EARLY EPISODE: The Bob Semple Tank
Francis and Shocks join Joe to talk about the time New Zealand attempted to build a tank.
Comments (38)
Listening to the intro in 2025 like
Someone simulated a King Tiger shell hitting a Bob Semple. It goes about as well as you'd expect... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5NnEWLn5bw
As an Australian veteran I approve of this episode lol
I know it looks weird and useless, but the Bren Gun carrier was actually a super useful little vehicle. It wasn't ever consider a sort of tank - it was just a wee transport with armour to protect the crew from small arms. Was great for towing, carrying men and kit. Not as mad or useless as some bits of British kit were *cough* VALIANT *cough*
Bob Semple had what we kiwis call number 8 wire mentality. Also known by Well There’s Your Problem as a willingness to shake hands with danger. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=No%208%20wire
I love my country. Stoush is kiwi slang for “fight”. Kiwi version of hoodie and shorts - google Fred Dagg or Wal from Footrot Flats :) Also Bob wasn’t alone in opposing WW1 but ending up in the government during WW2. Peter Fraser the Prime Minister served jail time for sedition in 1916.
Reckon that probably comes as an evolution of a word from your Scottish settlers! Stooshie in Scotland is a word for a rammy or a argument
I've been craving more Bob Semple stories ever since Potential History dropped his video on it 3 years ago. Finally.
I just want to know what Joe said about Elon lmao
I’ve missed the zoo crew episodes.
Hey, go ahead and mock the Kiwis… have you looked at the Aussie’s Sentinel tank? What’s that in the middle of the front hull? Yeah, that’s what I thought too… who else puts a huge dick on the front of their tank? https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sentinel_Tank_April_2010.jpg
we talk about it briefly during the episode
Absolutely bang on with Kiwi travellers. As an Australian I know heaps of people that pretend to be from NZ because Australians have a reputation as being the worst tourists abroad. I had a guy in Nepal tell me what he thought about Australians. He said ‘Just like British people, but more drunk and more racist’ and he’s unfortunately not wrong
As an american, i tell people i'm from canada
If you've got a bit of time to kill, YouTube has uploads of the propaganda/instructional cartoons about the Boys Anti Tank rifle briefly mentioned in the ep; which are kinda neat. Called "Stop that tank!", if I remember right.
The tank that proved sloped armour was king!
Say what you will about the Bob Semple tank, at least the tractors under the armor were a net positive for the war effort and people had something to laugh about, I'd call that a win-win situation.
At 45 minutes you did indeed say 'Bob Semple got spitroasted by the Boys'
YES YES YES YES, FINALLY A EPISODE ON THIS MOST PRESTIGIOUS OF WAR ENGINES
A joint project between a tractor manufacturer and a company that makes saws. Was anyone else hoping for a tracked vehicle with a giant buzzsaw on it?
Just a Warhammer 40k abomination with a 1940s chainsword the size of a Buick.
Googling the tank i discovered that it is apparently a fan favourite on warthunder. As in, there is a fan mod for it. So after seeing so many adds for the game, LLBD might be the show that gets me to actually play it.
As a resident Kidney, hell yeah. Fun fact: We we still have zero tanks, and only the (sort of) modern equivalent of bren carriers, the NZLAV (rebranded Canadian Kodiak's). In saying that, we really have no need for heavy armour. Our defense force almost exclusively does peace keeping & disaster relief (as it should).
Zoo Crew + Bob Semple = Instant Classic
On behalf of all Australians, for those accents, you're all cunts (the bad kind). But for an entertaining story about our history, you're all cunts (the good kind).
I give them points for getting the slang a lot better than most.
This story has big Colorado Killdozer energy.
A long coming episode. Glade the Simple never saw serves. Hope you are doing better Joe. [Distance hug.]
Get well soon Joe
Kiwi version of Hoodie and shorts would be a swandri and stubbies(rugby shorts)
Oh man, cannot wait fora Gallipoli episode, the annals of Anglo-ANZAC incompetence need to be opened again
hehehe too true
And/or Adrian Carton de Wiart to continue the tradition of psycho-British-nauts
Do a christmas “donkeys led by lions” about the LRDG. That’s all I know about the brave kiwis of WWII
Christmas really has come early
Always good to see Kiwi representation in the annals of incompetence.
Plus, it's a nice touch that the Kiwi episode involves exactly zero deaths, just a couple of temporarily embarrassed tractors.
It one of Tank eve