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Schofield Tank

1942 WORLD WAR 2 X-TANK

History of the Schofield Tank

The Schofield Tank is a rare New Zealand indigenous main battle tank, developed during World War II (1939-1945) when a Japanese invasion of Australia and New Zealand was very likely. Realizing that these Pacific players had no access to the equipment of their allies (i.e.

Britain), various local projects were undertaken to strengthen their defenses. The Schofield Tank became the result of one of these initiatives in New Zealand, although it was destined to never enter combat or enter combat service.

The Schofield tank was designed by E.J. Schofield, who worked for General Motors in Wellington. He designed a fairly simple light vehicle in 1940 and presented it to New Zealand authorities as a possible solution to the continuing demand for armoured vehicles.

An off-the-shelf Chevrolet truck chassis was used as the base for the frame, and various other exterior elements were added to create an entirely new combat platform - for example, the suspension system consisted of the existing UK-used Horstmann suspension Universal Carrier (BREN Gun Carrier) light tracked vehicle. Along with this track wheel arrangement, the Schofield tank was also designed to run on conventional truck-style rubber tire wheels.

The interior will have three crew members (driver and two machine gunners), protected by armor plates up to 10mm (provided by the local rail industry). The combat weight is 5,300 kg, and the dimensions include a length of 4 meters, a width of 2.6 meters and a height of 2 meters.

The drive is provided by the original Chevrolet truck engine - a gas-powered 6-cylinder engine with nearly 30 horsepower. The power of the unit allows the vehicle to travel on its tracks at road speeds of up to 43 km/h and have a range of up to 560 km.

Relying on its wheels (controlled by the crew inside the hull), the road speed increased to 72 km/h.

The armament initially focused on a series of machine guns, two of which were gunners dedicated to the crew. The driver and a gunner sat in the forward fuselage, the rest of the crew sat in the rear (in a small turret).

After trials, this approach was abandoned in favor of another modification, showing a more traditional closed traversing turret armor layout.

The main armament thus became a 2 pounder British Ordnance QF anti-tank gun, mated to a coaxially mounted British 7.92mm BESA machine gun. Both guns are mounted in turrets located on top of the fuselage for 360-degree traverse.

The onboard magazine includes 52 x 2pdr projectiles, as well as 3,150 x 7.92mm rounds.

Despite the advancement of Schofield tanks, by 1942, Schofield tanks were no longer needed as combat vehicles began to arrive in large numbers from Allied sources, including the United States. As a result, only one Schofield example was completed, and it was eventually sent to England for further testing sometime in 1943.

The history of the tank ended here, as there was no viable further development of the Schofield, and the only prototype was scrapped in the post-war period.