Published on: 10 Nov 01:36

Many thanks to https://www.facebook.com/759933444372886/posts/the... Yes the photo on the right is the actual real tank. Unreal, isn't it?

I love the Bob Semple tank. Not just because it’s exquisitely crap, but because its inventor, Bob Semple, would himself be the first to acknowledge the exquisiteness of its crapness.

For those who don’t know, Bob Semple was the New Zealand government’s Minister of Works during World War Two. New Zealand had already done its bit as the self-identified “England of the South Seas” by, when Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, happily calling on its strapping young men to sign up to fight the Hun and then sending them off to battle Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, in North Africa. New Zealand was basically bled white of military strength ... but it’s the most remote country in the world, a million miles from anywhere, come on, how likely is danger to threaten? Not very!

Then Japan declared war too. And New Zealand started shitting bricks. Oh sure, Japan is still a bloody long way off … but not only is it still too close for comfort, but at the time it had the second most powerful Navy in the world. It could command its fleets to smash through any resisting vessels or fleets the Allies were then capable of throwing in their path, and there’s sweet-fudge-all the Allies could do about it. At least In December 1941. The Royal Navy is already at breaking point containing Germany. So is Britain’s armies. What the hell can New Zealand do?

Improvise, that’s what. Bob Semple did a speedy-quick review of what local industry and production the country did in fact have: tractors and corrugated iron. Right, that’ll do! He threw together the Bob Semple tank. Caterpillar tracks and steel sides and machine guns. Yes, if they went up against literally any other tank in the entire universe, they’d get the shit kicked out of them in zero seconds flat, but … the Japanese armies actually relied more on foot soldiers and banzai charge and its military fighting spirit than rational anti-armour doctrine. In open terrain, a mobile machine gun platform like the Bob Semple tank might actually do quite well against rifle infantry.

But yes it absolutely looks ridiculous! No argument from me there. The Bob Semple tank got laughed out of Parliament. Semple himself readily acknowledged how idiotic it looked, but also quite reasonably pointed out that he was doing the best he could with the atrocious range of industrial output available to him. And I agree. If Japan had ever invaded and put his tank to the test, the general public and the nation’s MPs might discover the folly of relying overly on tacticool over results.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-overpowered...