and “cruising” through into the enemy rear cutting lines of supply. The origins of this train of thought were based upon the Great War division between British heavy tanks and the faster Whippet Medium Mark A and its successors the Medium Mark B and Medium Mark C.
Since the Infantry tanks were to work at the pace of the infantry, and since the infantry attack on foot, high speed was not a requirement and as such they were designed to carry heavier armour. The first Infantry tank, the Mark I "Matilda", was armed with a machine gun and 2 pounder anti-tank gun respectively.
The development, by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, began in 1935, and resulted in small two-man vehicle with low hull and small cast turret in which was mounted the tank’s only wits only weapon, a Vickers 0.303 inch machine gun, Designed for quick delivery, the A11 (as it was designated at the time) used parts from many pre-existing vehicles: a Ford V8 engine, Fordson gearbox, steering mechanism similar to the one used in Vickers light tanks, and a suspension system adapted from the Mk IV Dragon artillery tractor that was based on the Six Ton Tank Model E.
Although the hull and turret were extremely well protected against current anti-tank weapons, the “feet” of the tank, the tracks and running gear, were dangerously exposed and much more vulnerable than on tanks being produced by other European nations.
General Hugh Elles, the then Master-General of the Ordnance, commented while watching the vehicle in trials, that at five meter long, two and a half meter wide, two meter tall and eleven tons, that it 'waddled like a duck', and thus the name of the popular cartoon duck '
Matilda' was naturally applied. The tank was truly like a duck out of water, traveling only 8 mph while on road and a little over 5 mph while off-road, and with a range of only 81 miles, it was not all that mcuh of a success.
The Infantry Tank Mk II (or Matilda II) was designed at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, as an improvement on the Mk I. The new Matilda weighed 27 metric tons, more than twice as much as the Matilda I, and carried a quick-firing 2-pounder anti-tank gun in a three-man turret. Following the tradition of the older Matilda, the Matilda II was heavily armoured; the armour thickness at the front reached 78 mm, more than most tanks being produced around the world. The weight of the armour, together with the overworked twin-engine power unit, which had been adapted from a civilian bus, along with a troublesome suspension system, severely limited the speed of the new Matilda, only being able to travel on or off road at an approximate speed of 7 mph. At the time, the developers thought this not to be a problem because the Matilda was still specifically designed to support the walking infantryman.
Following the change of High Command with the crowning of King Edward VIII, the entire separation of tasks thought process was determined to be flawed, and the Royal Arsenal was ordered, under the direction of the new High Command, to turn the Matilda II from an infantry support tank to a “heavy” tank to be used to support the British Army’s new armoured regiments. The new “heavy tanks”, designed with new engines and heavier main gun, and thus able to keep up with the faster “cruiser” tanks filling the armoured regiments, were to be used against enemy fortifications holding up their smaller cousins.
The newer Matilda, still nicknamed “
Matilda II”, was refitted from the frame up. The tank now consisted of a four man crew (commander, gunner, loader, and driver) and was armed with two 7.92 mm machine guns and a 95 mm howitzer that had, through Army tests, found to be ideally suited for the new “heavy tank” doctrine. To move the Matilda II and its now 90 millimeters of armour plate, the power plant was upgraded two Leyland 250 hp V-8 gasoline engines which was able to propel the new 22 ft long, 12 ft wide, 12 ft tall and 55 ton behemoth to speeds of 20 mph. The Matilda II was an Infantry tank no longer, and truly a beast to be wary of on any future battlefields to which it was deployed.
The "new" Matilda II heavy tank
Next: More secrets of the Imperial Military discloused.