Figure 1.-- Throughout the War, the British were always one step behind he Germans. They did no close the gap until 1945 when the War was over. Here we see an Allied tank in Germany at the end of the War. We have not yet been able to idenify it. A reader writes, "You got me with this one. That large space behind the kids I have never seen before." The turret looks like a Sherman. We are not sure it is large enough for a Sherman. We would be very interested in any reader insights.

" We really thought that our tank weere absolutely the last word. We've been sold on the idea that our tanks, the Crusaders, were extremely fast and could do 40 miles an hour on roads . We knew that the gun was small. The gun was minute, a 2 pouder gun, about a 37 mm cannon."

--Clifford Price, Wireless Operaor, 7th Armored Diviion

Faced with the disaster in France (May 1940), British military strategists and arms manufacturers were forced to rethink tactics and tank design. Almost decade og meager budget and indecision could be easily remedied. It meant mean that it would not be an easy or quick process. Britain would be forced to fight the campaign in the Western Desert which began immediately after the fall of France. The British had to go with what they had and could produce on short order. Fortunately, the campaign began with the Italians who had even worse tanks than the British (September 1940). Notice that the Germans were not helping he Italians with advanced chronology.) They would not have to face German tanks again until Rommel and the Afrika Korps arrived to rescue the Italians (March 1941). By this time the British had Lend Lease and the American Arsenal of Democracy to aid them. The first major contribution was the M-3 Grant. The Grant had issues, but despite major short-comings had a much needed 75mm gun. The British were feverishly coming up with new tanks. There was little time for testing. hey went directly from the drawing boar to production with major issues resulting. And invariably British designers and manufacturers were normally one step behind their German counterparts. And here the British made a serious mistake. They came up with multiple designs aimed at specific missions rather creating one really excellent design hat could be produced in great numbers and adapted to particular tasks. this decision taken early in the war dominated British tank designs far too long. The first Cruiser tank was the A-9, but produced in very small numbers. It did, however, have a major influence on subsequent British tank design. A few were sent to France and most of the remainder were sent to Egypt. The first cruiser tank produced in numbers was the Crusader. The Crusader could have handled most of the German Panzers deployed in France (1940). In he Western Desert, it was barely able to deal with the Panzer Mark IIIs, but the Crusader shells just bounced off the Mark IVs (1942). As was the case throughout the War, the British were constantly one step behind the Germans.

Created: 4:21 AM 11/21/2024
Last updated: 12:35 AM 11/25/2024