Early British Armoured Battalion

Early British WWII armour from the late 30s and early 40s in 1/76.

The small tank in front (Airfix) is aVickers Mk VI. This was a superb light tank designed for the traditional light cavalry roles of colonial policing and reconnaissance. However, it was the only British tank design suitable for mass production at the outbreak WWII. A thousand were manfactured and it ended up being used as a battle tank, a role for which it was absurdly unsuited.

The larger tank is an A13 Cruiser Tank from Frontline, and was the first British tank to use Christie suspension. The  idea of a cruiser tank reveals the flawed British concept of what a tank was for. The idea was that cruisers would operate like fleets without the support of other arms. Emphasis on speed meant that it had the armour of a light tank.

The gun was a 2pdr anti-tank weapon which was fine against enemy tanks of the period but useless against anything else. So the tanks had no defense against enemy anti-tank guns or artillery, which could pick them off at leisure as they tried to close to MG range. The mad British armoured cavalry charges have to be seen in this context. The lack of HE would not have mattered if the weapon was employed as part of a combined arms battlegroup, as in German practice, but they weren't. The Anglo-American armies never mastered this.

Only about 65 were made.