[Juha]

Tony
a) British even had a separate category for the slow and heavily armoured tank, Infantry tank. Have you never heard on Infantry Tank Mk II Matilda? First use in combat in May 40. Max armour thickness was 78mm when the German tanks at that time had max armour thickness of 30mm. Now Cruisers main problem was poor reliability and a gun which had optimized for anti-armour work but Cruisers armour protection was usually in same order than the German tanks they met, that means before Tiger and Panther and Panther's side armour was weak. But those late German tanks were much heavier and much more complicated than British and so needed much more materials and working hours to produce. It's true that between 1940 and late 44, so between A13 and Comet British Cruiser thanks were not as good as the best German tanks but majority of German tanks were not Tigers and Panthers during that time and with Tigers and Panthers one could not have made the dash through France and Belgium in August and Sept. 44, they were too unreliable for that.

b) there was not a big difference between number of claims made by Finnish 20mm and 40mm AAA troops on Il-2s in the summer 44. Finnish experience was that 20mm AAA fire when gun used both HE and AP rounds was effective against Il-2s. Il-2 was a hard nut but not invulnerable. Each troop also had a twin 7,62mm AA-mg and they even figured out a useful use for that against Il-2s.

Juha