The Birch Gun was the world's first practical self-propelled artillery gun, built at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich in 1925. The gun was never highly regarded by the British High Command, purely for prejudicial beliefs and political pressure rather than any real lack of ability. Named after General Sir Noel Birch, who was Master General of Ordnance at the time, the Birch gun had real potential. It was built upon a Vickers Medium Mark II tank chassis and mated originally with the QF 18 pdr (83.8 mm) gun then with a 75 mm field gun. The project was abandoned in 1928 after political pressure killed off any plans to complete the third version of this weapon.