Matilda II
Also 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)
~30 min read
Article
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".