To what extent was Britain's expertise in the field of armoured cars a result of their usefulness for policing colonial territories ?
Interesting... Most of our 'better' armoured cars were the little reconnaisance cars (Dingo, etc) which are stuff-all use in policing anything. During the inter-war years, we were soldiering on with WW1-vintage armoured cars, and most of the armoured cars from the early WW2 years were hurried (and ugly) conversions of trucks. Inter-war policing of the Empire was conducted by the RAF, and lorry-borne infantry, rather than armoured cars. At least, this is my impression. Always happy to be proved wrong.
Pre WW2 cars One of my friends whose father was in pre war RAF joined us at school from Aden as his father was posted to a near by air field. He gave me photos of Rolls Royce armoured used in Aden, I unfortunately passed these on to an RAF enthusiast some years ago but here is a mixture of pre war cars.
I think that's wrong, Ricky - for example - the Ferret (a post war vehicle) - small recce type - was used in policing operations throughout the dissolving British Empire and is still being used by some countries today - my dad, actually, drove one in Palestine soon to be Israel. Part of my reason for this post is that, whilst it is generally accepted, that many of Britain's WW2 tanks disappointed in one way or another, it is often overlooked that we probably led the world in armoured cars and continued to do so post war - of course, there are fine examples from other nations but none bettered the best British efforts and there were fewer examples. Recce - good, policing - good, escort - the best: they certainly proved to be a useful type but it occurred to me that the British love affair with armoured cars was a furtunate knock on from experience in the Empire.
true true... However, as far as I am aware (which is about as far as I can throw an armoured car...) we only had a variety of rather antiquated armoured cars in service prior to WW2, with most of our Empire Policing work done by the RAF. Which makes sense - an aircraft can travel further, faster, and see more than a ground vehicle.
Armoured cars. Not arguing! just posting what I thought might be of interest! Decided long ago that what I know of facts and figures, religion, politics,world affairs,women etc. is not worth posting!
i always loved that scene in "lawrence of arabia " where jack hawkins uses the mg in his turreted ww1 armoured car to sweep the turkish machine gun crews from the derailed train cars in the sand dunes ,then lawrence and his beduins charge down on the hapless survivors , sry no prisoners , the movie swept the oscars in 62 and is imo ,still a great epic war picture which still stands up well today ..in another great film , gahndi , rodny fox tries to use his armoured car to disperse a crowd of hindus ,alas the city gate will not allow the car to pass and he must resort to his trusty gurkas and their enfeilds ...
