The first cousin to the tank: an armed and armoured, wheeled military vehicle, with a good road and limited cross-country ability. Its origins stem from 1898, when a Maj Davidson of the US army bolted a machine gun to a 3-cylinder car. Although the idea was taken no further in the USA, it caused a ripple of interest in Europe. In 1902, British and French manufacturers separately exhibited their vehicles armed with Maxim machine guns within an armoured cab, and in 1903 Daimler demonstrated the world's first purpose-built armoured car to Austrian Emperor Franz Josef. It caused horses to bolt and a celebrated general was thrown from his mount, sufficient reason for no further interest to be shown until 1914.
Armoured cars are first recorded in combat just before WW I, used by the Italians in 1913 to subdue Tripoli and Cyrenaica. During 1914-18 all the major combatant nations developed four-wheeled armour-plated cars, usually equipped with fully revolving turrets, armed with one or two machine guns. Belgium employed various models of improvised armoured cars and these, together with the crude designs of France and Britain, were used as weapons of opportunity, relying on their mobility to hit and run. By the time the Royal Navy, at Churchill's behest, had designed a really effective, turreted armoured car—the Rolls-Royce—the barbed wire and trenches of the western front had rendered them impotent. Armoured cars found their way to the Middle East, where Allenby and Lawrence used them to great effect against the Turks, while at Amiens in August 1918, twelve Austin armoured cars got behind deep German lines for several hours, caused mayhem, and returned without loss.
Germany went to war in 1939 using her wheeled armour for reconnaissance and scouting. They moved at high speed, often with motorcycle combinations, ahead of the panzer divisions, to reconnoitre routes and maintain the momentum of the assault. They included an impressive range of four-, six- and eight-wheeled turreted vehicles, usually armed with 20 mm guns, and were able to travel great distances between refuelling. France, too, used armoured cars for reconnaissance and communications work, but much of her fleet dated from 1918. Britain's fleet was largely of 1920 vintage, mostly Rolls-Royces, and used for colonial policing. In 1941, Daimler and Humber all-wheel drive armoured cars were introduced, armed with 2 pounder guns, and Britain also introduced the Dingo, a turretless scout car.
In the Western Desert, armoured cars engaged in much traditional raiding, as their cavalry forebears had done, but in Europe the passive role of reconnaissance foretold that the era of wheeled armour as an aggressive weapon was over. The USA developed a series of armoured cars, of which the six-wheeled M8 (‘Greyhound’ to the British) was the most numerous, but their main purpose, too, was reconnaissance. Armoured cars remain in service with many armies today, often redesignated as scout cars, although MICVs are better armed and can travel faster. The comparatively poor cross-country performance of armoured cars has always limited their usefulness.
Bibliography
- Harris, J. P., and Toase, F. N. (eds.), Armoured Warfare (London, 1990)
— Peter Caddick-Adams
