After Dunkirk and Towards Lend-Lease

With Western Europe now under German occupation, the rest of the world, especially America, looked on, and Britain appeared to be standing alone. However, these free countries had not reckoned on the unconditional support of the dominion and Commonwealth forces of the British Empire, which meant that manpower was not a problem.

Canada

The burden of producing sufficient vehicles and weapons to equip the armies was a huge obstacle to overcome, but even that problem would be alleviated by countries such as Canada, which declared war on 10 September 1939 and would freely produce thousands of vehicles that supported the Allied war effort.

Canadian Vehicle Production

Military Police units used unarmed versions of the Fox. Gunner’s position inside the Fox showing the .50 inch and .30 inch machine guns (top left).

Canada built over 1,500 four-wheeled Mk I Fox armoured cars, based on the British Army’s Humber armoured car, at the General Motors production facility. Unfortunately it was not one of the better thought-out designs and it had problems with the steering that meant it was not well liked by the troops. Nevertheless, these vehicles were sent to serve in India, Italy and Britain, and some served in Holland during the closing stages of the war. The Mk I Fox had a crew of four, comprising commander, driver, gunner and radio operator, and was armed with a .50in-calibre machine gun in a fully traversing turret with a .30in-calibre machine gun mounted co-axially. Fitted with a GMC six-cylinder petrol engine, it had a maximum speed of 44mph and an operational range of 210 miles. The Fox had armour protection to 15mm maximum and was 15ft long, 7ft 7in wide, and 8ft high to the top of the turret; it weighed just over 7.5 tons.

The driver’s position of the Canadian Fox showing the standard driving wheel for steering (left). Turret and mid-section (right).

Indeed Canada’s war effort is frequently overlooked but its output certainly helped the Allied cause tremendously. For example, the country also produced the Ford F30 truck, which served as the tractor for the Bofors 40mm light anti-aircraft gun, served with the LRDG and was also used as an ambulance. Canada produced some 13,000 Chevrolet C8A heavy utility trucks, which served in the role of ambulance, signal vehicle and troop transport. Another armoured vehicle design that Canada contributed to the Allied war effort was the Otter light reconnaissance car. The country never once shirked its responsibilities and, indeed, by the end of 1942 Canada had some 177,000 men serving overseas in the army. They would go on to participate in some of the hardest-fought actions of the war, including the raid on Dieppe in 1942, and would have the Juno beach assigned to them during the D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944. In fact from June 1944 until May 1945 the Canadian Army sustained some 48,000 casualties, of which over 12,500 were killed.

The heavy manufacturing bases in Canada turned out large numbers of other types of vehicles, including almost 4,000 GM C15TA Armoured Trucks for carrying troops, weapons and tanks, such as 1,400 Valentines, most of which went to Russia, almost 1,900 Ram tanks, a Canadian design, and over 2,000 Sexton SPGs fitted with 25-pounder guns that were built at the plant in Sorel. On top of these came the production of thousands of other vehicles, including Kangaroo personnel carriers and the Badger flame-thrower vehicle. In addition to this output came aircraft and ships to replace losses and keep the shipping lanes across the Atlantic open to permit these supplies to be transported. One of the lesser known but no less important vehicles produced by the impressive Canadian armaments manufacturers was a vehicle referred to as the ‘Car, Light Reconnaissance, Canadian G.M. Mark I Otter I’. Needless to say this was shortened to ‘Otter’ and was basically built to the same general specification as the British Humber Mk III light reconnaissance car. However, through the judicious use of components produced in Canada, the design resulted in a vehicle markedly different from the Humber. The engine bonnet was much shorter but higher, which gave the vehicle a more pronounced hull with a distinct hump-like appearance.

Canadian-built Chevrolet C8A.

Canadian-built Ford F30 used to tow the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

The LRDG used a variety of weapons and vehicles such as this Canadian-built CMP Ford 30 (left) fairly bristling with machine guns. The LRDG used different vehicles for the arduos role of desert war including this CMP Ford F30 (30cwt) LRDG ‘Y’ Patrol Aramis (right). It is painted pink to blend in with the sandy terrain.

Originally it was intended that the Otter be equipped to carry the same armament as the Humber, and provision was made accordingly. But, as it transpired, a decision was taken that the vehicle be armed with an entirely different complement of weapons. The compact turret could fully traverse through 360 degrees and mounted a Bren .303in machine gun, which, with its 500 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire, gave all-round defence. Mounted in the hull front next to the driver was a Mk I Boys anti-tank rifle, which had restricted traversing capabilities. This weapon was operated using a bolt action to fire ammunition of .55in calibre from a five-round box magazine. It could penetrate 20mm of armour at 0 degrees impact at a range of 550yd. This weapon had been withdrawn from front-line units in 1941 because of its inadequacies against tanks with thick armour. In the case of the Otter, however, which was to operate in a mainly reconnaissance role, it was believed that the Boys anti-tank rifle would be sufficient for this purpose. After all, reconnaissance vehicles were not supposed to enter combat with anything larger than themselves, because they were only meant to be covertly observing developments of enemy movements from a distance. In fact, the Boys would have been capable of destroying light vehicles if the firer hit the engine with steel-cored bullets. Similarly, it could have been used against parked aircraft, which would have been rendered unserviceable if the engine took a hit. In some versions of the Otter, the Boys anti-tank weapon was replaced with a No .19 radio to give improved communications for liaison and information purposes.

GM C15TA Armoured Truck, crew seats and driver’s position.

The Otter was fitted with a six-cylinder General Motors engine that developed 104bhp and a maximum road speed of 45mph. The three-man crew comprised the driver, commander and gunner, who also operated the radio. Access to the vehicle was through large doors set on the right-hand side by the driver’s position and another on the left side for the gunner. It was adequately protected for its intended role with armour protection varying between 6mm and 12mm, which made it comparable to other vehicles operating in similar roles, such as the British Humber armoured car.

Not everybody was satisfied with the Otter, however, and some were quite disparaging in their overall assessment. One of the main areas of concern lay in the fact that the weight of the Otter was greater in relation to, say, the Humber light reconnaissance car, by being more than 1 ton heavier. Another fact that was pointed to was that the Otter lacked an auxiliary gearbox, leading critics to believe that its survival on the battlefield would be severely compromised. However, despite these elements of doubt the Otter went on to provide great service. In the grand scheme of things the wartime production of the Otter was not very large (only some 1,761 vehicles), but that does not detract from its importance. Each vehicle had to be shipped across the Atlantic in convoys of transports in order that they could be deployed to all those theatres of war where Canadian forces served. Some were operated by units of the British Army, which was not an inconsiderable achievement for a vehicle produced in so few numbers and about which some had their doubts.

Although there were no variants of the Otter developed, it was flexible enough to be modified either before deployment to the battlefield or when actually in the field. The Royal Air Force regiment also realised the usefulness of the Otter and employed a limited number for conducting patrols and assisting in airfield defence by patrolling the perimeter. The RAF converted some vehicles for these roles by fitting them with a different armament to what they were normally equipped with. The Boys anti-tank rifle was replaced with a 20mm cannon in the front of the hull. The Bren gun in the turret was replaced with twin Browning machine guns. The overall result was to improve the firepower of the Otter greatly, in keeping with the heightened importance of the role in which they were operating.

Australia

The Sentinel was developed for home defence after Australia was bombed by the Japanese Air Force (left). The Sentinel tank as developed by Austrlia in response to Japanese attacks (right).

Australia too showed how much it could do to help the Allied war effort by building around 5,600 Bren gun carriers and even went further by producing a locally developed tank called the ‘Sentinel’ which was used mainly for home defence. Although Australia as a country was isolated from heavy front-line action during the Second World War, when the Japanese bombed the port of Darwin on 19 February 1942 there was a very serious fear of further attacks and a possible invasion by Japanese troops seemed imminent. Indeed, Prime Minister John Curtain declared that ‘Australia is facing the gravest hour in her history’ and home-based troops were placed on alert. Australian troops had been fighting overseas in the Allied cause since the beginning of the war and had committed many fighting men to the Middle East. During the Second World War, Australia, like Canada, undertook to support the Allied cause by building extra numbers of much-needed vehicles, the designs of which had been developed in other countries. This helped ease the burden on Britain, which was trying to keep pace with losses incurred in battle. Australia built some 700 tracked AFVs based on British designs, for example. This may only seem like a small contribution in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit helped. Australia actually went even further and produced one locally designed tank, thereby proving the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention, and at the time the country’s back was firmly against the wall.

Other Commonwealth Countries

Even remote New Zealand built 520 Bren gun carriers, all of which went towards helping Britain’s war effort. Other Commonwealth countries such as South Africa also produced 2,694 Daimler armoured cars and 3,630 Marmon-Herrington armoured cars, and India produced a vehicle range known as Armoured Carrier, Wheeled, I.P. Mk II and another version called the AOV, building around 4,655 of these vehicles between 1940 and 1945. These vehicles from a country not used to producing such specialised equipment would be used in various theatres of war but were especially useful in the Far East. On its own Britain produced 1,399 tanks during 1940 and many thousands of trucks and motorcycles. Indeed at one motor vehicle factory, Luton-based Vauxhall, a total of some 66,000 Bedford MW 15cwt (.75 ton) were built between 1939 and 1945. These trucks were fitted with 3.5-litre six-cylinder petrol engines to give a top road speed of 45mph with a fuel consumption of around 10–12 miles per gallon. The vehicles were used by all branches of Britain’s armed forces but they were inadequately protected against the elements and early designs were known as ‘pneumonia wagons’ by the drivers because they were so cold. In 1940 Germany built 1,460 tanks, a number greater than Britain’s effort by only a narrow margin. It also continued to produce trucks and motorcycles. Also, while Britain had its Commonwealth to add to its output, Germany had the factories in the occupied countries such as France that could build AFVs, trucks and motorcycles. There was also the captured stock of equipment including weapons and vehicles that would be pressed into service in various roles.

Bedford MW truck could carry supplies or troops and the canvas cover gave some protection in bad weather. Bedford MW truck in 1st Armoured Division colour for North African campaign (top right) and in colours of 3rd Infantry Division (above).

French Production under Occupation

Pre-war output of trucks in France had actually halved between 1930 and 1938, and these designs were based on civilian models. In 1936 the French defence minister, Edouard Daldier, ordered a rearmament programme calling for 3,200 modern tanks and 5,000 other tracked vehicles at a cost of 14 million francs and, although France had one of the most powerful armies in Europe, it still found itself going to war equipped with ageing vehicles such as FT–17 tanks and Berliet CBA trucks, which were both of First World War vintage. The main truck production companies of Renault, Citroën and Panhard, and others such as Berliet, produced vehicles that could carry troops and equipment but these were still essentially based on civilian models. When France surrendered the German Army used these factories to build trucks for itself. Louis Renault employed his workforce in this role and earned a reputation for being a collaborator. When the country was liberated in 1944 he was arrested by his countrymen, charged with collaboration and held in Fresne prison where he died under very suspicious circumstances. The company Peugeot built over 48,800 trucks and Citroën produced more than 15,000 trucks for the German Army, while the company of Latil built 4x4 heavy tractors, which were used during the Russian campaign. Citroën also built half-track vehicles such as the Unic Type P107 which could serve as artillery tractors, but pre-war strikes meant that only 3,276 were in service when war broke out. When the factory was captured some of the vehicles being produced were designed to permit them to carry light anti-aircraft guns but closer inspection revealed the mountings were suited to weapons used by the German Army rather than the Swiss-designed Oerlikon guns, which were in general service with the French Army at the time.

British Home Front Preparations and the Battle of Britain

Of course all that support for Britain lay in the future and would come over a period of time. In the meantime, all the vehicles and heavy weapons the British Army had lost at Dunkirk had to be replaced, especially artillery. At the same time the British Army had to be ready to defend the country against a very real threat of invasion. Replacing so much war materiel would take time and it was a slow process. In October 1939 an official call had been put out by the British government calling for volunteers to serve in a unit called the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) who would guard vital points such as bridges and power stations in case of enemy sabotage. Former soldiers and retirees stepped forward and soon there were 250,000 men in the LDV which quickly earned itself the disparaging nickname of ‘Look, Duck and Vanish’ by comedians of the day. After the withdrawal from Dunkirk the LDV was renamed in July and became known as the Home Guard. The Home Guard would go on to increase in size to around 1.5 million men. There were river patrols in small boats, sections mounted on horseback and units all across the country, even in unlikely places such as the Bank of England and the House of Commons. They were armed with a range of standard weapons including rifles and machine guns, but also with some less conventional weaponry including devices such as the Northover Projector and Blacker Bombard, which were developed specifically for use by the Home Guard. Men in these units sometimes used their own vehicles but a range unique to Home Guard units were created called ‘Beaverettes’ after Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production who later became the Minister of Supply. These were often no more than commercial vehicles to which boiler plates had been welded and different designs were to be found all across the country. An estimated 2,800 Beaverettes were eventually built, mostly based on the standard 14hp chassis and there was also the ‘Humberette’ based on the Humber ‘Super Snipe’ commercial vehicle. Their usefulness in actual battle would have been questionable but for patrolling purposes they did show what could be produced in an emergency. An example of one of these vehicles is on display at the Cobbaton Combat Collection in North Devon. This is a restored example of a 1941 Mk III Standard Beaverette, weighing just over 2 tons and is based on a Flying Fourteen saloon car chassis and equipped with a Lewis machine gun in a rudimentary turret.

The country now readied itself for the invasion that must surely come given the successes of the German armed forces. All doubts of invasion were cast aside and defences were hurriedly erected and minefields laid at likely landing places on the coast. In some places obsolete tanks from the First World War were dragged into positions where they could be used as barricades on the roads. The recently formed Local Defence Volunteers may have been willing but they were far from ready and able, as they lacked any real armament. The defeated British Army was still regrouping and needed to be re-equipped. German plans for the invasion of England were code-named Sea Lion and involved an attacking force of 260,000 men that included a combined airborne and amphibious assault, supported by 62,000 horses and 34,000 vehicles. To make it happen the Germans needed mastery of the air and control of the sea lanes. The date for the invasion was set for 15 August. On that day aircraft of the Luftwaffe flew their first missions with the intention of destroying the Royal Air Force. This was the beginning of what is known as the Battle of Britain. As the fighting between the two great air forces continued throughout September and into October it became apparent to the Germans that they were not winning and they changed tactics to bomb Britain’s cities in the assault known as the Blitz. The Royal Navy was still intact and controlled the waters around Britain and this, in addition to winter gales, reduced the threat of invasion. Germany was being held at bay but Hitler had moved his attention eastwards and was making plans to attack Russia. Britain’s cities, in the meantime, were being bombed but the factories could produce tanks and lorries for the army and weapons to arm the infantry.

War with Italy in North Africa

When Mussolini declared war on Britain in 1940 the Italians had 300,000 troops in Libya supported by 1,811 pieces of artillery, 339 tanks, such as the dreadful M11/39 (which would later be replaced by the slightly improved M13/40), along with 8,039 trucks for transport and air cover provided by 151 aircraft. On paper it looked impressive enough and in Ethiopia, which Italy had seized in 1935, the Duke of Aosta as the commander-in-chief of the Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian Army in East Africa) had a force of 88,000 Italian troops with 200,000 colonial troops. Again, the force seemed impressive on paper but Aosta believed he could be expected to fight for six to seven months in the event of war. He was to be proved correct in his estimation when he surrendered four months after the British invaded Ethiopia in January 1941 and succeeded in destroying several major supply dumps of fuel and ammunition. In 1940 the Italian Army had 2 million men organised into seventy-three divisions, including three armoured divisions and two motorised divisions.

Italy’s Motorised force in 1940

Britain had been forced to withdraw from mainland Europe but here in North Africa was the opportunity to keep in contact with the enemy. General Sir Archibald Wavell was commander-in-chief in the Middle East with a mere 30,000 troops in Egypt and more spread out across the region to protect the area that was vital to Britain for oil and to secure the Suez Canal, through which convoys could pass to transport supplies. The odds did not look favourable for the British forces, equipped as they were with Vickers light tanks which were obsolete. There had been clashes between the British and Italians during which it had already been demonstrated that machine-gun fire from British armoured cars and light tanks could penetrate the light armour of the Italian vehicles. The Italian commander Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, who had taken over when Italo Balbo, the commander-in-chief of the Africa Settentrionale Italian, ASI (Italian North Africa), was killed when his plane was shot down in June 1940, was ordered by Mussolini not to delay any further and attack, which he did on 13 September. Using a combination of motorcycles, lorries and horses to accompany the armoured units, the Italians advanced for four days covering a distance of 60 miles into Egypt and then, quite incredibly and for no logical reason, stopped to ‘dig in’ and prepare defensive positions around Sidi Barrani. By that time Wavell had received much-needed reinforcements including 154 tanks, forty-eight anti-tank guns, forty-eight 25-pounder field guns and twenty light anti-aircraft guns, but this was a token, and the question was when would more be coming? The answer was known in London, but it would take time and that was something of which there was precious little if a disaster was to be avoided.

Italian Vehicle Production

Italy’s tank force at the time of declaring war comprised 1,000 light tanks mainly based on out-of-date designs and locked in with the infantry. Tank production would continue and numbers built up slowly with the development of designs such as the M14/41 light tank but Italy would never reach the same scale of output as its German ally. For example, by the second half of 1942 Italy had only produced 700 tanks, a figure that was less than half of its output of 1941. By the time Italy declared war its army already had five years of experience in fighting but it was still poorly prepared. Italy was famous for its pre-war sports cars and luxury motor vehicle models, but producing such items was a world away from building quantitative numbers of reliable lorries for the army. Motorcycles such as Moto Guzzi machines and even a tricycle design were built for liaison roles and light transportation, along with half-track tractors for towing artillery. Modern machines were produced for the army but there still remained old-fashioned types among the main designs and some vehicles fitted with solid tyres were not uncommon along with those fitted with pneumatic tyres.

This Moto Guzzi tricycle design was used to transport light loads such as medical supplies over short distances.

Italian Army Moto Guzzi motorcycles were used in North Africa and Italy for liaison roles and dispatch riders.

Recreated Australian troops standing by a Valentine tank depicting Tobruk.

Nevertheless, Major General Richard O’Connor, commanding the Western Desert Force, ordered British patrols to be sent out, and these units were able to locate gaps in the Italian defences, leading to Operation Compass being planned. The operation involved Vickers light tanks and fifty Matilda Mk II tanks supporting the 4th Indian Division while the 7th Armoured Division moved round to a blocking position. On 9 December an artillery barrage opened the attack and Matilda tanks of the 7th Armoured Division destroyed twenty-five Italian tanks before moving their attention to the artillery. So complete was the surprise that the British took 38,300 Italians prisoner in only four days, by which time the older Vickers light tanks were almost worn out after continuous action. The momentum of the operation was maintained by the capture of supplies and 700 vehicles at Bardia, which provided transportation. Sensing a great victory, O’Connor pressed on and, using stocks of captured enemy food and fuel as improvised supplies, he was able to press forward. In two months the British had advanced 500 miles, capturing or destroying almost 400 tanks and 1,290 pieces of artillery, and taking 130,000 prisoners. In early February 1941 the Italians were pulling back. They launched an attack supported by armour but it was broken up with the loss of eighty tanks and a second attack similarly cost them another thirty tanks.

Before these operations started, events on the on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea would have an effect on the situation in Libya as the Italians opened up another theatre of operations when Mussolini ordered the attack of Greece with a force of 160,000 men on 28 October. They were badly mauled for their efforts by the Greek Army, which had only a limited number of vehicles at its disposal and was weak in anti-tank guns. The sub-zero temperatures caused further suffering among the Italians, who were finally pushed back by the Greek Army in November. The Germans moved in to support their Italian allies and attacked Greece, which caused the British to pull troops and an armoured force of fifty-two medium tanks out of North Africa to support Greece. General O’Connor believed that he could finish the campaign in Libya and Britain could then deal with the situation in Greece, but they could not deal with both situations at the same time. In the end the result was a disaster in Greece along with the fall of Crete.

In their weakened state, the British forces that had advanced into Libya from Egypt now looked more vulnerable than ever before. With Italian forces to the south-east in Abyssinia and the news that German assistance would shortly begin to arrive in Libya to the west, this meant that the British would be faced with the possibility of having to fight on two fronts. Bolstered with reinforcements in men, tanks and equipment, the Italians prepared to return to the offensive. The German officer chosen to command the specially created Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK) was Erwin Rommel, who had proven himself during the campaign in France. He was an officer who got things done and the Allies knew he would not waste time. General Johann von Ravenstein, who would command the 21st Panzer Division and serve as Rommel’s second-in-command, said of the desert that it was ‘a tactician’s paradise and a quartermaster’s hell’. Sparsely populated, there would be no repeat of the high numbers of civilian casualties or lines of refugees clogging the roads in the way as there had been in the fighting in Europe, and armies would be able to manoeuvre great distances. As a theatre of operations it was a remote, hostile, harsh terrain where one mistake could cost a man his life and frequently did. Everything needed for both sides to continue the war had to be transported by sea to the region through the ports of coastal towns such as Tobruk and Mersa Matruh. The only way to achieve this was in convoys sailing across the Mediterranean Sea. For the Germans and Italians it appeared to be a simple matter of sailing from ports in Italy and southern France. For the British, their convoys had to sail the length of the Mediterranean, being attacked by aircraft all the way. The island of Malta offered some shelter but it too was soon under aerial attack. The Allies holding Tobruk during the German siege in 1941 would later come to consider a cargo ship with 5,000 tons of supplies to be worth the equivalent of twelve convoys.

The Italians in Ethiopia and Somalia may have appeared numerically strong but were weak in weapons, tanks and other vehicles, and much of their equipment was obsolete. Major General William Platt attacked from the north on 19 January 1941. Fighting was fierce and conditions were dreadful, with men reduced to 1 pint of water per day. Drinking water was also a problem, and clean, fresh supplies had to be brought to the troops in addition to food supplies. At the harbour of Sollum (sometimes written as either Salum or Sallum) in Egypt the Royal Navy landed almost 1.5 million gallons of drinking water from a convoy on one occasion. On 11 February General Alan Cunningham launched an attack from the south into Italian Somaliland. Colonial troops serving with the Italians began to desert. The first German troops began arriving in Tripoli on 12 February 1941, with Rommel arriving two days later and immediately setting about planning operations. Aware of these developments, the British nevertheless maintained the pressure from the north and south, determined to end the Italians; the fighting continued into March with conditions deteriorating all the while. On 27 March the British attacked with Matilda tanks from the Royal Tank Regiment supported by infantry in Bren gun carriers as the last of the Italian resistance was crumbling. By 6 April the British were in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, and after eight weeks, during which time Cunningham’s men had covered 1,700 miles, the Italians surrendered. With the south-east now secure and the threat to the Suez Canal removed from the southern end of the Red Sea, the British could turn all their attention to the greater threat posed by the Germans and Italians in Libya. Tanks may have played a relatively small part in the campaign but their presence had been significant in bringing about the end of Italian aspirations of an empire in Africa.

Troop ship sailing through Suez Canal which had to be protected.

The Beginnings of Lend-Lease

In the eyes of the rest of the world Britain appeared to be standing alone, but actually the country was not forgotten. In America, President Roosevelt declared that the country must become the ‘great arsenal of democracy’ and to that end America began to mobilise its economy in May 1940, just as Operation Dynamo was unfolding in France. The first move America made to supply Britain was to exchange fifty destroyers of First World War vintage for naval bases in the Atlantic. It may not have been much of a deal, indeed some saw it as an opportunity for America to rid itself of obsolete vessels, but at least it was something. Churchill was calling for America to sell Britain weapons and vehicles, but American newspapers carried features that called for the president to keep the country out of the war. Roosevelt responded by vowing to keep the US out of any war in Europe, which satiated the voting public who did not wish to enter such a war either. Behind the scenes, even as the last engagements of Operation Dynamo were being fought, British agents were already busy making arrangements to buy numbers of the M3 Lee-Grant medium tank. This was equipped with a 37mm gun in a fully traversing turret, but had a more powerful 75mm gun mounted in a side sponson. It was an unusual layout because at the time armaments manufacturers in America could not build a turret to take the powerful 75mm gun. The M3 was protected by armour up to 80mm thick, had a crew of six and was capable of speeds of up to 25mph. The negotiations secured a quantity of M3 tanks for the British Army but the first batches would not arrive in North Africa in early 1942. Other tank designs such as the M3 Honey light tank with its 37mm main armament would enter the North African theatre of operations sooner (the first would arrive in November 1941), but again all the final arrangements had to be made before deliveries could be organised.

Armed with a 37mm gun and machine guns, the M3 Honey was a modern tank for the British Army in 1941. The M3 Honey light tank was used in the North African campaign by the British Army before America entered the war.

The M3 Light Tank

The Development of the M3 Light Tank

The M3 light tank was one of the most widely used light tanks to serve with the British Army during the Second World War and was known as the ‘Honey’ by the armoured regiments that used it in the North African campaign. This particular armoured vehicle, which would eventually be built in three variants, began development in 1935 when it was known as the M2A1. The basic design featured a 37mm gun as the main armament and mounted in a turret capable of traversing a full 360 degrees, but the project passed through a series of variants that were intended to improved armour protection. Finally, in 1939, the series culminated in the M2A4 vehicle, a design of riveted armour-plate construction and weighing approximately 12 tons. Further changes were made to the design but by July 1940, the tank, by now designated the M3, was accepted as the standard light tank for the US Army.

At the time of the M3’s acceptance into service, Britain was the only country actively fighting Germany and its ally Italy. The armed forces of Britain were stretched almost to breaking point as they set about recovering from the debacle of the retreat through Dunkirk in 1940, and troops, equipment and vehicles were all in desperately short supply. Finally in March 1941, Britain was provided overseas aid by America under the Lend-Lease Act, which permitted Britain to purchase ‘war material’, thus providing British forces with supplies of tanks and other essential supplies with which it could make good its losses.

Under the Lend-Lease Act all the M3 light tanks produced in the initial output were all scheduled for Britain, where they were destined for deployment to North Africa. Among the first units to receive the M3 light tanks were the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars, closely followed by the 3rd and 5th Royal Tank Regiments of the 4th Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division. About eighty-four M3 light tanks were sent in this first batch in July 1941, almost one year to the day when they were accepted as standard for the US Army. This initial batch of M3 tanks was committed to battle for the first time in November 1941 at Babr Saleh as part of the Operation Crusader offensive.

The basic M3 light tank was built by the American Car and Foundry Company, which by August 1942 (by which time America was involved in the war and preparing for the invasion of North Africa) had produced more than 5,800 vehicles. By October 1943 the company had built over 13,800 M3 light tanks, but the design was declared obsolete only three months earlier. However, with such numbers in service it would not be withdrawn from the front line because to do so would leave units without any armour at all. Instead, the tank continued in service and was phased out gradually as replacement types became available. The M3 light tank was fitted with a Continental W–670 seven-cylinder, air-cooled, radial petrol engine, which developed 250hp at 2,400rpm, producing a road speed of 36mph and a cross-country speed of 20mph. The engine for the M3 had originally been fitted to the M2A4 and in 1941 it was in short supply, which led to some 500 M3s being fitted with Guiberson T–1020 diesel engines. The M3 had a combat range of around 70 miles on roads, but this could be extended by fitting two extra fuel tanks externally; these could be dropped for safety or for tactical reasons when the vehicle was entering combat. This feature came about from lessons learned during the North African battles.

The M3A1 was standardised in August 1941 but a number of new design features were introduced from the basic model. Firstly, the turret was made from homogeneous armour and also incorporated a power traverse for the turret and a turret basket. A gyro-stabiliser to allow the 37mm gun to be fired more accurately while the tank was moving was also fitted. The M3A2 version was to have been an all-welded design but in the event it was never built. The basic M3 design was 14.8ft long, 7.3ft wide and 8.2ft high. It had a combat weight of 12.2 tons and armour varying from 10mm to 44.5mm. For its size the M3 was quite remarkable, being able to ford water obstacles up to 3ft deep, cross 6ft-wide trenches, negotiate gradients of 60 per cent and scale vertical obstacles up to 2ft high. A crew of four served all versions in the M3 range. In all types the main armament was a 37mm gun in a fully traversing turret, with a co-axially mounted M1919A1 .30in-calibre machine gun. On the M3A3 version sponsons fitted to either side of the hull featured a further .30in-calibre machine gun. This made the M3 a virtual mobile gun emplacement, capable of providing fire support to infantry units.

With the British Army the M3 served to augment tank strength during the early battles in the North African theatre and it went on to serve in all theatres of the war including the Pacific, where the Americans used it to good effect against the poorly equipped and armoured Japanese tanks and also in destroying well-emplaced bunkers. Despite being thinly armoured and the lack of a heavy punch provided by the 37mm gun, the M3 was a well-liked tank, especially in the reconnaissance roles. Several series of trials to improve the automotive design of the M3 were conducted and the M3A3, which featured a number of these improvements, led to over 3,400 of this type alone being produced. A later experiment into producing an M3 with an all-welded turret and hull to replace riveting created the M3A1E1. While this never went into series production in its own right, the knowledge gained from the venture led to the M5 light tank being produced. For a tank that was declared obsolete halfway through the war the M3 ‘Honey’ certainly did itself proud by being involved with some of the heaviest fighting and most memorable moments of the war, including the liberation of Paris and Antwerp.

The Lend-Lease Act

As the fighting in North Africa developed, American political figures such as the Republican Wendell Willkie took up the call to keep their country neutral. The pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, who had flown a solo transatlantic passage in May 1927, was a very public figure who also spoke out against America entering the war, but both Willkie and Lindbergh would come to change their minds about American involvement in the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7?December 1941. Nevertheless, President Roosevelt continued to press to be allowed to supply Britain with more goods, arguing that lending equipment to any nation ‘whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States’ was justified. Finally, in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was passed and America could openly provide materials to support Britain’s war effort. Special freighters known as Liberty ships were built to transport the war materiel to Britain. These ships were prefabricated and in 1942 some 646 such vessels were built to move supplies to Britain. This meant vehicles, tanks, guns and ammunition, along with medical supplies and foodstuffs, ready for the build-up to defeating Germany. During the war Britain would receive about 25 per cent of its overseas aid from America alone, a debt worth some US$7 billion that would not be paid off until 2006, by which time it had been adjusted to be worth some US$30 billion. Britain was not the only one of the Allied countries to receive Lend-Lease support. China, which had been at war with Japan since 1937, received US$1.6 billion in aid; France received US$3.23 billion; and Russia received US$11 billion with oil, tanks, aircraft and vehicles. America supplied tanks, artillery and aircraft in vast numbers to Britain under the Lend-Lease agreement and to Russia after 1941. At the time, the strength of the US Army stood at around 1.4 million men with an armoured force of around 300 light tanks. By 1945 the US Army would have around 8 million men under arms, and the factories would have built many thousands of trucks and tanks for these troops and overseas Allied armies.

In the period 1939–40, for example, America produced 325 light tanks and only six medium tanks, and purchased 46,000 vehicles for the military. It would not produce its first heavy tank until 1942, but by the end of the war American factories had built more than 88,400 tanks. In addition, more than 41,000 other tracked vehicles were produced and 3,200,436 trucks and other wheeled vehicles were built. In the same period Germany would produce less than 28,000 tanks of all types. Germany could never hope to meet the output figures of American factories, even when those factories producing vehicles in occupied countries were taken into account, as evidenced by the numbers of RSO half-tracks built between 1942 and 1945, which amounted to 27,000 vehicles. The figures also show that the numbers of other vehicles entering service with the US Army also increased dramatically, and in June 1942 it took delivery of more than 62,200 vehicles for that one month alone. The strength of the combined US Army Air Forces would reach a peak of 2,411,294 servicemen and women, and between July 1940 and August 1945 it accepted into service more than 229,000 aircraft of all types, such was the capability of the nation. By comparison, between 1939 and 1945 the German output for aircraft of all types was less than 100,000 machines.