Untimely Designs

by gerald hall

  “It’s still strange looking with the engine in the front and the turret towards the back like with the light tanks. However, I love the gun on this tank. With that long barrel, I’m told that she can punch through a Panzer at over eight hundred meters distance.” Andrew commented from his position in Jubilee’s turret.”

  “Just as long as the Panzers don’t punch through us at the same time.” Private Cole interjected after he secured the last round inside. Jubilee carried over sixty rounds of ammunition for her six-pounder or fifty-seven millimeter high-velocity main gun. About half the rounds were high explosive, while the rest were a mix of armor-piercing and smoke rounds.

  “I certainly hope that the sappers have done a good job clearing us a path through the German minefields. I would hate to run into one of those bastards while we are under enemy fire. It is a hell of a job trying to fix a track while people are shooting at you.” Aiden commented while looking back from his driver’s seat.

  The shrill sound of a whistle could be heard over the artillery. It was coming from the company commander’s tank. This meant only one thing.

  “Time to mount up, mates. We’re about to go give Jerry and his Italian friends a bloody nose. Let’s be at it now.” Sergeant Ryan called out. He was already standing up inside of Jubilee’s turret, his hand braced against a Browning M2 fifty-caliber heavy machine gun in a pintle mount. The tanks coming out of Harold’s factory were unique in that they all had machine gun mounts for the tank commander like what the Americans usually had. Normally, British, French and even German tank designs did not have a weapon for the tank commander.

  Quickly, the rest of Jubilee’s crew piled in through the back door and slammed it shut behind them. The tank’s turbocharged diesel engine roared to life with a cloud of smoke from the exhaust. Aiden shoved the tank into gear and then pivoted to begin following the rest of the company westward towards the front lines.

  Enemy artillery continued to fall around the Australian tank company as it moved up as part of a general advance by the brigade. Matthew lowered his seat in the turret so that little more than the upper half of his head showed above the edge of his cupola. He had seen far too many tankers decapitated because they stuck their heads out too far.

  Matthew scanned the desert around him. On his right side, there was a company of Australians using a variety of captured Italian tanks like the M11/39 and M13/40 medium tanks along with a few Fiat L6/40 light tanks. With supplies of replacement vehicles being so scarce, it was very common for either side to use captured equipment. These tanks had either broken down and were left behind by their original owners or patched up by Australian mechanics after being knocked out by British guns in an earlier battle.

  On the other side, raced up a company of Commonwealth-produced light tanks. Some were British Mark VII light tanks armed with little more than a heavy machine gun in the turret. But the rest were newer vehicles that had also been freshly produced by the Cavill Tractor Works. They were slightly larger than the Mark VII’s and had somewhat of a resemblance to them. But these vehicles were faster, better armed and armored. They also ran on a Christie type chassis, just like that used by Jubilee and most British cruiser tanks. The Cavill-design light tanks had a twenty-five millimeter Hotchkiss automatic cannon in the turret and a co-axial Vickers machine gun. The cannon gave the light tank the ability to kill other light tanks and even knock out some larger tanks from the flanks and rear.

  Andrew heard the supersonic crack of a high-velocity shell as it raced just past Jubilee’s turret. He quickly saw the cloud of dust from the camouflaged gun position where the 5cm German anti-tank gun had just fired.

  “Load HE, anti-tank gun at two-o’clock.” Matthew yelled at the top of his voice as Jubilee’s turret traversed to the left and the tank came to a quick stop.

  “Target acquired.” Andrew yelled back while at the same time, Steven confirmed that a high-explosive round was loaded and ready.

  “Fire!!!”

  Jubilee instantly jolted with the recoil of its gun. Its round impacted less than two meters away from the anti-tank gun. The tank next to Jubilee had also fired at the German gun. The effect of the two high explosive rounds was catastrophic as the German gun, its crew and the ready use ammunition next to it were all blown apart.

  The sound of automatic cannon fire was also quickly heard as the light tanks began to fire at anything that resembled a possible anti-tank gun position. Light tanks were far too lightly armored to stand up to any anti-tank fire. So they wanted to shoot up anything that might want to shoot at them.

  Aiden quickly got Jubilee back into motion as the Australian armored attack continued. Following as closely as possible, Australian infantry from 2/15 Battalion secured the rear of the armored spearhead and watched for enemy infantry.

  Matthew heard a message over his headphones from the company command radio frequency. He instantly yelled out.

  “Be prepared to load armor-piercing rounds, mates. I just heard that we have Panzers on the way.”

  A few moments later, one of the ex-Italian M13/40’s suddenly blew up. The tank commander had been blown completely out of the tank, his legs blazing. He screamed from the pain as he tried to put out the fire that was consuming the lower half of his body. A couple of infantrymen ran to try to render aid to the gravely injured tanker. There was no sign of the other three men that were inside the shattered tank however.

  That tank’s executioner quickly came into view as Aiden drove around the edge of a wadi. A Panzer Mark IV with its short-barrel 75mm gun was sitting hull down in a shallow excavation. The Panzer’s turret was already traversing around to bring its gun to bear upon Jubilee. A loud clang and a shower of sparks announced the impact of a 75mm round. Fortunately, the steep angle of Jubilee’s front glacis plate caused the German round to deflect off.

  “It looks to me that the Panzers were already here, mates.” Aiden quipped as he brought his tank to a quick halt so that Andrew could get an accurate shot fired at the Mark IV. Just a couple of seconds later, Jubilee rocked with the firing of its six-pounder. Only this time, the German tank brewed up instead after the 57mm shell punched through the enemy tank’s forward hull at a range of less than two hundred meters.

  The battle soon turned into a swirling melee. Visibility dropped at times to less than one hundred meters because of the smoke and blowing sand. Jubilee and her crew engaged a Mark III at point blank range and knocked it out before destroying two German half-tracks and several trucks. The German and Italian force either was overrun or withdrew from the fight behind a second defensive line West of Cyrenaica.

  Matthew finally got a radio call from the company commander instructing the unit to halt the advance and consolidate its position. Sergeant Ryan was quite relieved to get the order because Jubilee’s ammunition was already beginning to run low as were her fuel supplies. The difficulty in keeping armored forces supplied was most often the reason why offensives stalled. The lorries that carried the vital lifeblood for the armored units simply could not keep up.

  Jubilee’s crew was able to get a short break from the action as the supply lorries moved up to meet them. Along with the lorries, a battalion of British Army tanks came up to continue the attack against the German and Italian forces.

  The English tankers were quite surprised when they learned that the Australian armored battalion had managed to break through the enemy defensive line and repel a counter attack with only two medium tanks and one light tank damaged, one light tank destroyed in addition to the ex-Italian M13/40 that was destroyed.

  A British brigadier was visiting the front line, talking to some of the tank crews that had been fighting the Axis in North Africa for more than a year now.

  “Sergeant, is there anything that we can get you to help out here?” The Brigadier asked one of the older tank commanders who had just stepped out of his Matilda.

  “Well, Sir. The Aussies are driving tanks that drive far faster than our Matildas, can take hits far b
etter than our Crusaders and knock out one of Jerry’s Panzers a hell of a lot further out than what we can do with our two-pounders. I’d say that we should get a few thousand of those bloody tanks from the Aussies and kick Jerry and the Italians all the way out of Africa.”

  Word reached far beyond the British forces defending Egypt about the new Australian tanks. It only took a few days before other British Army units began clamoring to have some of these armored vehicles for their own troops.

  British Military Wharf

  Port of Singapore

  April 18, 1941

  It was early morning at the Port of Singapore when a small group of British Army officers walked to the pier and saw a twelve thousand ton freighter docking with the aid of a pair of local tugs. The freighter was named Miraculous based on the name emblazoned on its stern and flew the flag of the Cavill Shipping Line. The senior officer quickly turned and walked into his office nearby.

  “What is this ship doing here? I don’t recall any notification about a cargo ship named Miraculous being scheduled to arrive here.” Major Clive Hamilton scowled as he arrived at his office. He was the port’s quartermaster or logistics supervisor.

  “Sir, their papers are all in order. The manifest says that the ship is carrying military vehicles and other materiel for the garrison here at Singapore.” Leftenant Allen Peters, his adjutant quickly explained. The young officer had been working overnight when Major Hamilton arrived.

  “Alright then, let’s see what they’ve actually got, Leftenant. The way things are going with the Japanese running rampant in the area and as fouled up as our supply situation has been, this will be a ship full of ladies’ lingerie.”

  “Well, Sir. The manifest says that the contents of the forward hold are from the Cavill Tractor Factory. The aft hold is listed as having crates from Cavill Ordnance. The crates on the deck are also marked as being from Cavill Ordnance. The ship itself belongs to Harold Cavill’s shipping company as you have probably already noticed.”

  “I don’t know what we would need tractors for except perhaps to tow artillery pieces. Still, we can use all of the help that we can get. Even with the French forces in Indochina finally deciding to ally themselves with the Free French and the rest of us against the Axis, the Japanese are still on the attack throughout this area. It is only a matter of time before the Japanese decide to attack us directly.”

  “Sir, they must be some very heavy tractors because the manifest says that twelve of these crates weigh twenty-five tons a piece while another twenty-four of them weigh around twelve tons each.” One of the civilian longshoremen called out before opening up the cargo ship’s forward hold.

  “The aft hold has about forty smaller crates in it. Most of them are marked as from Cavill Ordnance Works.” Another longshoreman announced.

  “Now, those sound like something that we could use. Hurry up down there and get that forward hold open. Then we can finally see what’s inside.” Major Hamilton commented cheerfully.

  Soon the Miraculous’ cranes were lifting the vehicles out and placing them on the dock.

  “Hey, that’s not a tractor. That looks like a damned tank to me, Sir.” Leftenant Peters said as he looked up at the first of the vehicles being lifted out of the hold.

  “Well, Leftenant. Don’t just stand there. Find someone who can figure out how to drive one of those. The rest of you, get cracking. We need the rest of those vehicles out so that we can see what else the Aussies have sent us.”

  All the while, Miraculous’ captain, Fred Winters was watching down at the dock with a humorous expression on his face. He already knew exactly what was in all of the crates. He just wanted to see their reaction before giving the Port Quartermaster the rest of the shipping documents and sending a little bit of help.

  The first of the vehicles was one of Cavill’s new Echidna medium tanks. A bulldozer driver was summoned, climbed in the driver’s hatch and took a quick look at the controls. By then, a small group of men had stepped off the ship and walked over to the unpacked tank. One of the men, an aborigine man in his late twenties named Willie, climbed up onto the tank and looked down at the bulldozer driver.

  “Hello, mate. Would you like a hand on how to drive this beast?” He asked with a huge smile. Willie was dressed in a neat khaki fatigue uniform, like most of the twenty some odd personnel that had disembarked from the Cavill Lines freighter.

  “Are you sure that you know how to drive this thing?” The bulldozer driver, named Al Moorcock, hesitantly asked.

  “Of course, mate. I’ve been driving these tanks since the first one came off of the assembly line. I was taught to drive and fix all of these tanks here after I was finished with school. Of course, we brought manuals for everything with us as well.” Willie confidently answered before beginning to give a quick set of lessons on how to operate the tank to everyone now gathered around the vehicle. With Willie’s aid, Al was quickly able to start the tank up and drive it off of the end of the dock and towards one of the nearby warehouses. Everyone in the area quickly gathered around to get a closer look.

  “Is this one of those new tanks that were sent to North Africa?” One of the other dock workers asked.

  “Yes, it is. She really is a beauty, isn’t she?” Willie replied.

  “Are you sure that this thing isn’t backwards? It looks like the turret and the engine are in the wrong place, especially with that bloody door back there.” A soldier detailed to the port commented after looking around the back of the tank.

  “No, mate. This is the way that the tank was designed. The thickest armor is in the front along with the engine. The turret and all of the crew except for the driver are in the back of the tank. The engine helps stop any shells that get past the armor from hitting the crew. That makes it a lot safer for the crew in battle.

  The door in the back just makes it easier for the crew to get in and out of the tank. It also makes loading ammunition a lot easier as well. That’s a lot better than having to lift shells on top of the tank and put them down through the hatch, don’t you think?

  Also, in case the tank gets hit and the crew has to bail out. The back door allows those men to get out quickly to someplace safe. I really like that part very much since I would hate to be trapped inside of a burning tank.”

  “What is that tank armed with? Clearly, that is not a two-pounder like what is on our Crusaders and Matildas.” A nearby soldier asked.

  “No, Sir. It isn’t. This tank has a high-velocity six-pounder gun for its main armament. It also has a co-axial Browning machine gun in the turret as well as a pintle mount for a second machine gun at the commander’s cupola. There’s not a tank in the entire Japanese army that can withstand a hit from this six-pounder. Plus, we can fire high explosive rounds to deal with infantry and bunkers when necessary.” Willie explained.

  A growing number of people continued to gather around the tank at the same time that multiple heavy crates were also being offloaded from Miraculous’s deck and aft hold.

  “Those crates stay sealed until the Army comes to take them to their final destination.” Captain Winters warned, still standing on the ship’s bridge.

  “Why is that, Captain?” One of the longshoremen asked.

  “Because we want it all to be a surprise.” Came the captain’s reply, which caused a roar of laughter to erupt.

  One of the smaller vehicles from Cavill Tractor Factory was next to be lifted up out of the hold. This was another armored fighting vehicle that was very similar to the first tank, only smaller and having one less road wheel on each side. This tank was equipped with an open-topped turret that was armed with a short-barreled light howitzer. The dock workers that had been looking at the first tank, now streamed en mass back to the pier beside the Miraculous. They were all fascinated with what this ship had brought.

  “This is our newest tank.” Willie explained to the gathering of men after walking back from the warehouse. “After what our troops learned from North Africa, Mister Cavil
l had these built. This is our advanced Mark II light tank chassis, but instead of a two-pounder cannon or a twenty-five millimeter machine cannon, we put a ninety-four millimeter short-barreled howitzer in the turret to shoot high explosive shells at enemy infantry and bunkers. He thought that you could use something like this here.”

  Another aborigine man carrying a handful of papers walked down the gangplank from Miraculous.

  “Here is the manifest for this ship. I also have here the listing of the cargo for the next ship coming in as well.” He said as he handed the paperwork to Major Hamilton.

  “The next ship?” The major asked, not expecting Miraculous in the first place, much less a second ship full of cargo.

  “Yes, Sir. Mister Cavill has arranged to have a second transport ship to deliver military supplies to Singapore. Astounding will be bringing additional light scout tanks, truck-mounted artillery pieces, additional small arms and a substantial amount of ammunition.

  “Your employer certainly picks some uncommon names for his ships. Anyway, these papers say that the equipment here is all going to the Australian 8th Division.” The port quartermaster noted.

  “Yes, Major Hamilton. They are going to be equipping a new armored battalion with them. This will give the Division a very effective mobile force in the event that the Japanese break through into Southeast Asia. They can also be used in offensive operations if necessary.”

  “Well, the Free French in Indochina are still preparing to fight against the Japanese, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, but as far as I know, they don’t have any tanks at all. Obviously, they will not be getting any from back home anytime soon either.”

  “What if the Japanese troops attack the French using tank support?” The port quartermaster asked.

  “Then I hope that the French will ask to purchase some of Mister Cavill’s new tanks soon before that could happen. The French could, of course, buy American tanks. But would the Americans offer their best vehicles to the Free French? I don’t know, but Mister Cavill would, I’m sure.