HOME
*



picture info

Malta Tanks (Royal Tank Regiment)
The Malta Tanks was a unit designation for an independent Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) unit made of a mixture of British tank types deployed to Malta in World War 2. Role and Deployment History The first armoured unit destined for Malta was organised in 1940. Unit was formed with strength of 5 officers and 62 other ranks; and was attached to 44th Battalion RTR prior to its embarkation for Malta; the unit was part of Malta Command. On 28 November 1940 1 Independent Troop, 44 RTR (commanded by Captain R E H Drury) arrived on the Island on Convoy R.45. The Troop's heavy equipment included: * Four Matilda Infantry Tanks (nicknamed: Faulknor, Gallant, Greyhound, Griffin) * Two Vickers Mk VIB Light Tanks * Four Motorcycles * Four Bedford OXD 30-cwt lorries * Two 15-cwt trucks * One 15-cwt truck (water bowser) * One Car Utility. 1942 the tanks of A Squadron 6 Battalion RTR (which had sailed from Alexandria) arrived on the Island. By 30 June 1942 the British armour was organised th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cap Badge
A cap badge, also known as head badge or hat badge, is a badge worn on uniform headgear and distinguishes the wearer's nationality and/or organisation. The wearing of cap badges is a convention commonly found among military and police forces, as well as uniformed civilian groups such as the Scouting, Boy Scouts, civil defence organisations, ambulance services (e.g. the St. John Ambulance Brigade), customs services, fire services etc. Cap badges are a modern form of Heraldic badge, heraldry and their design generally incorporates highly symbolic devices. Some badges that contain images of Lions or other cats are sometimes informally referred to as Cat Badges. Instances in military forces British armed forces The British Armed Forces utilise a variety of metal and cloth cap badges on their headdress, generally on caps and berets. They are also worn on Uniforms_of_the_British_Armed_Forces#Turbans, Sikh turbans. British Army In the British Army (as well as other Commonwealth of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Vickers Machine Gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and operate it: one fired, one fed the ammunition, the others helped to carry the weapon, its ammunition, and spare parts. It was in service from before the First World War until the 1960s, with air-cooled versions of it on many Allied World War I fighter aircraft. The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in ''Weapons & War Machines'', describes an action that took place in August 1916, during which the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns to deliver sustained fire for twelve hours. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without breakdowns. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. It ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

44th Royal Tank Regiment
The 44th Royal Tank Regiment (44 RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army, which was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps that saw active service in World War II. The 44th RTR was formed before World War II in 1938 from the 6th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. When war was declared on 3 September 1939 44th RTR was in Bristol, attached to 21st Army Tank Brigade at the time, with the 42nd and 48th RTR. The battalion then went to the Middle East in April 1941 and by the time of Operation Crusader, November 1941, 1st Army Tank Brigade, equipped with Valentine tanks, along with 8th and 42nd RTR, supporting 2nd New Zealand Division, contributing to the Divisions stand against the German and Italian armoured attacks on 30 November 1941. It was still part of 1st Army Tank Brigade when the Germans and Italians attacked at Gazala in May 1942 and also in the Cauldron battles of that campaign. It then supported the Australians during th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Operation Herkules
Operation Herkules (german: Unternehmen Herkules; it, Operazione C3) was the German code-name given to an abortive plan for the invasion of Malta during the Second World War. Through air and sea landings, the Italians and Germans hoped to eliminate Malta as a British air and naval base and secure an uninterrupted flow of supplies across the Mediterranean Sea to Axis forces in Libya and Egypt. Extensive preparations were made for the invasion but the success of other Axis operations – including the Battle of Gazala (26 May to 21 June 1942), the Axis capture of Tobruk on 21 June and Operation Aïda, the pursuit of the Allies into Egypt – led to Herkules being postponed and then cancelled in November 1942. Origins The Axis plan to invade Malta had its origin in Italian military studies conducted during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in the mid-1930s. By 1938, ''Comando Supremo'', the Italian army general staff, had estimated the amount of sea transport it would require ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Siege Of Malta (World War II)
The siege of Malta in World War II was a military campaign in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II, Mediterranean Theatre. From June 1940 to November 1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of the British Empire, British Crown Colony of Malta pitted the air and naval forces of Kingdom of Italy, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany against the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy. The opening of a North African Campaign, new front in North Africa in June 1940 increased Malta's already considerable value. British air and sea forces based on the island could attack Axis powers, Axis ships transporting vital supplies and reinforcements from Europe; Churchill called the island an "unsinkable aircraft carrier". General Erwin Rommel, de facto field command of Axis forces in North Africa, recognised its importance quickly. In May 1941, he warned that "Without Malta the Axis will end by losing control of North Africa". The Axis resolved ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Valentine Tank CFB Borden 1
A valentine is a card or gift given on Valentine's Day, or one's sweetheart. Valentine or Valentines may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Valentine (name), a given name and a surname, including a list of people and fictional characters so named * Saint Valentine of Rome, the eponym of Valentine's Day * Valentine (writer), pseudonym of Archibald Thomas Pechey * Gary Valentine, stage name of Gary Lachman (born 1955), American writer and guitarist, member of the band Blondie * Funny Valentine, the main villain of '' Steel Ball Run'' Places United States * Valentine, Arizona, an unincorporated community * Valentine, Indiana, an unincorporated town * Valentine, Kansas City, a neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri * Valentine, Nebraska, a city * Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska * Valentine, New Jersey, an unincorporated community * Valentine, Texas, a town * Valentines, Virginia, an unincorporated community Elsewhere * Cape Valentine, Elephant Island ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Valentine Tank
The Tank, Infantry, Mk III, Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during World War II. More than 8,000 of the type were produced in eleven marks, plus various specialised variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production. The many variants included riveted and welded construction, petrol and diesel engines and a progressive increase in armament. It was supplied in large numbers to the USSR and built under licence in Canada. It was used extensively by the British in the North African campaign. Developed by Vickers, it proved to be both strong and reliable. Name There are several proposed explanations for the name ''Valentine''. According to the most popular one, the design was presented to the War Office on St Valentine's Day, 14 February 1940, although some sources say that the design was submitted on Valentine's Day 1938 or 10 February 1938. White notes that "incidentally" Valentine was the middle name of Sir John Car ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The British Army On Malta 1942 GM467
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cruiser Mk III
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk III, also known by its General Staff specification number A13 Mark I, was a British cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was the first British cruiser tank to use the Christie suspension system, which gave higher speeds and better cross-country performance; previous cruiser tank models had used triple wheeled bogie suspension. Design and development British cruiser tank design began with the Mk I and somewhat heavier Mk II in the mid-1930s. Just as prototypes were arriving in 1936, General Giffard LeQuesne Martel, a pioneer in tank design who had published works on armoured warfare and pioneered the lightly armoured "tankette" to enhance infantry mobility, became Assistant Director of Mechanization at the War Office.Milsom Later that year, Martel witnessed demonstrations of Soviet tank designs, including the BT tank, which had been influenced by American J. Walter Christie's work. Martel urged the adoption of the Christie suspension and Christie's ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cruiser Mk I
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk I (A9) was a British cruiser tank of the interwar period. It was the first cruiser tank: a fast tank designed to bypass the main enemy lines and engage the enemy's lines of communication, as well as enemy tanks. The Cruiser Mk II was a more heavily armoured adaptation of the Mark I, developed at much the same time. Design and development In 1936, the British War Office designated two different kinds of tanks for future development: heavily armoured infantry tanks to be used in close co-operation with infantry during attacks, and fast mobile cruiser tanks designed to make forays deep into enemy territory. Due to the cost, British replacement designs for Medium Mark II tanks then in service had been cancelled with only three built. In 1934, Sir John Carden of Vickers-Armstrong was asked to provide a "reasonably cheap tank" as a replacement for some of the medium models then in use. This design was known by General Staff specification A9. The pilot model of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The British Army On Malta 1942 GM836
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Besa Machine Gun
The Besa machine gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army"TK" from ''těžký kulomet'' "heavy machine gun"; "vz" from ''vzor'' "Model"). The name came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), who signed an agreement with '' Československá zbrojovka'' to manufacture the gun in the UK. The War Office ordered the weapon in 1938 and production began in 1939, after modifications. It was used extensively by the armed forces of United Kingdom during the Second World War as a mounted machine gun for tanks and other armoured vehicles as a replacement for the heavier, water-cooled Vickers machine gun. Although it required a rather large opening in the tank's armour, it was reliable. Development and use Although British forces used the .303 in rimmed round for rifles and machine guns, the ZB-53 had been designed for the German 7.92×57mm Mauser round; referred to by the British as t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]