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Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault

1915 WORLD WAR 1

Izhorsky Mgebrov Reynolds Story

The Russian Empire Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault was one of the most unique armored vehicles that appeared during the First World War (1914-1918). The design was written by Captain Mgebrov of the Russian Army and built on an existing French Renault chassis, assembled at the Izhorsky factory (hence the three names "Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault"). The car features a steeply sloping front end that flows into a flat superstructure roof at the rear.

A machine gun weapon provides unrestricted 360-degree view of the surrounding action. The original vehicle was driven by a crew of four - a driver, a commander and two machine gunners. The original vehicle also had 3.4 tons of heavy armor, while a later redesigned model with improved performance appeared as a 2.75-ton vehicle.

Two prototypes formed the basis for the line, which eventually resulted in around 11 Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault cars. The revised version was still being reworked during the Russian Revolution of 1917 - an event that marked the end of the Russian Empire and the beginning of the birth of the Soviet Union.

The Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault car is the result of tests carried out by Captain Mgebrov to study the value of sloping armor versus the traditionally accepted slab. Tilt means inherent ballistic protection, much less armor is required to cover an area, although this protection is only really achieved at certain angles, so experimentation is key.

For convenience, the general configuration of the Renault car has been retained, including the driver's seat in the midship and the engine compartment in the front. This allows the rear of the chassis to be equipped with gun slots and corresponding 2 x MG weapons (7.62mm Vickers or Maxim types were used).

The car was originally designed in a three-tower layout, powered by the original Renault 14HP series 4-cylinder air-cooled 30HP engine. This drives only one of the axis groups.

As would be expected with body armor, weapons and ammunition in place, the vehicle was a slow and cumbersome instrument that performed poorly on the battlefield -- only hitting 12 mph on ideal road surfaces.

In 1916, the vehicle was redesigned to obtain maximum performance gain from the chassis at the expense of armor protection. The three-tower arrangement was abandoned in favor of a two-tower configuration. Engineers then removed some of the armor thickness on the "low risk" panels to reduce the vehicle's operating weight on the road.

Using the same engine, the car can now travel more than 34 mph on the road while reducing stress on chassis components. Subsequently, reconstruction work continued until 1917, when the Russian Revolution temporarily interrupted the work.

After serving in the First World War, the Izhorsky Mgebrov-Renault car was used by the red and white sides of the ensuing Russian Civil War. After the conflict, the remaining vehicle inventory was maintained until the 1930s, when they were eventually abandoned in the face of new, more modern Soviet designs during World War II (1939-1945).