Dieppe to Berlin: SP Guns

Archer SP Gun

PHOTO: Archer SP Gun, Photo by Dennis Berkin

The Archer Self-Propelled Gun was used with great success in North West Europe from March, 1944.

Design of the 17pdr as a high velocity anti-tank weapon comparable in hitting power to the Germaqn 88mm gun began in the fall of 1941. It was approved for production in mid 1942 and consideration was given to fitting it in tanks. Consideration was also given to the Bishop, but this was ruled out due to the vehicles high silhouette. The Crusader was ruled out as being too small and underpowered to take the mounting which left the Valentine as the only available alternative existing in quantity.

The Ministry of Supply asked Vickers to design an entirely new SPG vehicle based on the Valentine. Work started in July 1942 and the pilot was ready for trials in March 1943. Named Archer, this self-propelled gun was a low, open topped vehicle with a radical twist - the gun had a limited traverse and always pointed to the rear. The first production model was completed in March 1944 and used in North West Europe. What was at first considered to be only a temporary fix turned into a great success. A total of 665 of these hard hitting and trusty tanks were built out of an original order of 800.