File:A12_Matilda_II_‘T10459’_“THE_PRINCESS_ROYAL”_(49909226038).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Matilda II
Sign in to saveAlso known as Waltzing Matilda, Infantry Tank Mk II Matilda II, Matilda tank Mk II, Matilda Senior, A12 Matilda II
WWII infantry tank
Key facts
- Type
- Infantry tank
- Place of origin
- United Kingdom
- In service
- 1939–1955
- Used by
- United Kingdom , Australia , Canada , Soviet Union , Nazi Germany (captured) , Egypt
- Wars
- Second World War , 1948 Arab–Israeli War
- Designer
- Mechanization Board and Vulcan Foundry
- Manufacturer
- Vulcan Foundry and others
- Produced
- 1937–1943
- Number span no built
- 2,987
- Variants
- see Variants below
- Mass
- 25 tons
- Length
- 18 ft 5 in (5.61 m)
- Width
- 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
- Height
- 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
- Crew
- 4 (driver, gunner, loader, commander)
- Armour
- 20 to 78 mm (0.79 to 3.07 in)
- Main armament
- QF-2 pounder (40 mm) gun , 93 armour-piercing rounds
- Secondary armament
- 7.92 mm Besa machine gun , 2,925 rounds
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- infantry tank
- Operator
- British Army
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Followed by
- Valentine
- Mass
- 26.5
- Manufacturer
- Vulcan Foundry
- Designed by
- Vulcan Foundry
- Conflict
- World War II
- Image
- Matilda Compass.jpg
- Height
- 2.36
- Width
- 2.6
- Length
- 4.9
- Speed
- 16
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Matilda II tank
- Commons gallery
- Matilda II tank
- service entry
- 1939-01-01
- service retirement
- 1945-01-01
- total produced
- 2987
- used by
- Soviet Union
- short name
- Matilda
via Wikidata · CC0
~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda, is a British infantry tank of the Second World War.
The design began as the A12 specification in 1936, as a gun-armed counterpart to the first British infantry tank, the machine gun armed, two-man A11 Infantry Tank Mark I. The Mark I was also known as Matilda, and the larger A12 was initially known as the Matilda II or Matilda senior. The Mark I was abandoned in 1940, and from then on the A12 was almost always known simply as "the Matilda".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Matilda II” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.