The initial purpose of the armored forces was to suppress the resistance of the enemy infantry and overcome the lines of fortifications. The Second World War overturned the established notions of the rules of warfare and tactics. Cases of tank artillery duels and even oncoming battles became frequent. However, it remained true that armored vehicles could not advance without infantry.
But what about the other way around? Can ground forces attack enemy positions on their own? They can, but it's hard. In the mid-thirties, the governments and military ministries of Western countries did not give the armored vehicles the significance that it deserved, but certain progress did occur. The British tank "Matilda" A11 was conceived as a support vehicle for the advancing troops. Low-power (an engine of 70 hp, like a Lada), low-speed (speed up to 13 km / h), devoid of artillery weapons, but equipped with good armor, it was planned by designers to cover the infantry with its silhouette, firing from machine gun mounted in a small tower.
Almost all A11s were lost during the urgent evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk in 1940.
By this time, a new Matilda was already being produced in England. The tank was significantly upgraded and received the A12 Senior index. The machine was far from perfect, it is difficult to compare it with those models that were in service with the Red Army. The body is riveted, and the power plant consisted of two coaxial engines of 87 liters. from. For comparison: the BT-7, which they love to call "obsolete", was equipped with a 400-horsepower diesel engine. The 40 mm turret gun caliber was also inferior to the Soviet projectile size of 45 mm. True, the British tried to install a more powerful gun (50 mm) on the Matilda tank. A photo of such a modification exists, but it did not enter the military units .
The geography of combat use sounds loud. El Alamein, Tobruk, Eritrea, Malta, Borneo, New Guinea - these are just some of the names of places where Matilda managed to fight. The tank, in spite of more than modest technical characteristics, could cope with its function if serious opponents did not resist it. In North Africa, the Italian corps was armed with equipment even more obsolete, the Japanese in the Pacific also could not boast of powerful cars.
After the Nazi Germany attack on the USSR, Sir Winston Churchill was so interested in the successes of the Red Army that, setting aside his anti-communism for the time being, and despite the difficult situation of Great Britain, he decided to render military assistance to our country. Among the supplied models of military equipment was Matilda. The tank was seriously inferior to its Soviet counterparts, but, as they say, without fish ... In total, about a thousand vehicles were delivered. In 1943, the Soviet Union refused to accept this type of armored vehicles, its service was problematic, and combat effectiveness was very doubtful.
In the British Army itself, in 1943, the process of rearmament with the American "Sherman" and "grants" began. English valentines also appeared, which were also imperfect, but still better than Matilda. The tank played a role in the defeat of the Nazis and
Italian fascists in the African theater of operations, and the British tankers, who showed courage, controlled this complex, unreliable and low-power machine, defeated a strong and skillful enemy in this.