Extemporised armoured vehicles (and other home-made strangeness)

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by raf, Jun 28, 2006.

Tags:
  1. Capt.Sensible

    Capt.Sensible Well-Known Member

    Attached Files:

  2. KevinT

    KevinT Senior Member

    I believe this was meant for the Home Front.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    beaveretterearmaxspoilt.jpg


    Standard Motor Company Beaverette ? Many variants!

    After Dunkirk orders were put out for armoured cars, this was one result. For home defence.
     
  4. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    711px-Standard_Beaverette_-_Duxford.jpg I jest not - the camouflage scheme is listed on the Museum site as - 'Mickey Mouse ears scheme'
     
  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Merged these posts onto the existing thread with most on the beaverette chaps, hope that's OK.
    ~A

    Whether it's fair to lump the Beaverette in under 'extemporised', I don't really know.
    I suspect it probably is...
     
  6. KevinT

    KevinT Senior Member

    View attachment 50667


    Standard Motor Company Beaverette ? Many variants!

    After Dunkirk orders were put out for armoured cars, this was one result. For home defence.

    Thanks Wills,

    I knew it was a Beaverette. The title "Luxury Armoured Car" related to the maker, Jensen Cars a luxury car manufacturer. I believe Jensen also made bomb bays, machine gun turrets for bombers and tank turret turntables among others for the war effort.

    Cheers
    Kevin
     
  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Last edited: Aug 23, 2017
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  9. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Find me an unarmoured tank :D

    An early improvised fighting vehicle was constructed for the British Army in Dublin during the Easter Rising in 1916. It was made from a three-ton Daimler truck commandeered from the Dublin Guinness brewery. An armoured body was mounted on the truck, built from the smokeboxes of several steam locomotives. The body had loopholes cut in it for riflemen to fire through and was painted with black spots that acted as dummy loopholes to confuse snipers. A steel box protected the truck driver and steel plating covered the truck radiator.
    Construction took less than one day at the Great Southern Railways workshop. After the rising, the locomotive parts were returned to the railway and the truck returned to its owners.


    [​IMG]

    The NI Tank (Russian: Танк НИ Tank NI, abbr. На Испуг, Na Ispug, literally ‘Bluff into retreat’, pronounced /ˈniː/), also called the Odessa tank or Terror Tank, was an improvised Soviet armoured fighting vehicle, based on an STZ-5 agricultural tractor, manufactured in Odessa during the early days of the German-Soviet War. More than anything this tank was intended to frighten and demoralize enemy positions that believed it to be an actual heavy armored vehicle.


    [​IMG]
     
  10. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Find me an unarmoured tank :D

    An early improvised fighting vehicle was constructed for the British Army in Dublin during the Easter Rising in 1916. It was made from a three-ton Daimler truck commandeered from the Dublin Guinness brewery. An armoured body was mounted on the truck, built from the smokeboxes of several steam locomotives. The body had loopholes cut in it for riflemen to fire through and was painted with black spots that acted as dummy loopholes to confuse snipers. A steel box protected the truck driver and steel plating covered the truck radiator.
    Construction took less than one day at the Great Southern Railways workshop. After the rising, the locomotive parts were returned to the railway and the truck returned to its owners.


    [​IMG]

    The NI Tank (Russian: Танк НИ Tank NI, abbr. На Испуг, Na Ispug, literally ‘Bluff into retreat’, pronounced /ˈniː/), also called the Odessa tank or Terror Tank, was an improvised Soviet armoured fighting vehicle, based on an STZ-5 agricultural tractor, manufactured in Odessa during the early days of the German-Soviet War. More than anything this tank was intended to frighten and demoralize enemy positions that believed it to be an actual heavy armored vehicle.


    [​IMG]
     
  11. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Bolivian strangeness:
    rusted armored tank - uyuni (bolivia)


    You know...that looks more like a confection faked up for range practice or training ;) If you look closely, the front and rear "wheels" seem to be from the local railway...!

    Strangely enough...the Beaverette DID go into action! :mellow: As I posted a few years back on Feldgrau...

    Well, on the night in question, 12 FW109 A4's painted with lampblack were insinuated into the bomber stream returning from Germany. This squadron had previously made two very successful intruder attacks on London, but on THIS occasion although they all dropped their bombs, no casualties were caused, and only minor damage to.... a sewage works and a children's playground!

    HOWEVER - they were VERY quickly painted on radar and nightfighters tasked to them, and in the ensuing melee over the captial, navigation suffered and a number who crossed the coast OF THE THAMES ESTUARY from North to South...thought they were actually crossing the CHANNEL!!! and found themselves flying over Kent with nearly empty tanks....

    On that night the Watch Officer at West Malling, a Ft. Lt. Barry, heard a crash nearby as a first of these stragglers fell out of the sky into a nearby orchard - but this wasn't found until the next morning. While trying however to find out what the noise was, a single engined aircraft was heard approaching the field, and he ordered the runway lights on, as apart from the night fighters, West Malling was ready to receive damaged or low-on-fuel bombers returning from the continent. Instead, a black single-engined fighter rolled up RIGHT to the control block, under the apronm floods, and the pilot started shouting for "his" groundcrew....in German, which they couldn't hear over the noise of his engine. They shouted back, but HE couldn't hear THEM either!....

    At this point a field patrol Beaverette armoured car approached, and seeing the German crosses faintly outlined under the paint, the 'car's gunner, A/C Sharlock, jumped out and pushed the rudder of the sircraft right over to stop the pilot making a run for it! The pilot got out of the cockpit....and finally realised where he was!

    BUT....

    "...Whilst those at the scene were digesting what had just happened, events began to take an even more dramatic, and just as unbelieveable, turn. As he was on the telephone making a further report to Group, Lt. Barry heard the sound of ANOTHER aircraft making a final approach. No sooner had this aircraft touched down, welcomed by the blazing flare path than he saw Williams and Sharlock once more gunning their Beaverette, racing into action.

    As the armoured car dashed around the airfield perimeter to head off the new arrival Sharlock, still perched in the Beaverette's turret, realised when just 20 yards distant that indeed the unbelieveable was happening. In front of them was yet another FW190. This time there was no suprise, as the aircraft had already been given to Control as being a hostile.

    Suddenly, and no dobt realising his error, and eager not to suffer the same fate as Bechtold, this pilot turned his aircraft and started to set off across the airfield pushing the throttles wide open. Williams took up the pursuit and at the same time Sharlock opened fire with the twin-mounted Vickers "K" type machineguns. Still standing in the distant Watch Office and watching with increasing awe, Lt. Barry could clearly hear the staccato bark of these light machineguns in action.

    Sharlock's aim was dead on target. His long burst, fired from a range of 15 to 20 yards, poured into the German aircraft. He later recalled that he could see a small fire had broken out in the rear of the cockpit, but that despite this, the pilot refused to give up. As he seemed to be intent on escaping, Sharlock opened fire a second time. The Focke-Wulf immediately burst into flames and rolled to a halt.

    As his plane was enveloped in flames the pilot was seen to more or less fall from the cockpit. With his clothes alight he staggered towards the Beaverette. Sharlock had climbed out of the armoured car and approached the pilot. Despite the fact that his uniform was on fire, a short striggle developed between the two, the German pulling free and turning to make a dash for it!

    His moment of defiance was short-lived for the Station Commander - Wing Commander (later Group Captain) Peter Townsend - caught him. Once pulled to the ground the German gave up the struggle and, with the help of Sharlock, Townsend finally extinguished his burning clothes."

    So that's the connection - in a VERY Holywood-style encounter, Townsend had to lay out the burning pilot!!! The aircraft was left to burn out, as it was well down to the frame by then.....

    HOWEVER!!! [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] As all hands were getting this second pilot into an ambulance....a FOURTH FW190 actually overshot the field, saw what was going on and attempted to get away....but was running on fumes and piled into the ground a mile away!

    West Malling so nearly had FOUR guests that night!


    Sources for the above included AIR 28/907 Station Log, RAF West Malling, AIR 29/90 Operations Record Book 2769 Squadron RAF Regiment, "The RAF Regiment At War 1942-1946" Oliver, Kingsley, Cooper and Barlnsley, WO166/11690 War Diary 43th (Ulster) LAA Regt. RA., "War Prizes" 1994 P.Butler
     
    TTH and Chris C like this.
  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    If you look closely, the front and rear "wheels" seem to be from the local railway...!
    Or maybe just read the caption... ;)

    Another view:
    old rusted army tank - uyuni (bolivia)

    Lord knows really, doesn't even look like the 'roadwheels' are attached to an axle.
     
  13. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Or maybe just read the caption...

    There's nothing in the (very) limited Bolivian army arsenal that ever looked like that LOL. See here under Bolivia... TANKS!

    Whatever it was, now it looks as if the whole thing is held together with cement, not rust :p Interestingly, Uyuni is home to Bolivia's famous "cemetery of trains"...from Wiki

    One of the major tourist attractions of the area is an antique train cemetery. It is located 3 km outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals on their way to the Pacific Ocean ports. The train lines were built by British engineers who arrived near the end of the 19th century and formed a sizable community in Uyuni. The engineers were invited by British-sponsored Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Companies, which is now Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia. The rail construction started in 1888 and ended in 1892. It was encouraged by the then Bolivian President Aniceto Arce, who believed Bolivia would flourish with a good transport system, but it was also constantly sabotaged by the local Aymara indigenous Indians who saw it as an intrusion into their lives. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned thereby producing the train cemetery. There are talks to build a museum out of the cemetery
     
  14. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  15. rockape252

    rockape252 Senior Member

    Hi phylo_roadking,

    Ref the Beaverette DID go into action!

    What an outstanding piece of history :)

    Can I have your permission to cross post it onto RockNet please ?


    Regards, Mick D.
     
  16. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    The British were not the only combatants to make/use extemporized armored cars in WWII. In Syria, the French produced the Autocanon Dodge (commercial chassis with 37mm TR Rapide gun and 7.5mm FM24/29) and Autocanon Ford (commercial chassis with 75mm M1897). Both saw combat, the Dodges with Vichy in the Syrian campaign and later in Free French hands in Egypt and the Ford in the desert as well. I believe the Dodges may have lingered on long enough to serve with the Syrians against the Israelis.

    The Arab Legion had a number of Ford armoured cars, fairly simple adaptations of commercial chassis, and these served in the Syrian and Iraq campaigns. The Irish Army had similar Ford cars, and the Dutch in the NEI had some extemporized armored cars too. The list goes on.
     
  17. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    The British were not the only combatants to make/use extemporized armored cars in WWII. In Syria, the French produced the Autocanon Dodge (commercial chassis with 37mm TR Rapide gun and 7.5mm FM24/29) and Autocanon Ford (commercial chassis with 75mm M1897). Both saw combat, the Dodges with Vichy in the Syrian campaign and later in Free French hands in Egypt and the Ford in the desert as well. I believe the Dodges may have lingered on long enough to serve with the Syrians against the Israelis.

    The Arab Legion had a number of Ford armoured cars, fairly simple adaptations of commercial chassis, and these served in the Syrian and Iraq campaigns. The Irish Army had similar Ford cars, and the Dutch in the NEI had some extemporized armored cars too. The list goes on.

    For those interested in the French Dodge,
    there's a nice thread on it here:
    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/weapons-technology-equipment/44212-dodge-tanake.html
     
  18. Bob Turner

    Bob Turner Senior Member

    I think armoured lorries made from pycrete would have been the dog's doo dahs :) Nice and cool for desert warfare at any rate.
     
  19. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    ...but destined for short-term use only!

    Mick D. - no problem! (just correct my spelling in places!)
     
  20. Bob Turner

    Bob Turner Senior Member

    So you don't think the pycrete vertical flame thrower has a future then?
     

Share This Page