World War 2 In Review: British Wheels and Tracks in View

Matilda IIs, North Africa.

Matilda II.

Matilda II, North Africa.

Matilda IIs, North Africa.

Matilda II, North Africa.

A reactivated Vickers Medium Mk II serving with the Royal Tank Regiment in 1940.

Two Vickers Medium Mk II tanks and a Morris reconnaissance car during maneuvers on Salisbury Plain in 1939.

Vickers Medium Mark I tanks on maneuver somewhere in England, in 1930.

The staple of the British armored force in the interwar period, the Vickers Medium Mk I. This vehicle serves with the Royal Tank Regiment in Essex, in 1939.

Another British technical innovation served the artillery in a fully motorized British Army, this Light Dragon tractor tows a 3.7in howitzer of the Royal Horse Artillery in 1938. Developed from the Vickers 6-ton, 12 Dragon and Light Dragons served from 1928, but wheeled vehicles such as the Morris Quad and AEC Matador trucks became the standard British artillery tractors ahead of the looming war.

A38 Valiant infantry tank.

Universal Carrier 2-pdr.

June 19, 1944: The remains of a Universal Carrier blown up by a mine in Tilly-sur-Seulles.

Infantry and carriers of 59th Division advancing during fighting around Caen, 11 July 1944.

Carrier, Fontane-Etoupefour, July 1944.

Carrier (T251469).

Carriers, North Africa.

Staghound I armored car, Netherlands.

Stuart light tanks.

A member of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars mans the turret-mounted .30-inch machine gun on one of the regiment's new Stuart tanks, 28 August 1941.

Sherman ARV I towing a Sherman medium tank, Normandy, June/July 1944.

Staff officers examine a newly-arrived Sherman tank sitting on a Scammell Pioneer tank transporter, 15 September 1942.

Instead of its end, the desert war was just the beginning for the SAS. Here a jeep manned by Sgt. A Schofield and Trooper O Jeavons of 1 SAS operates near Geilenkirchen in Germany. The SAS were involved at this time in clearing snipers in the 43rd Wessex Division area, Nov. 18, 1944. The jeep is armed with three Vickers ‘K’ guns, and fitted with armored glass shields in place of a windscreen.

SAS troopers cleaning weapons behind the lines in the desert.

SAS desert jeeps. On board is the Greek Sacred Squadron; men who fought on after their country was overrun, and were recruited by David Stirling. So impressed were the SAS with what the Long Range Desert Group had done with their vehicles, the SAS soon procured their own bespoke jeeps.

David Stirling, left, and Jock Lewes rest in the shade cast by a truck of the Long Range Desert Group, planning an operation in the desert behind the lines.

A close-up of a heavily armed patrol of ‘L’ Detachment SAS in their Jeeps, just back from a three month patrol. The crews of the jeeps are all wearing ‘Arab-style’ headdress, as copied from the Long Range Desert Group, Jan. 18, 1943.

2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, Sidi Bishr, Nov. 1942.

A 1924 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car with modified turret, in the Bardia area of the Western Desert, 1940.

British armored car, Palestine, 1938.

Armored car and Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost cars at Lydda Railway station, Palestine, circa 1938.

Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost cars with armored car at Lydda Railway station, Palestine, circa 1938.

Crews of No. 3 Armoured Car Company pose in comic mode during a brew-up, 1939. Dark blue overalls over Service Dress with sweaters are worn along with mixed webbing Patterns 1908 and 1925 and Goggles, Motor Transport.

Bofors gun portee.

Chevrolet WB of 3 RHA (Royal Horse Artillery) 2-pdr. Portee and crew at range practice. In action as many of the crew as possible worked on the ground, as a direct hit would often dismount the gun, which would be thrown backwards, killing or injuring the men on the vehicle.

Portee, truck-mounted anti-tank guns, used as highly mobile, hard-hitting artillery units, speed over the desert and attack the enemy from all sorts of unexpected quarters. A mobile anti-tank unit of the Eighth Army in action, somewhere in the desert, Libya, on July 26, 1942.