Type Infantry tank In service 1938-1940 Manufacturer Vickers-Armstrongs | Place of origin United Kingdom Designed 1935 | |
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Designer Sir John Carden, Vickers-Armstrongs | ||
The Tank, Infantry, Mk I, Matilda I (A11) was a British infantry tank of the Second World War. Despite being slow, cramped and only armed with a single machine gun, the Matilda I had some success in the Battle of France in 1940, owing to its heavy armour which was proof against the standard German anti-tank guns. It is not to be confused with the later model Tank, Infantry Mk II (A12), also known as the "Matilda II", which took over the "Matilda" name after the early part of the war, when the first Matilda was withdrawn from combat service. They were different designs and did not share components but did have some similar traits, because they were both designed to be infantry tanks, a type of tank that tended to sacrifice speed for increased armour protection.
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Development history
The development, of the design by Sir John Carden at Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, began in 1935. The General Staff specification required a cheap tank, requiring the use of commercially available components. It resulted in a small two-man vehicle with a low hull and a small cast turret. The turret was fitted with a single heavy machine gun, either a .303 Vickers machine gun or a larger, Vickers .50 machine gun. Designed for quick delivery as well as low cost, the A11 used many stock parts from other vehicles: a Ford V8 engine, a Fordson gearbox, a steering mechanism similar to the one used in Vickers light tanks and suspension adapted from the Mk IV Dragon artillery tractor, that was based on the Vickers 6-Ton Tank Model E.
The hull and turret were well protected against contemporary anti-tank weapons but the tracks and running gear were exposed and more vulnerable than on tanks that had protected tracks. The lack of a gun with anti-tank capability severely limited its utility on the battlefield. Besides operating the machine gun, the commander had to direct the driver and operate the wireless. There being no room in the turret for the wireless, it was placed in the hull and the commander had to duck down inside to operate it. The driver's position was equally cramped and the turret could not be traversed forwards while the driver's hatch was open. The top speed of 8 mph (13 km/h) was thought to be sufficient for supporting an infantry advance.
General Hugh Elles, the Master-General of the Ordnance, is credited with giving the tank the name Matilda "due to the vehicle's diminutive size and duck-like shape and gait." However the codename "Matilda" for the project was created for Vickers at the time of drawing up the specification in 1935. The "Tank, Infantry, Mark I" name was an Army Council decision of June 1940.
Production history
The first order of sixty Matilda tanks was placed in April 1937, followed by an order for a further sixty ten days later and another 19 were ordered in January 1939. The tank remained in production until August 1940, a total of one hundred and forty were produced, including the prototype, some of them with the heavier .50 inch Vickers machine gun, instead of the .303 inch Vickers machine gun.
Combat history
Matilda I tanks equipped the 4th Battalion and 7th Battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR). In September 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, the 4th RTR deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force. They were joined at the start of May 1940 by 7th RTR and formed the 1st Army Tank Brigade. Apart from light tanks assigned to the various British infantry divisions, this was the only British armoured force on the Continent at the start of the Battle of France on 10 May 1940. 58 Matilda Is and 16 Matilda IIs spearheaded the counter-attack in the Battle of Arras on 21 May, temporarily discomfiting the 7th Panzer Division under Rommel. The heavy armour of both types of British tank proved to be resistant to the standard German 37 mm anti-tank gun and the attack was only halted by a gun line hastily formed from 105 mm howitzers and 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, personally directed by Rommel. On the following day, only 26 Matilda Is and two Matilda II tanks were still serviceable.
On 23 May, tanks from 7 RTR fought a rearguard action at Souchez before joining the general withdrawal towards Dunkirk. The surviving tanks of both battalions were formed into a composite unit, which fought another counter-attack at La Bassée. Only two tanks reached Dunkirk in the closing stages of Operation Dynamo.
Further south in France, five Matilda Is and a few other tanks which had been in various depots or had arrived as late reinforcements, formed the Divisional Tank Company of the Beauman Division, an improvised formation which had been hastily put together to defend the British logistic bases at Rouen and Dieppe. On 8 June, the tanks supported the force, which was mainly infantry, in their unsuccessful defence of the rivers Andelle and Béthune. The division was subsequently evacuated from Cherbourg during Operation Ariel; although 22 tanks of various types were brought back during these evacuations, there were no infantry tanks among them. A Matilda I was selected by the German Army for evaluation and it was destroyed in the process. Matilda Is left in the United Kingdom were withdrawn for training purposes.
Some recent evidence suggests that Matilda I's captured by the Germans may have seen use as internal security vehicles, probably in Poland.
Survivors
Three surviving Matilda I tanks are preserved at The Tank Museum in the United Kingdom. One (possibly T3447) is in running condition; it was recovered from a gunnery range and restored to running condition, although it is powered by an inauthentic engine and gearbox.
The second vehicle was built in March 1940 and restored to running condition in the 1980s. It is painted to represent T8106 a tank of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment in France in May 1940.
A third Matilda I is a severely damaged wreck that was used as a gunnery range target.