AHC : Improve the Bob Semple Tank (New Zealand WW2)

During a period of uncertainty in which New Zealand feared having to defend itself from Japanese invasion without external assistance. Your mission is to find a solution to protect the country with available materials in June 1940.


http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/NewZealand/Bob_Semple_Tank.php

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thorr97

Banned
"Improve the Bob Semple tank?" Good lord, why? That tank was as near as perfection as humanly possible! How dare you impugn its magnificence by even implying that it could be "improved!"
 
Needs another layer of corrugated iron. At the moment it is 50% sloped armor and 50% shot trap. Position the second layer of corrugated iron so that the ridges cover the ridges cover the traps and it will be unpenetrable. That's how sloped armor works isn't it?
 
New Zealand built 1300 Bren carriers during the war. There should have been no shortage of design inspiration based off the many many iterations of the Carden Loyd Mark VI tankette.
 
New Zealand built Universal Carriers there is therefore no reason they couldn't have built Vickers Mk VI light tanks or better yet these, though the armament would need to be imported.

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That'll deal with any Japanese tank or armoured car they'd be likely to encounter.
 
New Zealand built Universal Carriers there is therefore no reason they couldn't have built Vickers Mk VI light tanks or better yet these, though the armament would need to be imported.

2 Pounders were made in Australia, so not so bad. Many of the automotive parts were off-the-shelf Ford parts which would have been safe to imported on neutral US ships along with raw materials for a while.
 

Ian_W

Banned
I'm going to use New Zealanders, with 0.303 SMLEs, Boys Anti-Tank rifles and Molotov cocktails improvised from filling a beer bottle with soap flakes, sugar and petrol.

Come at me, bro.
 
During a period of uncertainty in which New Zealand feared having to defend itself from Japanese invasion without external assistance. Your mission is to find a solution to protect the country with available materials in June 1940.


http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/NewZealand/Bob_Semple_Tank.php

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The best way to improve this tank is not to build it at all, if New Zeeland needs a tank, the Australians where building the very good and much better Sentinel tank, the New Zeelanders could join that project.
 
I think the idea was that the Japanese invaders would be incapacitated by laughter, thus enabling the defenders sweep them into the sea.

My personal belief is that the Bob Semple tank project was primarily designed to keep Bob Semple's "enthusiasm" from interfering in New Zealand's war effort, with a secondary purpose to conceal our actual defensive technology programs and capabilities. After all, if thats the best we can produce, then there is no hurry invading now. They can be swept up later with ease.

The lesser known Schofield had more potential for development, as mentioned above, but our heavy industry really wasn't up to producing more than tank prototypes at the time.
 
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