Matildas In USSR question

This question kind of got buried in another thread so I'll ask it again.

http://rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/galleries/Lendlease/Matilda.htm

Have any of these Russian Matildas been upgunned and did the Ruskies have an HE shell for them ?

PS. Great pics.

 

i´ve heard that some of the Matilda's where given He shells and even the Churchill tank which a few served in the red army but they never up gunned them because the crew men of the tanks diden´t like the turrets for some reason and i even heard they was more complicated than the Russian tanks in some ways.

 

+ that tehy focused on their own better tanks, T-34/76 Kv-1 and so on

 

There is no record of any Matilda tanks being fitted with a different gun by the Soviets.
Any photo's showing a Matilda with a different gun to the 2 pdr, could in fact be Matilda III CS tanks, which were fitted with a low velocity 3 inch howitzer.
The 3 inch howitzer QF Mk I, could fire smoke and HE, but not AP.

ps the last photo's on the bottom of the web-page you posted are actually of a Mk III CS tank

 

Thanks, guys.

Great pics though aren't they.

 

The Russians generally liked the tanks they recieved through lend-lease; they were more user-friendly and reliable than their own production models. The Matilda II also had an advantage of armour protection even over the KV-1.

 

but when given British tanks they often asked 'where is the main gun?'

 

http://www.iremember.ru/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=19



Dmitriy Loza
Memoirs - Tankers
- Dmitriy Fedorovich, on which American tanks did you fight?

— On Shermans. We called them «Emchas», from M4 [in Russian, em chetyrye]. Initially they had the short main gun, and later they began to arrive with the long gun and muzzle brake. On the front slope armor there was a travel lock for securing the barrel during road marches. The main gun was quite long. Overall, this was a good vehicle but, as with any tank, it had its pluses and minuses. When someone says to me that this was a bad tank, I respond, «Excuse me!» One cannot say that this was a bad tank. Bad as compared to what?

- Dmitriy Fedorovich, did you have just American tanks in your unit?

— Our 6th Guards Tank Army (yes, we had six of them) fought in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. We ended the war for us in Czechoslovakia. Then they rushed us to the Far East and we fought against Japan. I briefly remind you that the army consisted of two corps: 5th Guards Tank Stalingrad Corps on our own T-34s and 5th Mechanized Corps, in which I fought. For the first time this corps had British Matildas, Valentines, and Churchills.

- They delivered the Churchill later.