Richard Notton spake thus:
>
> Interesting that these vehicles "broke" with US tradition and took to the
> British naming system, all SPGs being named after a church official up to,
> and including, the post war FV433 Abbot. Wasn't there a "Bishop" Geoff ?
Yis Richard, s'matter of fact, me great-great uncle Arthur Foley
Winnington-Ingram (the last a long line of Winnington-XX vicars) was
Bishop of London til 1939, currently resident under the floor of
Westminster Abbey... oh, phhhfffttt, wait a minute, you're talking
about the VALENTINE Bishop! Wonderful, boxy contraption mounting WW2's
greatest gun/howitzer, the 25-pounder, on the magnificent Valentine tank
chassis! Some good info on this ad-hoc SPG here:
http://www.shadowsfolly.com/wwii/Britain/Bishop.htm...
:-)
Then there was the Deacon...
>
> Likewise during the war and after tanks have been officially named with
> words starting with C, there are a few exceptions for very good reason, but
> you have Comet, Cromwell, Churchill, Cruiser, Caernarvon, Centaur,
> Centurion, Conqueror, and latterly Challenger I & II, and likely a few I
> have missed.
The Crusader immediately comes to mind of course... and from it, a
pythonesque armoured car resulting from illicit relations between the
exellent Staghound and the Crusader turret...
>
> Alvis Motors cornered the market of S words and managed thereby to have
> entirely appropriate names for their range of MVs depending on the
> designated role, just the basic CVR(T) chassis in various guises is aptly
> named Scorpion, Scimitar, Sultan, Striker, Samson, Samaritan etc.
Actually, I suspect the British Army itself cornered the market for
s-words, having to deal with the aforementioned 'C-tanks'... :-)
-- Regards,Geoff Winnington-Ball MAPLE LEAF UP! ==> Zephyr, Ontario, Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maple Leaf Up - The Canadian Army Overseas in WW2 http://www.mapleleafup.org <sunray@mapleleafup.org> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1st Canadian Armoured Carrier Regiment http://www.1cacr.org <info@1cacr.org> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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