Armoured Cars
Phil Boyd
I'm new to this group, but I have quite a few questions concerning WWII.
If it's ok, I'll just ask one at a time until I'm just full of Knowledge my
brain can't anymore. : )
But seriously, I've been wondering about armored cars....( I just do that
sometimes).
How exactly were they used? I've read about armored car attacks in North
Africa and can't help but think about their effectiveness.
To me, an armored car's only plus is it's speed. Small arms fire could
probley take it out, and guns of larger tanks would defiantly stop them.
And the armament of the car could hardly take on larger tanks.
This is my thinking, but yet they were used, and used effectively in
combat.
If anyone could set me straight I'd appreciate it.
--
Phil Boyd
http://www.sapphiredesigns.com/home.html
Martin Rapier
<39587722...@mail.nsw.dialix.com.au>...
> But seriously, I've been wondering about armored cars....( I just do that
> sometimes).
{snip}
> How exactly were they used? I've read about armored car attacks in North
> Africa and can't help but think about their effectiveness.
{snip}
The main role of armoured cars in WW2 was for reconnaisance, in which task
their most useful 'weapons' are speed and a radio. Their armour was
sufficient to provide some protection from shell splinters and small arms
fire, but not much more. Their weapons were only really of use in the event
of them manouvering into the enemies rear areas and being able to engage
soft transport, HQs, supply columns and suchlike, as well as engaging in
skirmishing with their opposite numbers. In the fluid fighting of the
desert, such encounters were quite common.
Armoured cars _could_ be used as fighting vehicles to support a
conventional assault, but that would be a wasteful misuse of their
capabilities, and would suffer heavy losses in the face of any sort of
anti-tank or even well organised infantry defence. Losses on recce missions
were high enough as it was, as an example, one British recce regiment
(strength approximately 60 vehicles), possibly 11th Hussars, lost 85
armoured cars between June 1944 and May 1945 alone. Most of them to mines
and anti-tank ambushes. The crews would often dismount on recce missions
(to sneak around in cover), using their cars as high speed APCs, and cars
operated in groups of at least two vehicles, covering each other as they
moved from one terrain position to the next, or at least to observe what
had destroyed the one in front.
Cheers
Martin.
HCALTMANN
> I've been wondering about armored cars.
>How exactly were they used?
Armored cars in the German army were used in reconnaissance only. Their
function was to find the enemy and report by radio. It was not their
function
to fight. At one time or another (and I remember such a time), one would be
ordered to fire on the enemy to let him know that he had been spotted, to
harrass him, cause confusion, slow him down in his advance or make him stop
so
he could be engaged by other forces. Road speed was not that important
(modern
reconaissance vehicles are tracked), cross-counry mobility was. Heavy
weight
was a handicap to mobility. Heavy armament was not necessary in the recon
role. I hope that helps -- Heinz
HCAl...@aol.com (Heinz Altmann)
"I have no desire to win, only to get things right." A.J.P. Taylor
Andy O'Neill
<phil...@eatel.net> writes
>How exactly were they used? I've read about armored car attacks in North
>Africa and can't help but think about their effectiveness.
They were particularly effective in North Africa.
>To me, an armored car's only plus is it's speed. Small arms fire could
>probley take it out, and guns of larger tanks would defiantly stop them.
AHh...
But you use them to scout, recce and to strike at soft targets, perhaps
behind enemy lines.
You don't want to go toe-to-toe with anything much, so speed is good.
Plus they use less fuel and have longer periods between needing
maintenance, less bits to go wrong.
>And the armament of the car could hardly take on larger tanks.
There's the odd case where that happened.... But these are the
exceptions really, you wouldn't really want to fight large tanks using
most A/C.
Andy O'Neill
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Liverpool Wargames Association
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm
ken...@cix.compulink.co.uk
phil...@eatel.net (Phil Boyd) wrote:
> If anyone could set me straight I'd appreciate it.
In all armies the main role of armoured cars was reconnaissance. They
were intended to find the enemy not engage them. The expected
opposition would be enemy forward troops which would not be tanks. As
a result the armour and armament were not designed to cope with tanks.
The prewar British and German requirements were armour proof against
small arms and guns which could penetrate another armoured car. The
alternative was using light tanks but these were much more expensive
to build though normally having better cross country performance.
There was also a tendency to put light tanks into combat roles against
medium tanks.
Even the big German eight wheeled cars were built to the same armour
and weapon standards their main advantage was better cross country
performance. Germany later fitted larger limited traverse guns to
armoured cars but the idea was to give enough fire support to the
standard cars that they could push through opposition to find the main
body of the enemy.
Ken Young
ken...@cix.co.uk
Maternity is a matter of fact
Paternity is a matter of opinion
REstey9690
not as good as tracked vehicles in X country mobility, but were
cheaper, quieter and easier to maintain. Most were armoured (at least
on the front) against small arms ammo. They were commonly armed with
either machine guns or light cannon - enough firepower to fight other
light vehicles or break contact with heavier units. Most were 6 or 8
wheeled (4 wheels did not offer sufficent X country mobility and could
be bogged down). The US M8 was 6 wheeled armed with a 37mm gun and
several MG (including a .50) . German had two major types - light (4
wheel) and heavy (8 wheel) armed with 20mm auto cannon ( some late
models had 50mm tank gun). British were 4wheel armed mostly with 2 pdr
(40mm) tank gun.
B. Green
Shaped like a tank, about the size of a compact car, 4 wheels, rubber
tires,
independent suspension and drive, 9 speed hydraulic clutch pre-select sort
of a system, very quite, fast as hell, two complete operating systems front
and rear, two drivers, one facing front, other rear (vehicle did not have
to
turn around in tight squeezes - such as a narrow lane - to make a strategic
withdrawal [retreat] ). Officer/senior NCO sat in turret, Bren mounts were
common.
Used for recce. Snuck around behind enemy lines, we did!
--bgreen
LLWatts
<description snipped>
Now this sounds fascinating. Can anyone point me to online or print sources on
the Ferret? Things like exact speed, handling, just how tough it was -- I've
been doing some vehicle writeups for WWII-era RPGs, and this sounds like a fun
one.
Leah
(remove .nospam to reply)
B. Green
much Canadian equipment was in those times. So, in your search, you might
delve into British sources.
I am not aware of specific sites, but a search might initially include the
Canadian and British Armies, infantry archives elements, war museum sites,
etc...
The Ferrets (so named because of the mobility traits of the animal) I drove
were assigned to infantry divisions, primarily for officer recces.
It WAS a fun one!
--bgreen
Andy O'Neill
<tobg...@home.com> writes
>Further thinking leads me to suspect the Ferret was a British vehicle, as
>much Canadian equipment was in those times. So, in your search, you might
>delve into British sources.
<<>>
The only Ferret I can find dates to the 1950s and was produced in
turreted form as an A/C and without turret as a scout car.
The Ferret was the standard light A/C of the British army into the
1970s. I can recall seeing them at the Liverpool show in my youth....
I can find references to Lynx scout cars ( dingo ); Otter and Fox
(Humber).
ken...@cix.compulink.co.uk
tobg...@home.com (B. Green) wrote:
> The Ferrets (s
I believe the Ferret was a development of the Daimler Dingo scout
car. I just checked an encyclopedia of armoured cars and that is the
only one I can find. If so it entered service in 1952.