Infanterie Panzerkampfwagen Mk II (e) mit 5cm KwK L/42, source: Flickr.com, with permission of the publishing user

During the fighting in Africa, the German army captured a number of British Matilda infantry tanks. With their characteristic flexibility, the Germans promptly put these vehicles back into service either in their original form or used them, with various modifications, as auxiliary and support vehicles. One of the captured tanks, however, underwent a more interesting conversion.

The original turret was removed, the opening covered with a steel plate, and a shield welded from flat steel plates was mounted on the hull. Into this shield was fitted a 50 mm KwK 38 L/42 tank gun — the weapon otherwise standardly used on the more advanced variants of the PzKpfw III tank. The choice of this weapon makes it somewhat difficult to categorise the vehicle: by armament it would qualify as a tank, yet in terms of its construction it has far more in common with an alternative form of self-propelled gun.

It is very likely that this vehicle never saw actual combat and served solely as a training vehicle. The only known photograph of it was also not taken during live action but at a military exercise that took place on the French coast. After completing its service life, this hybrid was presumably scrapped.