Extemporised armoured vehicles (and other home-made strangeness)

To start off I can offer you the 'Bison' Mobile pillbox, a concrete body mounted onto a Thorneycroft Truck chassis, there's one at the tank Museum that I believe was restored/recreated from a body found in Lincolnshire, I always found it a little 'A-teamish' myself. And designed by (if I remember correctly) the Owner of the concrete works....



Picture from: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/GreatBritain/GB-bison1-StevenGuy.jpg

 

Mr Mathews.
MD of...... 'Concrete Ltd'...
I hadn't noticed the flat tyres, nice.
There is a version by AEC mounted on a London Bus chassis, looks even more bizarre but I can't find a web-picture, Wheels and Tracks magazine puts them in a category of their own.

I like 'em because they really evoke the sense of panic and urgency felt at the 'imminent' invasion. Any nation that invested time and effort in that truly felt that things were hanging by a thread.


Aha. The other type:

 

Wasn't the Beaverette a bit of a lash up?
From herehttp://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedkingdom/reconnaissance/beaverette.html
It states
Mk I: Armored in front and sides. Rear was 3" oak.




Armoured Car, Reconnaissance, Beaverette MkII
photo fromhttp://www.warlinks.com/equipment/vehicles/armoured.html


Fromhttp://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/GreatBritain/British-OtherVehicles.html


Ironsides, Beaverettes Armored Car
These vehicles were powered by a 12hp motor. The chassis was fitted with a boiler-plate box, lined in front and back with 2 inches of Oak planking as protection against small arms fire. They were armed with a bren gun firing through a slot in the front. Some were fitted with a No. 11 wireless set. They were used for Airfield defence and Recon training. About 1395 vehicles were built. The 9th Royal Tank Regiment and the 12th Lancers were equipped with these vehicles in June 1940 in the UK. There was a Mark 3 version of this vehicle with a closed super structure and a small turret.

 

found this here
The other armored vehicles of Great Britain

Armadillo Mark 1, Mark 2
1940 was a time of crisis for the UK and nearly every sort of vehicle with military value was pressed into service. The Armadillo and was conceived and build at short notice in 1940 and the Mark 1s were on a variety of impressed civilian vehicles. The box, on the Mark 1, on the truck bed was wood planking 54 inches high and 62 x 48 inches around the sides. The planking was 7/8 inches think and in two layers with a 6 inch gap between them. The gap was then filled with shingle, this was found to be proof against small arms fire.




Also from that site.
Bison 2's chassis is unknown, but it is also of steel reinforced concrete. These vehicles were most likely constructed at Concrete Limited's Stourton works in Staffordshire.



Lorry 30cwt Anti-Tank
It's Anti-tank part came as it was armed with a Boys Anti Tank rifle - which shows just how desperate Britain's plight was in 1940. I agree with Steven Guy, author of the website Thunder and Steel, that this was not the sort of weapon I would have wanted to face a German Panzer in.

 

Wasn't the Beaverette a bit of a lash up?

In the mk.1's case (above) as you say, a bit of a lashup.
The 'Standard' (mkIV) however, Is, as this picture illustrates, one sexy bit of kit. Bet that'd put the wind up a Pz.IV oh yes!... or maybe not. Viewed from the other side it has a large hatch that looks just right for selling chips from.
(2800 of all types made, many later cut down as handy little armoured runabouts.)

from: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/photos/beaverette1.jpg

EDit: was typing as the above was posted, great pics!

 

from herehttp://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/GreatBritain/GB-beaveretteMk3-StevenGuy.jpg
Good view of chip flaps?

 

While the guard associated with Ticklers Jam were having bespoke, well-armed vehicles made... the Wolverhampton LDV were making do with a beer-barrel on an Austin 7 chassis, otherwise known as that most fearsome weapon (to the user?), the Nuttal Flame thrower:

Wolverhampton and World War 2

 

Not quite an armoured vehicle but there are some great photos of Home Guard activities in the IWM archive.



Members of the Home Guard operate a Browning machine-gun from a trailer hitched to a car during exercises with regular troops, 2 February 1942.

 

Very similar/the same as Owen's third pic from post #8?

From: BEDFORD VANS AND TRUCKS PICK UPS
The Bedford OXA was a British improvised armoured vehicle built during World War II by mounting an armoured body onto a Bedford OXD 1.5 ton truck chassis. 948 units were built in 1940-1941. The vehicle was used by British Home Guard units until 1942.

 

I think that may be an entirely sensible point of view .

Just read (that Fletcher man again..) that the concrete Bisons, apparently no two of which were the same, were all entered by trapdoors in the floor. Making them even scarier death traps than they first appear. Doesn't bear thinking about should that already overstretched chassis encounter any sort of 'action'.

 

Some pictures here, including the Panjandrum...
DMWD Photos
Great shots of some bizarre stuff.
I can only imagine the vertical flamethrower was some sort of AA device?...

Edit: Just pottered onto the text for those pictures:
http://www.nevilshute.org/nsn_dmwd.pdf

 

'Dad's Armoured cars', some nice little features buried away in Bovington's rather oddly laid out website on Home Guard/LDV 'armour', from Dagenham to Colonel Ticklers Jam.

• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects
• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects
• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects
• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects
• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects
• The Tank Museum - Bovington - Projects

I actually quite like the strange Bovington layout. It keeps little gems hidden for just when you fancy an armoured Sunbeam or two .

 

I love the...
the Molotov Cocktail Catapult.

Who was that more dangerous for?

And..
capable of mounting a heavy machine-gun that could be fired through the sunshine roof.

Wonder if I can still get that as an optional extra nowadays?