Landships II

I can't see anything

Wow - a great Landship indeed

Thanks a lot!
Thank you for the pics too. I went to Bovington some years ago and have taken some. I'm afraid my tank will retains the deep bronze green.
I'll begin the paint this week.
Regards!
Gilles(lostiznaos)

Hi great looking model, this may help... it appears the original was a design failure bovington says it was rebuilt in 1928.... soo... what was different about the 1926 original?....

Independent

Cheers

 

Looks great! I enjoy old / unique armor like that. Well done!

Ron

Merci les! Thank you both!

Tank you very much.
The model is quite finished now, but unfortunately the weather is too bad to have pics.
As the tank have seen very short if any operational life, I eventually turn to a dusty and dirty finish on rather new paint.
I don't know the Tank corps flag was carried on the turret at that time or painted later.
Regards
Gilles(Lostiznaos)

lostiznaos wrote:

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I consider the model eventually finished. My idea is to have a rather dusty but quite new tank without rust or damage....

This kit was a great pleasure to built, I havn't enjoy a model like this one for a while, a last until I finished the Rolls Royce, and I dream to display it waiting on the Dorset coast, along with some Beaverette... "They are NOT coming!" A+ Gilles(Lostiznaos)

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Congratulations, I love that tank, I love your model.  And I love the scenario you describe - but I think maybe that would be entirely imaginary (but quite feasible). Beaverbrook would be "as pleased as Punch", but not, I think, Brooke.

Gen. Alan Brooke was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces, 19 July 1940, relieving Gen. "Tiny" Ironside. On August 10th he was advised that three regiments of tanks were to be allocated to General Wavell for the defence of the Nile Valley.  He later wrote:

This does not seem much when considered from the point of view of the later years of the war, but in those early days even this small contribution constituted a large proportion of the total of my armoured forces. To make matters worse Beaverbrook, who was Minister of Aircraft Production, began to form an army of his own to protect aircraft factories in the event of invasion. He acquired a large proportion of armour plating for the production of small armoured cars called "Beaverettes," with which he equipped Home Guard personnel of factories for their protection. This was at a time when I was shouting for every armoured vehicle I could lay my hands on with which to equip Regular forces. The whole conception was fantastic. How could individual factories have held out, and what part could they have played once the main battle for this country was lost? (quoted in "The Turn of the Tide 1939-1943" by Arthur Bryant, 1957).

Now the General have have gone off half-cocked on at least one point.  Some say the Mk I Beaverette armour used mild steel - 11mm of steel, with 3 inch thick oak planks for rear protection (not 11mm steel backed by 3" oak as some references say, surely? But maybe) - .  Mk II extended the steel all around and it was not until the Mk III that actual hardened armour plate was used.  Production dates (all marks I to IV) were 1940 (after June) through to 1942 so I think Gen. Brooke's timescale just might have been foreshortened when he retrospectively complains about competition for armour plate in 1940.  And certainly Beaverbrook had good cause to worry about "German parachutists" leapfrogging the over-extended defences (a recurrent nightmare for civilians and the Home Guard, apparently), at least until after the Battle of Britain.  Everyone knew the capabilities of the Fallschirmjäger after their success in the Netherlands in May 1940.

But, if "Operation Sea Lion" (Unternehmen Seelöwe) had proceeded in 1940 as planned it seems likely Brooke would have had no option but to prise Beaverbrook's Beaverettes away from purely factory defence - plugging the (immense) gaps in coastal defences or for use in mobile reserve duty and to fend off supposed feint attacks would all seem very likely.