These British Howitzers Crushed Nazi Forces

In 1940, the United Kingdom went to war with the Axis in North Africa and encountered an unnerving tactical problem

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The Bishop, Deacon, Sexton and Abbot provided plenty of fire support

Robert Beckhusen [2]

In 1940, the United Kingdom went to war with the Axis in North Africa and quickly encountered an unnerving tactical problem.

The nature of warfare in the flat, open desert inevitably favored tanks, which could easily outrun the range of supporting artillery that could not move unless towed. Limbering and unlimbering artillery was time consuming, so the British Army hastened development of a 25-pounder self-propelled howitzer called the Bishop.

Weapons rushed into combat often make for poor weapons — and the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company’s self-propelled Bishop howitzer was exceedingly poor indeed.

Foremost was the technical problem of affixing a howitzer onto a chassis. The company took a Valentine tank, a rugged workhorse of the British armored forces, and swapped the turret for an enormous, boxy superstructure which increase the vehicle’s height to 10 feet. That became the inspiration for its name, and gave the Bishop a tall profile.