Drew... that's too evil and Machievellian even for me (in total, only in total)

Some parts of it are... very interesting. Possibilities everywhere.


It's obviously dependent on what's available locally, but hadn't we moved to 15mm Besa as the replacement HMG for tanks in the Light Tank Mk VIC? .50 Vickers would have to come out of stores somewhere (possibly naval?), 15mm Besa would be new production. In fact the 2 man, radio equipped turrets of Mk VIs, whether with .50 or 15mm, are really begging for a practical use (though with only 4-14mm armour they would need some serious uparmouring)



Yes we have. The difference here is that Australia was making the .50cal Vickers MG at Lithgow, so it is locally available (we did not make the Besa). We bought a bunch of additional tooling from the Ministry of Munitions as it was folding itself up 1919-21 and upgraded the Lithgow factory's ability to make rifles, .303 lewis and Vickers, and .50 Vickers.

So yep, it's just what's locally available.

The Mk VI with 15mm Besa is a nice cheap training tank for the British and via British LL/support to China is their standard light tank. It will stay such for the duration, in China. Their standard 'heavy' tank is Canadian-built Valentines at the start, these will be replaced from early 44 by Grant/Sherman 'heavy' tanks. Their standard 'medium' tank from '43 will be APOD M22 Locust, which will be a bit heavier and a lot more reliable in APOD (but not be air-transportable).

Grant'Sherman is not going to be very deployable away from the coast and 'inland coasts' of teh major rivers in China, it's just physically too heavy for the scanty, poor quality infrastructure. In these areas Valentine will remain their 'heavy' tank.

Cheers: mark