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Armoured Autocar

1914 WORLD WAR 1

The story of the armored car

When Europe mobilized for war in the summer of 1914, its major players, both domestic and foreign, were looking for viable tools to mechanize what was sure to be a short-lived conflict. The First World War (1914-1918) finally clarified the need for the first generation of military machine gun armored vehicles.

A notable entry in the history of Canadian Army armored vehicles is the armored vehicle, a vehicle designed by Canadians and built from American trucks, steel, and machine gunsthe first mass-produced vehicle of its kind was in the United States.

The armoured car effort was spearheaded by Major Raymond Brutinel, a Canadian of French descent who championed a fleet of machine-gun-armed combat trucks capable of dominating the battlefield with mobility and firepower The basic idea of ????this is the concept of mechanized warfare that few major powers were willing to accept at the time. Wealthy businessman Sir Clifton Sifton agreed to back the venture, prompting Brutinel to tour the US and its vast manufacturing capacity.

He ultimately settled on a 2-ton 4x2 wheeled truck built by Ardmore Motors, Pennsylvania, and entered into an agreement with Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the required steel coating. Due to the unavailability of the British Vickers machine gun, the weapon (M1914 Colt .30 caliber machine gun) will be from the Colt Company in Harford, Connecticut.

The truck will retain most of its on-road capabilities, including the standard 22 hp engine for propulsion power, and the cab will be mounted on the engine like the original design. The most significant changes concern the armored superstructure on the chassis, designed to provide operators with basic ballistic protection against small arms fire and artillery jets. The structure is completely open-air, with open, folded sides, and has a one-two machine gun layout. The machine guns will be managed by trainable mounts, but provisions have been made to keep them detachable for tactical flexibility.

At each corner of the boxy design, four heavy-duty spoked wheels provide good street performance but are limited off-road. A headlamp is installed at the front of the truck to illuminate the road in low light situations.

A typical task force consists of no less than eight people, including a vehicle commander, driver, and several machine gunners. The combat weight of the car reaches 6,000 pounds, and the barrel of the entire car body is 4.1 meters long, 1.9 meters wide and 1.9 meters high.

Armor protection at the critical front reaches 5mm, while the rear is reduced to just 3mm. The engine with the armored chassis was capable of traveling at 25 mph on prepared surfacesthough like other armored vehicles in the war, it had little off-road capability due to power and weight.

Brutinel directed the design and development of a convoy of 8 armoured cars, which by September 1914 formed the newly formed 2nd Auto Machine Gun Brigade. 1" in Ottawa. The brigade will consist of all eight armoured vehicles, eight support trucks (carrying approximately 20,000 rounds of ammunition) and four standard vehicles. These will be escorted by 130-135 men, carrying a total of about 20 machine guns - basically The first organized mechanized unit in military history was formed. Three additional batteries were set up to increase numbers, and when the British Vickers machine guns were finally available in large numbers, they were replaced as much as possible with American Colt units.

The Lewis machine gun was another A choice.

With the development and training behind it, the brigade was shipped to Europe in October. By this point, however, the war had fallen into a confrontation known as "trench warfare", and the once fluid front had turned into a still bloody battle between the players on both sides.

It wasn't until the Allies got lucky in 1918 that the vehicle's value finally came to light, and the worn front became movable again.

The truck proved reliable enough and was able to traverse the chaos of rural Europe as expected. Machine guns have always been great support weapons in ground combat, but armored vehicles add unparalleled mobility.

However, the open top of their hull superstructures and inherently light armor also made task forces very vulnerable to a variety of battlefield hazardsespecially artillery and machine gun fire.

In any case, the armistice in November 1918 forced the Germans to surrender and the war was finally over. Armored cars certainly (eventually) played a role and became a very prominent footnote in the war.

Armored vehicles were revisited during the battles of World War II (1939-1945), and entirely new designs appeared - sparking a revival of the type that lasted into the Cold War (1947-1991).