Why Afrika Korps Officers Banned the Word "Matilda" From Field Reports After Sidi Barrani

At Sidi Barrani, German and Italian gunners watched their shells bounce harmlessly off slow, heavy British tanks rolling straight through their lines. The Matilda became a name nobody in the Afrika Korps wanted to write down — because writing it meant admitting their anti-tank guns were useless. The story goes that officers started scrubbing the word from field reports just to keep morale from collapsing. This is how one stubborn British tank rattled Rommel's entire desert army. #ww2 #ww2history #wwii