On route for the liberation of Brussels, 3 September 1944.A Stuart light tank passes by a stationary Cromwell and a row of German POW's.  In the background, the rest of a armored column advancing on Brussels.

This is the Nuffield A39 Tank Heavy Assault "Tortoise".  The Tortoise was developed by the Nuffield company in response for a 1943 brief for a heavy assault tank, designed to attack heavily fortified positions such as those in the more complete areas of the Atlantic Wall and the Siegfried Line.  What was required to answer this brief was, substantially, a reversion to the "breakthrough tank" concept pursued in the interwar period on the basis of WW1 experience.

The A39 design emerged from a multiplicity of proposed new designs and adaptations, both turreted and non-turretted.  In the event, the A39 (in reality, a German-style assault gun with casemate-mounted main armament) was the only design actually built; a mere 6 pre-production models were constructed (no prototype, as such, was produced).  They arrived much too late for service in WW2, which was actually over by the time the vehicles were available for testing.

The A39 never saw service - but it was actually tested, in Germany, in 1948.  The results were not unlike what one would have expected, bearing in mind experience with the Jagdtiger.  On the minus side, the A39 was found to be slow and unmanoeuverable, and presented difficulties with transport and deployment due to its great (78 Imperial ton) weight.  As with the Jagdtiger, roads disintegrated and bridges crumbled under its weight.  On the plus side, its armour (a priority in the design brief) was, to say the least, robust, and its 32 pounder (94mm) gun was highly effective against German tanks (Panthers at 1,000 metres was no problem) and, using high explosive, against fixed defences.  One contrast with the Jagdtiger was that the A39 came across as highly reliable mechanically; on the other hand, the two-part projectile, requiring two loaders, presented similar difficulties to crew as those experienced with the Jagdtiger.

The British designers were well aware of the constraints on AFV design regarding weight, but appear to have ignored them in producing this vehicle.  Still, they appear to have ignored them in developing this vehicle, which was well up with the Jagdtiger when it came to weight and sluggishness as well as armour and firepower.  Nonetheless, given its very much superior reliability, it would have been interesting to have seen the A39 in live action.  It could have been a useful asset, carefully used.  Best regards, JR.

A might-have-been - the British Jagdtiger.

Wing Commander W G G Duncan-Smith, Wing Commander Flying, No. 244 Wing RAF, with "Bonzo", a bulldog mascot of one of the squadrons of the Wing, standing by his personal communications aircraft, a commandeered Italian Saiman 202, at Tortorella, Italy. Duncan-Smith joined the RAFVR as a Sergeant pilot before the War and flew his first operations with No. 611 Squadron RAF in October 1940. As his successes steadily mounted he was commissioned in spring 1941 and was then posted as a flight commander to No. 603 Squadron RAF in August 1941. Following a period of illness he was posted as adjutant to Southend airfield in January 1942, but eventually joined No. 411 Squadron RCAF as flight commander. In March 1942 Duncan-Smith was given the command of No. 604 Squadron RAF, and then led the Norwegian Spitfire Wing at North Weald until December 1942 when he was appointed Wing Commander Tactics at HQ Fighter Command. In May 1943 he arrived in the Mediterranean theatre, temporarily commanding the Luqa Fighter Wing on Malta before becoming Wing Leader of No. 244 Wing RAF in late July. Duncan Smith was promoted Group Captain in November 1943 and took command of of No. 324 Wing RAF with whom he continued to fly operationally until March 1945. His final victory score was 17 enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed and two shared. Victor Sierra