page_title: Bison concrete armoured lorry
section_title: The Tank Museum
hierarchical_section_title: Bison concrete armoured lorry / Extant examples / The Tank Museum
caption_attribution_description: English: British Thornycroft Bison armoured pillbox at Bovington Tank Museum
context_page_description: The Bison was an extemporised armoured fighting vehicle frequently characterised as a mobile pillbox. Bisons were produced in Britain during the invasion crisis of 1940-1941. Based on a number of different lorry chassis, it featured a fighting compartment protected by a layer of concrete. Bisons were used by the Royal Air Force to protect aerodromes and by the Home Guard. They acquired the generic name "Bison" from their main manufacturer.
context_section_description: A complete type 2 Bison, reconstructed from extant parts and a period lorry chassis, can be seen at The Tank Museum, Bovington. This example is a Thornycroft Tartar 3 ton, 6×4 of 1931 or later. The chassis here was a military forward-control Tartar used as a 3-ton general service lorry; military Tartars had one wheel on each side of the rear axles, civilian models had twin wheels — two wheels on each side.
  Access to the rear pillbox is through a hatch cut into the lorry decking. The cab armour is open-topped and was accessed by climbing over. Early examples used a single rectangular box over both sections, but separate sloping-walled boxes saved weight. Some examples were built with unarmoured cabs which emphasises their limited mobility – they had to be deployed before any attack. Although attempts were often made to protect the engine and vulnerable radiator, this one has merely a light steel plate over half the radiator and the steering box is still exposed.
  In period it's unlikely that a relatively modern military lorry would have been sacrificed in this way, being too valuable to replace losses after Dunkirk. The museum's Bison was built relatively recently, from an original rear pillbox on a different original chassis, with the front cab section being a modern reproduction by the Museum of Army Transport in Beverley. The suspension of this example rests on axle stands to avoid flattening the tyres.
caption: Thornycroft, type 2 Bison on display at The Tank Museum, Bovington
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