A surplus naval 4-inch gun would require a British tank to be designed around it. The Matilda II's hull and turret were built for a 40 mm weapon, so accepting the much larger gun would produce a substantially bigger vehicle. A Crusader-type cruiser tank is presented as a more plausible starting point than the Matilda's infantry-support design. Against contemporary tanks, the 4-inch shell might be so powerful that high explosive would be more practical than armor-piercing ammunition, which could pass through without functioning as intended. The counterfactual shows how transferring naval ordnance to land warfare changes the platform as well as the weapon.
Notable Point · 11:15-12:34
A naval 4-inch gun in a British cruiser tank
A playful naval-gun counterfactual shows why fitting a 4-inch weapon would transform the size and role of a British tank rather than simply up-gun a Matilda II.