03/11/2026
Eyewitness in a WW2 A9 Cruiser tank
Here's the A9 Cruiser tank at The Tank Museum. A cutting-edge design in the 1930s, in France in 1940 the 14mm armour was too thin and the 25mph (40kph) speed was too slow. The machine gun positions each side of the driver were known as 'dustbins', armed with Vickers 0.303in MGs.
In North Africa, Sergeant Paddy Bermingham was a driver in 2nd Royal Tank Regiment. “Our tank was an A9 Cruiser which, although poorly armoured, had quite an assortment of weaponry,” he recalled. “Our main armament was a 3.7in smoke mortar [instead of the usual 2pdr gun], we also had three Vickers machine guns and, mounted for anti-aircraft use, a Bren light machine gun… Our crew was Captain D Wilkie, the commander, our operator ‘Tumbleweed’ Green, the nearside ‘dustbin’ gunner Bill Lowe, Corporal Sid Watkins, our main gunner, in the offside ‘dustbin’ was Tom Carleton, and I was the driver.”
Just before Christmas 1940, Sgt Bermingham was involved in the capture of Sidi Omar, a fort on the Libya-Cyrenaica border held by the Italian Army. “We were ordered south to take Sidi Omar,” he explained. “Our artillery arrived and were soon putting down concentrations on the fort, which lasted for several minutes. We made the fort at best possible speed, jinking on the way… all the time waiting for the crash which fortunately never came."
He continued: "My commander told me to circle the fort, and I did my utmost to tell both ‘dustbin’ gunners what was happening, but it must have fallen on deaf ears as both were busy using their machine guns. After going round the fort once came the urgent command ‘Sharp left!’ from my commander. This move placed the tank looking at a large breach in the fort. I sailed across and, with all the machine guns hard at it, came to rest beside the squadron commander’s tank, which had become a casualty having charged one of the buildings inside the fort and, in doing so, dropped one of its front idlers… I think the sight of a second tank inside the fort must have been too much for the Italians and very soon they were appearing from nooks and crannies everywhere to give themselves up.”
