What is a Canal Defense Light (CDL)? In simplest terms, the CDL is an intensely bright spotlight housed in an armored turret mounted on a standard tank chassis. Initially, the CDL were mounted on converted Matilda Mk II tanks, then expanding other tanks such as the Valentine, Churchill, M3 Grant / Lee and the M4 Sherman.
Looking at the CDL tanks, one would be forgiven for thinking that they were one of the famous ‘Hobart’s Funnies’. However, that would be incorrect (although they joined the 79th Armoured Division later in the war).
This build portrays a fictional Matilda II CDL from 49th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, in early 1944 while training with the 79th Armored Division in Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumbria UK.
This vehicle still wears the Caunter camouflage from its time in Egypt the year before. It’ll be re-painted in olive drab before entering Europe in August 1944.
