[WW] Re: British Tanks

[Alan Kellogg <mythusmage@cts.com>]

>Most British tanks were badly under gunned. The
>Matilda II had excellent armour for an early war tank
>- it took an 8.8cm Flak to do the job properly but
>only a 2-pdr gun.
>
>This continued for a good while, the Churchill had
>good armour but again a small gun - a 6-pdr this time
>I think and the turret ring was to small to allow an
>easy upgrade. It was big and roomy enough to make a
>good engineer tank so many 'funnies' were made on
>Churchills.
>
>The best thing they did tank wise was to shoehorn the
>17-pdr AT gun into a Sherman turret this finally gave
>the Western allies a decent AT gun in a tank - the
>Americans had cancelled their heavy tank and showed
>little interest in upgunning the Sherman from the 75mm
>which was by then showing it's age. The 76mm was still
>not really enough.
>
>I think this can be blamed on an unrealistic
>distinction between tanks and tank destroyers in the
>US army (no sillier than the British scheme of Cruiser
>and Infantry tanks).
>
>The first really good British tank of WW II was the
>Centurion, and only a few made it there in the final
>days for testing.
>
>Michael

Britain wasn't really ready for war in 1939. Nobody was, it's just 
that the Germans were more ready than anybody else. Add in the 
equipment losses on the continent during the fall of France, and 
Britain needed stuff to equip her troops fast. This meant stuff that 
was supposed to be replaced was kept in service and factories 
couldn't retool for more modern gear. It was a case of needing 
something, and not having the time to upgrade.

BTW, the M26 Pershing was not cancelled, it was merely delayed.

In contrast to the British arms industry of the time, consider the 
Italian. Thanks to Fascist corruption and Mussolini's venality the 
Italian army was forced to make do with artillery pieces that 
literally dated back to the 1880s. The original plan was to have 5 
armor divisions in action by 1940. Each was to have one battalion of 
heavy armor (a 26 ton beast with a 75mm gun) plus two battalions of 
mediums (13 tons with a 47mm piece) plus a self propelled artillery 
regiment along with a regiment of mechanized infantry. As it turns 
out, the heavy armor was just starting to come out of the factories 
in Sept. of '43, the medium armor was frittered away in combat and/or 
special 'elite' Blackshirt units or special projects, and only a 
couple of self propelled artillery battalions ever saw service. All 
told, only 4 armor divisions ever saw action, with the 5th being 
converted to an infantry formation because of the lack of tanks to 
outfit it, and the fact the Italians needed infantry formations to 
replace losses.

As for Italian tanks, the only nation with worse designs was Japan. 
With one exception Italian armor was obsolete by the time it finally 
saw service. that one exception being the P26/40, a tank that 
officially entered service in 1940, but which would not be produced 
until late in 1943. The Germans confiscated every one they could get 
their hands on and used them against the Allies in Italy. A fair 
number of P26/40 turrets were set up as improvised pillboxes and gave 
the American 5th and British 8th armies a fair bit of trouble. BTW, 
the original design for the P26/40 was made back around 1926.

Alan


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