Since the birth of the tank in 1916, the British have led the world in both the design and use of armored forces, but by 1939 internal army politics and mistaken tactical doctrine had robbed Britain of this important and hard won advantage.
The tanks discussed here are among some of the least successful of the WW2 period. Some of them (such as the British Valentine, Matilda and Churchill) were eventually turned into good fighting machines, but working in a rush and without a proper development base from which to work up their designs many British tank designers produced tanks that were no match for their counterparts in the German Panzer units. The reasons for this are described herein, but it is not all a sorry tale: despite their drawbacks, these tanks (both Infantry and Cruiser types) were at times all there was to hand and with them their crews and commanders learned the important lessons that were to produce the eventual Allied victory.
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| French mechanized units parading with their Hotchkiss H35 tanks. A small, lightly armed vehicle with a crew of two, it saw service with the French in both cavalry and infantry-support roles. |
Some of the development and design results were remarkable. Working from a base where virtually no heavy engineering facilities existed, Australia was able to produce the Sentinel from scratch, and it was no fault of the designers that their progeny was never to see action. The same can be said of the Canadians, who produced the Ram in a remarkably short time, again from scratch and with no tank production experience whatsoever. These two projects must rate among the more remarkable production feats of World War II, but today they are little known outside their home nations.
The tale of the Cruiser tanks produced by the United Kingdom has by now been often told but it still bears reexamination, showing as it does, how a doctrine accepted without proper investigation can affect the course of battles, even well past the point when the doctrine has been found wanting. British and Allied tank crews had to drive their charges into battle knowing that their main guns were too weak, their armored protection too thin and their mechanical reliability all too suspect at a critical moment. But they went into battle all the same and often managed to defeat a better armed and prepared enemy. Thus, while reading of the tanks one must think of the men who manned and fought them, for tanks are but lumps of metal constructed in a certain fashion, and are nothing without men to drive and use them in combat.
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FRANCE Hotchkiss H-35 and H-39 light tanks
FRANCE Renault R 35
FRANCE SOMUA S-35 medium tank
FRANCE Char B1-bis heavy tank
UK Vickers Light Tanks
UK Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch
UK Cruiser Tank Mk VI Crusader
UK Cruiser Tank Mk VIII Cromwell
UK Cruiser Tank Mk VIII Centaur
UK Cruiser Tank Challenger
UK Infantry Tank Mks I and II Matilda
UK Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine
UK Infantry Tank Mk IV Churchill
AUSTRALIA Cruiser Tank Sentinel AC1
CANADA Cruiser Tank Ram Mk I