As part of the land lease program the USSR received a lot of tanks from ally countries and the US.
Two of the most known tanks were the "queen of the desert’ matilda 2s (ironic cus russia) and the valentine tank.
valentine tank at the Russian Tank Museum in Kubinka.
Matilda II Mk.IV CS Close Support Tank in the Kubinka Tank Museum Russia.
I think both of those tanks are worth implanting. They made up 25% of the soviet medium and heavy tanks and were used in pretty high numbers in the battle of moscow.
The tanks performance and flaw
The Matilda, or the “British Mk.2” as it came to be called, received mixed reviews from the Soviets. Its armor, comparable to that of their own KV-1 Heavy Tanks, was much appreciated. One Soviet Matilda crew member claimed his tank received 87 non-penetrating hits. Its general reliability was also highly regarded. At the time, the Matilda and the Valentine were considered to be light tanks and actually fell in between the Soviet definition of Light and Medium tanks. They had less firepower than the Soviet’s medium and heavy Tanks, but more armor than their light tanks.
But there were some problems with the metilda and valentine one of them was the 2 Pounder (40 mm) gun. The Soviets saw it as no improvement over their own 45 mm 20-K tank gun (found on the BT tanks for instance) and were disappointed that it wasn’t equipped with a HE (High-Explosive) round.
The Soviet Army had formed six tank battalions by late November 1941 out of 20 Matildas and 97 Valentines, or the “British Mk.3” as they called it. These battalions were deployed on the Western Front for the defense of Moscow. The 146th Tank Brigade (146-ya tankovaya brigada) of the 16th Army fought here. This brigade consisted of two tank battalions with a total of 40 Valentines and two Matildas. The first unit to be equipped with the Matilda was the 136th Separate Tank Battalion
(136-y otdelniy tankoviy batal’on).
The tanks played an extremely important frontline role in the defense of Moscow as the Soviet’s own tank supply was running thin due to the heavy losses in the summer of 1941.
I think these would be more suitable for Tunesia. We got plenty of unique Soviet tanks we could add to Moscow, such as ZiS-30, T-26-4, T-26E, etc, and I doubt the players would want to see the exact same tank across multiple campaigns, or that they would have to grind past 10+ tanks in a single campaign.
I am not denying that they were used in tunisia but I’d like to see them in moscow too (there’s historical background and I don’t think they’ll break the game in anyway) They aren’t even valid option against infantry…
Good idea, functioning models should be easy enough to import straight from War Thunder, provided there are no major differences between the models there and what you have proposed here. Would the current AT weapons be feasible when deployed against these two tanks?
Valentine Mk1 alone has a minimum of 60mm of armor.
Mk9/11 have 50mm on the sides.
Pz2 can not penetrate that.
Pz3 can not penetrate that.
PzB38 can not penetrate that.
Without HEAT, the Pz4 cannot penetrate that either, with APHE it needs to be within 50m to penetrate from the side at a perfect sideshot on those 50mm side armor models.
The only thing they might be able to damage is the engine, from behind.
Throwback to the Matilda mk 1 in the battle of france only having an MG and still making German high command shit themselves in realizing they have nothing to contend with that level of armor short of direct-fire artillery.
I can totally disagree because it might ruin the atmosphere. Those tanks were not used that many to add them to Moscow campagain + there are many other Soviet and German tanks to add.
I don´t know how or if events on Enlisted could be a thing eventually after release, but these would be perfect candidates to be event reward. I probably wouldn´t use it in campaign progression.
My few sources said it didn’t use HE during the battle and that’s one of the reasons they preferred the KV-1… But maybe my sources are a bit Incorrect…
