Armored Cars - Czarist Developments
The first military armored car was the Simms Motor War Car, designed by the British inventor and businessman Frederick Richard Simms, inventor and founder of the RAC and SMMT. A single prototype was ordered in April 1899 It was built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim of Barrow on a special Coventry-built Daimler chassis. But the vehicle was not finished by Vickers until 1902 when the Boer War was over.
In Russia, there were local automotive workshops performing assemblies of foreign components for a few wealthy aristocrats, but no real industry before the appearance of the Russo-Balt wagon Factory (RBVZ) in Riga, Latvia. The latter was able, in 1908, to manufactures lorries and trucks in numbers.
As early as 1906 there were reports that eight armored cars were constructed for the Czar's government by the French firm of Charron, Girardot & Vogt in Paris. The greatest secrecy had been preserved all along both as to the building of these cars, as well as to their final destination. All the construction had been carried on behind closed doors and all the numerous trials carried out are said to have taken place at night on unfrequcnted roads. This vehicle, designed by the Russian officer Nakashidze, was the first vehicle ever to have this standard armored car configuration with a fully revolving turret at the rear and armored windshields. The Russian vehicles were called “Nakashidze-Charron”.
At the outbreak of the Great War, there were but 500 serviceable motor trucks in the Czar’s domain, and nearly all of these are German and French. Several large orders had been received by American truck manufacturers, and nearly 1,000 of these vehicles were to join the Russian armies by the end of 1914. Most Russian armored cars were based on foreign models, modified or entirely produced locally.
By 1914, even developed countries had only a few different types of armored vehicles. And only with the beginning of the Great War did the mass production of these much-needed front-line machines began. In Russia, one of the first batches produced on the chassis of trucks "Russo-Balt-M". A small number of armored cars were designed by officers Mgebrov, Poplavko and Gulkevich. And since 1916 imported armored cars appeared in the army.
The most common among them was English "Austin". However, this quite good car showed serious shortcomings. These included the deflection of the rear axle when driving over rough terrain, as a result of which the semiaxes were stuck and movement became impossible. The armor of the Austin was too thin (4–6 mm), and from a distance of 200 meters it was penetrated by a conventional rifle bullet. Two machine-gun turrets mounted side by side interfered with each other when firing into the flank, and the high roof of the front of the hull interfered with firing forward.
It was necessary to withdraw "osteins" ["Austin"] in lots from the front for revision. They installed 6-mm armor plates, reinforced rear axles. In addition, combat experience showed that most of the armored vehicles were amazed by the enemy when turning back. Therefore, Russian artisans, sometimes in front-line conditions, put on the “ostins” the second (rear) control posts, which allowed the car quickly, in reverse, to come out from under the shelling.
In the end, Russia refused foreign armored cars, and bought only the chassis of trucks that were armored at the Putilov and Izhora plants. Since 1916, the two-turreted machine guns on the Austin English chassis and on the American Fiat (produced under an Italian license) became the most common in the Russian army.
The drawings of the "Russian Austin" were developed by the engineers of the Putilov factory. On the chassis of a one-and-a-half truck with a reinforced frame, rear axle and springs, they mounted an 8-mm-thick Izhora steel case, which rifle bullets did not penetrate from any distances. To protect the crew from shrapnel from the inside, the armored car was covered with cloth or felt. Low turrets were placed diagonally, which allowed flank fire from both "maxims" at the same time. The covers of the machine guns had armor cover and were connected by hoses to additional water tanks located under the roof of the tower. Such a system has improved the cooling of the barrels. The armored car had a second control post.
Under normal conditions, the car traveled around on pneumatic tires, and before battle it was prepared for combat with tires made of solid rubber, not afraid of any bullets or accidental punctures. The inconvenience of such a system is obvious: to constantly carry "extra" wheels in front-line conditions and to spend time replacing them was an unaffordable luxury. A way out was found. Before the war, the Petersburg chemist A. Gus invented a light and elastic filler for tires of armored vehicles. These tires are called gussmatikami. The "Astiny-Putilovtsy" shod with them went into battle.
Despite the optimism of the war ministry, which hoped to see production of 200 armored cars and 50 half-tracks each year, at the end of the war there were a total of only 300 armored vehicles split into 52 units. Many of the 200 Austin-Putilovists released were in service with the Red Army in the 1920s.
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