Article 2-pdr AT or 2-pdr TA

[Mike Cecil]

Digging though some old articles I found the following which may be of interest to the carrier owners, particularly anyone with an interest in the Australian 2-pdr Anti-tank carrier (or, as you will read, the 2-pdr Tank Attack carrier).

The article was written around 2005 when I worked at the Australian War Memorial, hence the reference to inquiries to 'my office'. It was first published in the VMVC newsletter, so was seen by club members but not many others.

Anyway, it might be of interest to MLU members, so enjoy!

Mike



‘Anti Tank’ or ‘Tank Attack’?


By

Michael K. Cecil
(First published in the VMVC Newsletter, 2005)

Following the annual military vehicle gathering at Corowa in March this year, there have been several telephone inquiries to my office questioning the Australian use of the term ‘Tank Attack’ in place of ‘Anti-Tank’ during the latter half of the Second World War. Some callers have been insistent that the term was never applied, particularly in relation to the Australian designed and built tracked vehicle that was armed with the 2-pounder gun.

Like many historical inquiries, the answer is much more complicated than just a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In this case, the terminology ‘tank attack’ was applied not only to the 2-pounder gun and its various modes of transport, but to all ‘anti-tank’ weapons and units listed on the Australian inventory in early 1943.

Firstly, in relation to Army units carrying the term ‘Anti Tank’ as part of their title, an amendment was notified in General Routine Orders (GRO) on 30 April 1943, such that the title ‘Anti Tank Regiment RAA’ was changed to ‘Tank Attack Regiment RAA’. From this point onwards in most official documentation, such units are referred to as ‘Tank Attack’ units. War Equipment Tables for various units of this type invariably use that terminology for the duration of the war, as do references to such units listed in the Order of Battle, and in vehicle marking instructions. Indeed, the January 1943 issue of the markings instructions refers to ‘A Tk Regt’ that is, Anti-Tank Regiments, carrying the numerals 62 in white on the artillery arm of service colours of red over blue, divided horizontally, while the vehicle marking instructions of January 1944 show these units as ‘Tk A Regt’, that is, Tank Attack Regiments, with the same unit code and arm of service colours.

With regard to the nomenclature of the weapons, these were changed at about the same time as the unit designations, from ‘anti-tank’ to ‘tank attack’. The terminology was applied to all such weapons, from the Boys rifle to the 17-pounder gun. The Boys .55-inch AT rifle became the Boys .55-inch TA rifle, while the Projector Infantry Anti Tank (PIAT) became the Projector Infantry Tank Attack (PITA). The change was not instantaneous, so it is possible to find documentation after that date still referring to ‘anti-tank’ weapons. Increasingly however, the referencing for all such weapons, particularly in War Equipment Tables and in the Australian Changes in War Materiel (ACinWM), listings, is as ‘tank attack’ weapons.

There are numerous examples to illustrate this. The War Equipment Table of a Tank Attack Regiment lists an amendment for 24 September 1943, whereby the terminology ‘2-pr. Tk.A. guns or 6-pr. Tk.A. guns’ is to be substituted for the older terminology ‘2-pr. A.Tk. guns or 6-pr. A.Tk. guns’ . A similar nomenclature is used for the formidable 17-pdr gun, which is referred to in the 15 October 1943 amendment as the ‘17-pr Tk.A. gun’.

The anti-tank portee trucks are referred to in the AC in WM issues from early in 1943 to their being declared obsolete in March 1945 as ‘Trucks, 3 ton Portee, 2-pr Tk.A.Gun (Aust)’, while the Military Vehicle Field Specification (MVFS) number 1473 issued during 1944, refers to the vehicle as a ‘Trucks, 3 ton, Portee, Tk.A.Gun 2-Pdr(Aust)’ with the role defined as the ‘transport of the 2-pdr Tank Attack Gun and crew’. Interestingly, the MVFS index further abbreviates the title to ‘Trucks 3 ton Portee T.A.G. 2-pdr (Aust)’.

The other main transport of the 2-pdr gun was the Australian designed and built 2-pdr carrier, which was originally assigned the nomenclature ‘Carrier, Anti-Tank, 2-pdr (Aust)’. Here again, the Army terminology was altered to reflect the change from ‘anti-tank’ to ‘tank attack’ from early 1943, when the vehicle designation becomes ‘Carrier, Tank Attack, 2-pdr (Aust)’ for the remainder of its career until declared obsolete in July 1946. There are numerous examples of the use of this later terminology, or derivations of it, in official documents. The AC in WM lists a part modification in December 1943 to the ‘mounting, 2-pdr Tank Attack Carrier (Aust)’, and during 1944 that some ‘Carriers Tk A 2-pdr (Aust)’ are to be reserved for conversion to tracked trucks. The Directorate of Mechanical Equipment (DME) Technical Instructions issued for this carrier type during late 1943 refer to it as the ‘Carriers, 2-pr, Tk.A.(Aust)’ or ‘Carriers, Tk.A.(Aust)’ . The vehicle was finally declared obsolete in July 1946, and the nomenclature used and spelled out in full in the AC in WM declaration is ‘Carrier, Tank Attack, 2-pr.(Aust)’.

While the proper Army nomenclature for the 2-pdr Carrier is irrefutable, what of the nomenclature used by the Directorate of Armoured Fighting Vehicles Production (DAFVP) for the same vehicle, and particularly for their parts identification system, known as ‘AFTAG’? DAFVP were part of the Ministry of Munitions and not the Department of the Army. Their primary role was the production of the vehicles to meet Army’s requirements, and sufficient quantities of spare parts to support the use of the vehicles in the field. On 13 October 1942, the Director of DAFVP, Mr AR Code, wrote to the Army requesting guidance on the nomenclature to be used on AFTAGs for several projects, including the ‘Carrier Anti-tank 2-pdr.-Australian’. Owing to space limitations on the AFTAGs, he suggested that the nomenclature for the 2-pdr carrier be ‘Carrier A.T. (Anti-Tank)’. The reply is dated 5 November 1942, and defines the nomenclature for the project as ‘Carrier 2-pdr. (Aust)’ and for the AFTAGs as ‘Carrier 2-pdr’. There is no reference to the use of ‘anti-tank’. However, the ‘Carrier 2 PDR. (Aust) Parts Identification List’ dated 31 January 1943, refers to the design of AFTAGs that are attached to all ‘Carrier 2 Pdr. Spare parts’ as having the words ‘Carrier A.T. (Anti-Tank) on the label, and where the parts are MG Carrier parts that also fit the 2-pdr carrier, the AFTAG is endorsed with a coloured panel bearing the words ‘Carrier A.T.’. The parts list states that ‘… the name Carrier A.T. which the AFTAG bears was the previous designation of this vehicle’. The ‘new’ designation, at least as far as the DAFVP was concerned, was that notified to them on 5 November, that is, ‘Carrier 2-pdr (Aust)’. Just why the Director of Mechanisation, Colonel Bazeley, should have abbreviated the project nomenclature from the Army’s actual vehicle designation, as notified in AC in WM, is not clear. What is clear is that all subsequent documentation issued by DAFVP for this project refers to it as the ‘Carrier 2-pdr (Aust)’, including parts lists dated in January and December 1943 , the instruction book dated 31 January 1943, and the undated combined workshop manual.

Later in 1946, Army changed the designation of both Units and equipment back to ‘anti-tank’ in place of ‘tank attack’. Hence, the 6-pdr and 17-pdr guns reverted to being ‘anti tank’ guns for the remainder of their careers, but all those items that had already been declared obsolete had gone out of service under the banner of being ‘tank attack’ weapons.

As the nomenclatures and abbreviations quoted above have been faithfully reproduced from the reference documents, it is obvious that, despite official terminology, there were variations of nomenclature and particularly in abbreviations. ‘Tank attack’ has been variously noted as ‘Tk.A’. or ‘T.A.’ or simply ‘TA’. Likewise ‘Anti Tank’ has been noted as ‘A Tk’, ‘A.T’. or ‘AT’. ‘Pounder’ is often abbreviated as either ‘pr’ or ‘pdr’. Sometimes a variety of terms are used within the one wartime document.

No matter what the abbreviation, what is clear is that the Army nomenclature for anti-tank weapons and units was changed during 1943 to the more aggressive ‘tank attack’ designation and, for those weapons still in service in late 1946, the designation reverted to the defensive term ‘anti-tank’ for the peacetime army.