Editing Matilda II (section)

===Battle of France 1940===
The Matilda was first used in combat by the [[7th Royal Tank Regiment]] in [[Battle of France|France in 1940]]. Only 23 of the unit's tanks were Matilda IIs; the rest of the British infantry tanks in France were the smaller machine-gun armed [[Matilda I (tank)|A11 Matilda]].{{sfnp|Fletcher|1994|p=10}} Its 2-pounder gun was comparable to other tank guns in the 37 to 45&nbsp;mm range. Due to the thickness of its armour, it was largely, but not completely, impervious to the guns of the [[Tanks in the German Army|German tanks]] and anti-tank guns in France.{{sfnp|Sebag-Montefiore|2006|pp=149, 153}} The Germans found the 88&nbsp;mm anti-aircraft guns were the only effective counter-measure. In the [[Battle of Arras (1940)|counter-attack at Arras]] of 21 May 1940, 18<ref name=":0" /> British Matilda IIs (and Matilda Is) were able to briefly disrupt German progress, but, being unsupported, they sustained heavy losses (30 tanks lost) after breaking through to the rear area of [[7th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)|7th Panzer Division]]. A gun line of artillery and later [[88mm flak gun]]s, personally organised by the divisional commander General [[Erwin Rommel]] was needed to repel the attack.<ref>''Panzer Commander - The Memoirs of Hans Von Luck'', pp. 33</ref> All vehicles surviving the battles around [[Battle of Dunkirk|Dunkirk]] were abandoned when the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] evacuated.