Maltese Matilda

I Need help i want a color photo of the Maltese matilda can someone give me a hand please?

Can this help for the camouflage ..

Marco that is an Aussie one used in the Pacific ...

Well you have present the photo of the Matilda in buskett the 2 men in the photo are dead but the son of Sargent Nickolas Briffa the one standing in the turret is still alive counting the age of 79 years residing at st Vincent De Paul residence,and we had a chat of the "war time",he told me the exact camo and color of the Matilda,also called in that time camel-lion.it was painted in stone Maltese stone and the camo was in brown like (Hajt tas Sejjieh).Hope you like this information.

Never thaught that any Maltese were into the Tank Regiment, I new some used to drive Bren Carriers though ... during our expo in the 90s I happened to end up talking with an old 'veteran' and he pointed out they were instructed to weld some kind of brackets to the Matildas stationed at the airfields so they can be used to pull aircraft, unfortunetly at that period I did not have keen interest in allied material and shame on me did not ask him to sketch it for me ... if it is true I do not know, unfortunetly the only photo of a Matilda pulling an aircraft is from the front, I have asked about it to the best British resource but about this 'conversion' no real clue ... might that old pal at San Vincenz might still now something ...

On another story, my mother is from Zabbar almost on the way to Xaghjra, as a child she used to stay on teh doorstep watching tanks roll by. She does not recall the colour, and I always thaught she refered to brencarriers but when I showed photos she claimed they were turreted tanks ... so I still continued to encuire this story and thanks to an obscure photo of an A13 in Malta camo, so from some research and contacts I maanged to find out that these A13 were stationed at St Edwards College and operated in Zabbar Xaghjra area due that it could be a beachhead for landing ... so these stories lead to somwere my friend ...

Ivan

He also told me that when the English left they used to dug big holes in the fields and berried many tanks and they also threw from dingli cliffs also.

David Vassallo wrote:He also told me that when the English left they used to dug big holes in the fields and berried many tanks and they also threw from dingli cliffs also.

so, there might still be something buried somewhere?

Not something there are many items buried one was found in xewkija about 15 years ago i was told that the farmer was starting digging a well and finished in some kind of bore hole when it was drained a whole tank was found all rusty .

Based on the info you are stating here, i would go for the one in the photo. It is th eonly one documented and therefore you have something to go by, even the camo pattern will be correct. That is a brilliant piece of detective work Dave, you even have the colour. Normally, these vets would not remember such details, i imagine that this guy was very observant.

David Vassallo wrote:Not something there are many items buried one was found in xewkija about 15 years ago i was told that the farmer was starting digging a well and finished in some kind of bore hole when it was drained a whole tank was found all rusty .

David beware of myths and tales as not all that veteran say is real, what sure from British Military records [and these do not go that wrong]most of teh tanks found in Malta ended up back to Egypt, apart that most of the tanks available did not spend a long duty on the island, we had around 4 batches of deliveries in the 2 year siege. Till date I am not aware of any tanks in Gozo, only USA during operation Husky landed some american AA bofors and some heavy trucks but nothing else, but cannot say he is wrong, might it have been post war ...

A barge with bren carriers was sunk near Manoel island and I remember one was brought up during dregging and was being restored ... but that is it about tanks in Malta, beware of folklore and legends ... though something real might be, but before we have proof it is still legend, some stick to photos!

Not finished yet i have some other work to do on it.