Desert queens and sweethearts

The Crusader project continues with the infantry tanks; for those that do not know, British tank design of the 1930s produced "cruiser" tanks designed for speed sacrificing armour and "infantry" tanks designed for the support of the PBI, sacrificing speed for armour. This division also carried through to the armoured formations, with tank brigades and divisions being equipped with cruiser tanks (and initially light tanks due to shortages) and the Army Tank Brigades being equipped with the infantry tanks.

In the desert, the main infantry tank up to 1942 was the Matilda II/IIA; its predecessor was the machine gun armed Matilda I - the name deriving from that of a cartoon duck, the "waddling" of the small tank resembling that of the cartoon duck - these were used in France along with the replacement bigger, heavier tank armed with 2pdr or CS howitzer - than name stuck. Only the mark II and IIA were used in the desert.

In the early campaigns against the Italians, they gained another nickname "Queen of the desert" due to the impervious nature of their armour - the Italians did not possess a weapon capable of penetrating the thick frontal armour and their appearance was enough to compel mass surrenders by the Italian infantry. More Matildas were put out of action by break downs and damage than enemy action.

Sadly, this confidence was misplaced when  a repeat performance was attempted against the Germans. Here the 88mm AA gun used as an AT weapon was capable of knocking out even the heavily armoured Matilda at a distance - long before the crew could even attempt to reply - this coupled with poor tactics and lack of all arms co-operation by the British led to catastrophic losses, how ever brave the crew.

By Operation Crusader, the Matilda still soldiered on in the Army Tank Brigades, but had been joined by the new tank, the Valentine - less well armoured but faster and cheaper to produce, using components from the Cruiser A9/10. Again with a 2pdr (no CS versions were produced) and a much lower silhouette. The Valentine would go on to replace the Matilda in the desert - the Gazala battles of 1942 would see the last of the Matilda except in specialist roles. It would however soldier on in the Far East and many were supplied to the USSR under lend-lease.

Many will have built the old Airfix Matilda, but I had acquired some S-Model 1/72 versions and just before I started them, a new model was released by Tabletop Workshop (they have since released a 1/100 version as well) in the same scale. Great value at 4 tanks for £24-95 post free.

The four identical sprues produce very nice models with lots of moulded detail. There is a choice of 2pdr or CS howitzer barrels, open and closed hatches and 2 crew figures. The build was quick an straightforward; one track did seem to fit better than the other and there are some mould lines, especially around the tracks. The finished model is the later version of the Matilda II as used in Crusader and Gazala.

The model shown has the driver hatch open and one of the crew figures in the open hatch (the hatch cover rolled back into the tank). My only criticisms are that it is perhaps a little overscale, it comes with a limited number of turret accessories, but only one Besa MG ammo box (up to three were carried) and the aerial seems to have merged with the pistol port / vent on the left side of the turret - most odd. I carefully cut the rear part off and used this on the turret , drilling out the now separate aerial bracket. You can see the separated parts in the rear view photo. The long tube was where spare flags were kept apparently!

The most noticeable omission were the smoke dischargers on the right turret front. In real life they were cut down  Lee Enfield or Ross rifles with a smoke discharger cup attached. Mine were simpler affairs, although I did go back and add a sort of trigger guard later.

The S-Model Matilda is boxed as a Soviet version. Dan Taylor does a conversion kit with replacement side skirts and model parts. I had intended to use these aftermarket parts but discovered, they were intended for the early version used up to 1941. In the end, the kit was built straight from the box. It's a very nice kit that goes together smoothly, although with more components than the Tabletop Workshop model.

It is a more complete model, although one of mine had only two instead of three  Besa boxes - as most will only have one it's no big deal that these have 2 and 3 (at least I can tell them apart!) There is a choice of 2pdr barrel (I picked the later just because it matched the thickness of the others better) and the option of two different cupola. Only the main turret hatch can be modelled open and the lifting handles come as PE brass parts, unlike the other model where they are moulded on. While it does have smoke dischargers, both models come with the external fuel cannister. Some research and scouring of photos suggested that during Crusader, they were still using a frame with Petrol Oil and Water tins - sometimes called "flimsies" (inaccurate apparently - this was a different type of tin).

While I considered using the parts from the Dan Taylor kit on the S-Models, in the end I scratchbuilt frames for all of them and added some resin tins - these may be the larger flimsies rather than the correct POW tins - there should be 6, but mine have 4. The frames were made from some model railway gantry kits - the ladders being cut up and glued together with a strip of plastic rod as the locking bar.

 

As part of the 1 Army Tank Brigade were equipped with Valentines, I dug out some models. One out of three battalions had Valentines, but in numbers were nearly half. I therefore decided to add two models. 32 Tank Brigade in Tobruck had around 69 Matilda (one btn + one coy) but also 10 Valentines, around 30 Cruisers of various makes and 19 Mk VI lights. Mk VI lights also accompanied 1 TB - I have not got around to these yet. I therefore added a third Valentine model for 32 TB.

The models were a mixture - an Italeri kit, complete with hard plastic tracks including individual links (!), a PSC fast build and an old Armourfast quick build.

The Italeri kit was time consuming but went together well, even the tracks which were difficult. The turret comes with internal turret basket detail - this resulted in yet more madness as I converted the figure supplied to sit inside this basket.....on reflection, I could have simply omitted these parts, but it turned into a fun little side project - I had to research the internal colour of Valentines - apparently aluminium until shortages meant white, before changing back to aluminium....I opted for the latter as an early model. 

You can just see his head through the turret hatch but it gives a good impression of how cramped the first turret version was - I mistakenly put him in the loader's position when I should have put him on the other side - the commander acted as loader - a separate AB figure will occupy what's left of the hatch.

The PSC version was a reasonable build; the parts went together. The hull with side skirts moulded on looked too wide and they were very thick. So I opted for the version without and filled the gap with plastic card and rod. A metal Besa barrel and some added bits and it was done.

Then the Armourfast model - a bit of an after thought this and almost abandoned. Like most Armourfast kits they are basic, have a very poor fit between track and hull and when finished are too wide and sit too high! Lots of remedial work was done with bits of sprue to add detail behind the wheels and to better attach tracks to hull. Further detailing was attempted with various left-over bits and like the others, a metal flimsy rack was added to the hull. The hatch was left open and I'm hoping a crew figure plus lots of stowage help distract from the absence of detail!

 

I worked on them almost like in a real workshop with tanks in various stages of completion - it did make me think about my maternal Grandfather who worked at Vickers in Elswick during the war (he had been in the RFC as groundcrew in WW1) - I regret not asking him what he worked on. After completion, I divided them up for the two tank brigades.

1 Army Tank Brigade (needs a MkVIc adding)

32 Army Tank Brigade in Tobruck (needs a Cruiser - probably A10 and |MkVIB light)

I may add the missing tanks (a couple of MkVI lights and an A13 to swap out one of the A10s done earlier) but I also want to splash some paint on the Indians and also there's another Soldier King army to do.....