At 78 tons, the A39 Heavy Assault Tank Tortoise represented Britain’s final attempt to build a heavy tank during World War II. The Tortoise was first designed in 1942, but work on it did not move rapidly until 1944 when Germany’s Jagdtiger appeared. Only pilot models of the Tortoise were built, and these were not …
Category Archives: British World War Two Tanks
A43 Infantry Tank Black Prince
The A43 Infantry Tank Black Prince was a modification of the A22 Infantry Tank Mark IV Churchill. The Black Prince was designed to mount a 17 pounder gun. The Allies had realized, by December 1943, that while the Sherman Firefly and the Challenger A30 had mounted 17 pounder guns, their armor was not comparable to …
M3 Light Tank
The M3 light tank was designed by the United States in the spring of 1940 and given to Great Britain as part of the lend-lease program. The British army officially designated the tank the Stuart; in Britain, the M3 was unofficially known as the Honey. The design of the M3 light tank was based on …
Mark III Valentine Infantry Tank
The prototype of the Mark III Valentine Infantry Tank was produced on February 14 – Valentine’s Day – 1940, and Valentines continued to be produced until 1944. During that time, over 8,000 of these tanks were built, some in Canada. There were 11 different Marks and some variants that were used for special purposes. Variants …
Tank Truck Decoy Disguise
During World War Two the Allies and Germans both used many kinds of tactics to fool the enemy, creating false radio transmissions and placing decoys that looked like groups of tanks and trucks, so when the enemy went there they found nothing and wasted their time, or used up bombs on worthless decoys. On the …
TOG Heavy Tanks
The TOG heavy tanks – TOG 1 and TOG 2 – were very large, heavy tanks that were designed to cross wide trenches and withstand anti-tank weaponry. They never saw action. At 80 tons, TOG 2 was the heaviest tank produced by Britain during World War II. The TOG heavy tanks were designed by TOG, …