Matilda II Tank

The Matilda II is a British infantry tank of the Second World War, produced from 1937 to 1943 chiefly by the Vulcan Foundry among several other British manufacturers, designed to advance alongside infantry at modest speed while carrying armor thick enough to resist most contemporary anti-tank guns. Armed initially with a 2-pounder gun and protected by up to 78 millimeters of armor, the tank proved effectively immune to Italian anti-tank weapons during the North African campaign of 1940 and 1941, earning it the nickname Queen of the Desert, though it later became vulnerable once Germany deployed more powerful anti-tank guns including the 88mm. Nearly three thousand Matilda IIs were built, and the type saw service from the first days of the war to the last, fighting in North Africa, with Australian forces in the Pacific theater, and in smaller numbers with Soviet forces.