Crew : 4
Engine power : 131 hp
Combat weight :17,690 kg (39,006 lb)
Max speed : road 24 km/h (14.90 mph)
Length : 5.53 m (18.14 ft)
Range : 145 km (90.05 miles)
Width : 2.63 M (8.63 ft)
Main gun : 25-pounder(87.60 mm)
Height : 2.82 m (9.27 ft)
Armour : 8 mm (0.32 in) to 60 mm (2.36 in)
The British Army carried out trials with self-propelled guns between the wars but it was only when the Afrika Korps started to use them against the British in North Africa that one was actually put into production.The Bishop was a hasty conversion of a Valentine infantry tank chassis to accommodate a 25-pounder(87.6 mm)field gun.
The first examples were ready for trials by August 1941 and 100 were ordered a few months later.All production was rushed to the Middle East where it was met with some misgivings.Was the Bishop a heavily armed tank or a self-propelled gun? Eventually it was decided it was a gun and was issued to Royal Artillery batteries.The Bishop was not a success.The gun was mounted in a large fixed superstructure which limited both traverse and elevation,the latter severely limiting maximum range.If the full range was required the crew had to build a dirt ramp and drive the vehicle up it.Ammunition stowage was limited in the cramped fighting compartment,so a trailer had to be towed.In the absence of anything better,it was deployed operationally and even took part in the early stages of the Italian campaign.Thereafter it faded from the scene as the British began to receive sufficient numbers of the vastly superior American M7 Priest self-propelled
