Thread: Gun Trucks
View Single Post
  #205  
Old 08-11-2016, 01:55 PM
unkated unkated is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Eastern Massachusetts
Posts: 416
Default

Of a similar nature were some other emergency military vehicle designs in the same period, also designed to minimize the use of strategic materials:
  • Standard Beaverette - Named for Lord Beaver, British Minister of Aircraft Production in 1940, who requested it. Basically, a mid-size sedan with minimal armor (11mm) on the front and sides of the driving compartment, backed by 3-in of oak, armed with a Bren LMG.
  • Bison - a mobile pillbox made using a heavy truck chassis walled with concrete. It was not meant to be used while driving, but could be driven to (for example) an airfield suffering from an attack by German airborne troops, parked, and then used as a defensive strong point. The concrete would stop small arms fire, protecting MG crews inside firing out through open ports.
  • Bedford OXA - a lightly armored (9mm steel) 1.5t truck armed with a Bren LMG and a Boys ATR

All of these were built quickly for home defense following the Fall of France and the withdrawal from Dunkerque, where the British Army lost most of its heavy equipment and vehicles.

Certainly, something like the Beaverette or the Armadillo could be concocted in any automobile plant. Homemade versions similar to the Armadillo built up on the bed of a pickup truck should be easy enough.

Light armor vehicles with limited off-road capability and/or portection work fine - if your opponent has none.

Uncle Ted
Reply With Quote