In message , Greg Hennessy
writes
On Sun, 6 Jun 2004 17:22:23 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:
The Matilda II went on to create havoc with the Italians
in North Africa were it tore through Italian tank and
anti-tank formations and also served with some
distinction in Russia which received over a 1000
of them at a critical period when their own tank production was
being relocated beyond the Urals.

Shame about the idiots who insisted that such a fine tank be armed with a
gun which had no HE round.

No insisting - the two-pound AT was a very good gun for its time and
could handily kill any Panzer that met it in 1940. And at this point,
tanks either used MGs for anti-infantry work or put howitzers in hull
mounts (M3 Grant/Lee, Char B, early Churchills) or else armed a
proportion of the fleet with low-velocity large bore HE guns (early
Panzer IVs, late Panzer IIIs).

One wonders how many needless deaths were caused by that oversight.

It wasn't a contingency foreseen by that many, as shown by policy of the
time.


--
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Caesar I:2

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk