kangaroo and matilda

more from bovington [click on photo]
dennis

 

Great shots yet again.

Can't be too many Kangaroos around - looks potentally very useful - see Kangaroo vs Halftrack thread.

I've always liked the Matilda 2 - an attractive little tank with some great features in its favour - soon became obsolete except in the far east of course but a good tank at its peak. Can anyone attest to the effectiveness of its distictive sand/grey/blue disruptive cammoflage and was it used on other tanks - the Crusader perhaps ?

 

crusader

will be posting crusader mk3 and cromwell mk4 shortly
dennis

 

As far as I am aware, the 'dazzle' camoflage was used on tanks in the desert mainly because they did not have enough sand-coloured paint, and had to use RN stocks of paint. As they could not hide a green & blue tank in the desert, they copied the RN dazzle idea. I don't positively remember ever seeing the scheme on anything but a Matilda II, but I have a vague nagging idea that Valentines had it too.

Eventually, of course, proper paint stocks were introduced and the dazzle scheme was discontinued.

 

Hi Dennis, when next you are at Bovington would it be possible to get the shop numbers for the Kanagaroo (and any other Ram)? These are stamped into the rod that crosses the front of the hull.
With the shop number I can corelate to the WD Census number. These then get recorded on the http://www.RamTank.ca database.
Thnx
Clive

 

Would you all recommend Bovington for a day out ?

 

bovington

definitely a wonderful day out, I leave the wife in the pretty market town of dorchester,and spend about 5hours in the museum
dennis

 

bovington

forgot to say if you have any kids they could go to monkey world[about a mile away]
and if you have seen everything that interested you you can drive just up the road[ about 3 mins] to the training ground and see the British army putting their toys through their paces
dennis

 

I'd say that it is a better week out, as when I went we got round about 1/2 of the museum before having to speed through the remainder before closing time.

Mind you, Roel and I did the same at the Land Warfare Hall in Duxford, which is tiny by comparison...

 

And in Brussels...

If you want to really see a museum, you need more than one day. For the Tankfest of 2008 e'd better find some kind of lodgment in the area.

I'm looking at you Dorset people now.

 

The one we stayed in this year was pretty good, about 4 miles from the museum but not in a village/town. If I remember it had 6 rooms. We'll be booking two of them for 2008.

 

Hey Lone Wolf
'I've always liked the Matilda 2 - an attractive little tank with some great features in its favour - soon became obsolete except in the far east of course but a good tank at its peak.'

I like it too. The Matilda was in many ways ideal for tropical warfare. It's good armour gave it protection at the short fighting ranges and against mines (the main threat in many cases) and it's small size allowed it access to narrow bush tracks. Most movement was at infantry pace, so the slow speed of the Matilda wasn't a problem.

The 2 pder AT wasn't ideal for infantry fighting, but it was handy against the bunker systems the Japanese frequently inhabited. Having said that, he Besa MG was pretty potent for infantry work at close ranges. I've read an account of Matildas being called-in the mop-up after a Japanese night assault. They ripped the bush apart, much to the awe of the pbi. The 3 inch howitzer the aussies replaced some of the 2 pders with made up for some of the short-comings of the 2 pder too.

Anyway, have a look at these for some late-war images. See next for the flame-throwing frog, and the bunker-busting hedgehog (originally an anti-sub launcher) adaptations of the aussie army. All are courtesy of the Australian war memorial.

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and...