With its heavy armour, the Matilda II was an excellent infantry support tank but with somewhat limited speed and armament.

[9] It was replaced in front-line service by the lighter and less costly Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine beginning in late 1941.

One was a very small, heavily armoured, machine gun-armed model that would be fielded in large numbers to overwhelm the enemy defences.

The other was a larger vehicle with a cannon as well as machine guns and heavier armour proof against enemy field artillery.

Within the limitations of military finances, the Master-General of the Ordnance, Hugh Elles, went for the smaller machine gun tank and the larger cannon-armed version did not proceed.

[11] This requirement was passed to Vickers-Armstrongs which had a prototype (A11E1) but with armour proof against current anti-tanks guns ready by September 1936.

The prototypes proved excellent in a 1,000 miles (1,600 km) test, resulting in only a few changes to improve the gearbox, suspension and cooling.

The driver also had a direct vision viewing port with manually operated armoured shield and a single Mk IV periscope to use when buttoned up.

[5][c] The cast, cylindrical three-man turret was seated on ball-bearing ring mount and its armour was 75 mm (2.95 in) all round.

The same device was also mounted in a fixed position in the turret roof, forward of the commander's cupola, and giving the gunner some situational awareness and target finding capabilities.

The shape of the nose armour was based on Christie's designs and came to a narrow point with storage lockers added on either side.

[20] While the Matilda possessed a degree of protection that was unmatched in the North African theatre, the sheer weight of the armour on the vehicle contributed to a very low average speed of about 6 mph (9.7 km/h) on desert terrain and 16 miles per hour (26 km/h) on roads.

The slow speed of the Matilda was further exacerbated by a troublesome suspension and a comparatively weak power unit, which was created from two AEC 6-cylinder bus engines linked to a single shaft.

[8] This arrangement was complicated and time-consuming to maintain, as it required mechanics to work on each engine separately and subjected automotive components to uneven wear-and-tear.

The first Matildas had return rollers; these were replaced in later models by track skids, which were far easier to manufacture and to service in the field.

[15] Some 2,987 tanks were produced by the Vulcan Foundry, John Fowler & Co. of Leeds, Ruston & Hornsby, and later by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at Horwich Works; Harland and Wolff, and the North British Locomotive Company Glasgow.

For example, the pointed nose was a single casting that, upon initial release from the mould, was thicker than required in some areas.

In late 1940, during Operation Compass, Matildas of the British 7th Armoured Division wreaked havoc among the Italian forces in Egypt.

Matildas continued to confound the Italians as the British pushed them out of Egypt and entered Libya to take Bardia and Tobruk.

Ultimately, in the rapid manoeuvre warfare often practised in the open desert of North Africa, the Matilda's low speed and unreliable steering mechanism became major problems.

Firing tests conducted by the Afrika korps showed that the Matilda had become vulnerable to a number of German weapons at ordinary combat ranges.

With the arrival of the Valentine in autumn 1941, the Matilda was phased out by the British Army through attrition, with lost vehicles no longer being replaced.

[31] The Australian 4th Armoured Brigade used them against Japanese forces in the South West Pacific Area, first in the Huon Peninsula campaign in October 1943.

[4] The tanks were often employed in dense jungle with limited visibility, and could be subject to point-blank fire from hidden Japanese heavy artillery pieces.

The Matilda's heavy armour (enhanced by the crews with spare track links) proved to be reasonably effective protection against this.

[32] In this fighting, the close-support version of the Matilda, armed with an Ordnance QF 3-inch howitzer, was preferred by the Australians as it was more effective against Japanese bunkers.

[30] The Matilda Frog, an Australian-modified version of the tank that replaced the gun with a flamethrower saw some successful use against the Japanese on Borneo.

Another Australian version, the Matilda Hedgehog, which could fire seven 65-pound (29 kg) mortar shells, was successfully tested but was developed too late to see combat service.

[35] Following Operation Battleaxe a dozen Matildas left behind the Axis lines were repaired and put into service by the Germans.

[36] Czech historian Ivo Pejčoch [cz] writes that the Romanians had also captured some Soviet Matildas,[38] but no other source mentions this, so it may be a confusion.