The official AHF British Empire quiz thread

[Marcus Wendel]

We've had several different quizes running here in the forum for a while with great success and this new section has been open for a long while without one, so I'm starting one here too.

The rules are very simple:
The first one to post the correct answer to a question, posts a new question (must be on The United Kingdom & its Empire and Commonwealth during the 1919-1945 period) and so on.

/Marcus

[Marcus Wendel]

Feel free to post a question to get things started.

/Marcus

[The Edge]

Everybody agree that WWII British tank design in general was a failure. Most famous example was the tank built as improvement of previous model (a moderately successful one), that because of these "improvements" became useless! Total of 1771 built, most of them soon scrapped.

What is this "celebrity"?

(Soon after, another two of "improved" models, made in thousands, were also considered fit for training purposes only. British side even shipped one to USA for "comparation" with their tanks, only to serve as laughing-stock. At the end this led to famous "Great Tank Scandal" and UK dependance from USA for combat tanks, with M4 Sherman becoming the backbone of its armoured forces).

[Bill Murray]

Maybe this one??
Bill

[The Edge]

Bill, look for the earlier model (Before "The Age of Sherman").

Tank I'm talking about was never used in combat (contrary to your A30 Challenger); however, it was produced in much bigger numbers (again, quite contrary to A30).

[Bill Murray]

Well, that leaves me with perhaps two choices.
The Matilda was produced in some numbers in 5 variants and you don't see many action photos of them.
Then the Valentine, which I think I read somewhere was so bad that most of them went to Russia on Lend Lease.

Obviously, armour is not my field and I just have run across these facts in casual readings.

Bill

[The Edge]

Matilda II - Best British tank early in WWII (Used by Brits, Australians, Russians)
Valentine - Fairly successful tank; the most produced British tank in WWII; most beloved Western tank by Russians.

Advice - Bill, back to "Cruiser tanks" page

[Bill Murray]

My dear friend, my lack of knowledge about armour is now becoming very obvious so I think I will let someone else play in the sandbox.

Bill

[The_Enigma]

You are not revering to the Covenanter? The previous sucessful model would be the Crusader if am not mistaken?

[The Edge]

Covenanter is the right answer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covenanter_tank
It is made by the joint effort of: London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (LMS) designed the hull, the turret was designed by Nuffield, with Henry Meadows designing the engine.

Previous models were A13 Mark 3 & Mark 4 (Covenanter was „A13 Mark 5“ at first)

Crusader (A15) was a paralel design by Nuffield Co.

Over to the enigmatic character in Cheshire, England

[The_Enigma]

Ah crap now i have to think of something! I shall return later. Am also surprised to see the tank was not even related to the Crusader.

Edit: I have a cunning plan!

What armoured brigade was Montgomery referring to when he wrote "If the British armour owed any debt to the infantry ..., the debt was paid ... in heroism and blood." and why?

[Ironmachine]

9th Armoured Brigade for his actions on 2 November during the Battle of Alamein when, though suffering terrible losses, it managed to broke the German line.

[The_Enigma]

Git!

Yes you are correct, Monty was referring to the poor Armoured-Infantry co-operation that had caused the loss of many good man during the three battles at El Alamien. 9th Arm that day charged headlong into the Axis gunline and broke it taking i believe, am away from my book now that i took the quote out of, something like 75% casualties. The attack brought down the axis armoured reserves and 1st Arm spent the rest of day, with the remains of 9th Armour, smacking them for six.

[Ironmachine]

Who's that man?

[The Edge]

"Butcher" Harris (RAF bomber aircrews' nickname)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur ... st_Baronet