Knocking out early armored cars

[MiniPigs]

Does anyone know any sources that discuss with what weapons the armor of early armored cars were penetrated or how armored cars were usually put out of action from their inception to the mid 1930s?  The answers are probably obvious and plentiful but I dont know where to start.

I have the Osprey book on the Rolls Royce armoured cars but the only comments were that the approx. 8mm armor was MG proof and that, oddly, the unprotected wheels were rarely recorded being hit.

I suppose I am more interested in how these early armored cars were stopped in colonial theaters and against relatively backwards opponents but if anyone has info., sources or pointers on battle/damage action in any theater, I would appreciate it.

[Rogerc]

HMG's should be able to take out early light armoured cars, I have als seen a photo of Italian tankettes taken out by molotov cocktail in Ethiopia. Empress even do an Afghan carrying one for Third Afghan War.

[mithril]

Does anyone know any sources that discuss with what weapons the armor of early armored cars were penetrated or how armored cars were usually put out of action from their inception to the mid 1930s?  The answers are probably obvious and plentiful but I dont know where to start.

I have the Osprey book on the Rolls Royce armoured cars but the only comments were that the approx. 8mm armor was MG proof and that, oddly, the unprotected wheels were rarely recorded being hit.

I suppose I am more interested in how these early armored cars were stopped in colonial theaters and against relatively backwards opponents but if anyone has info., sources or pointers on battle/damage action in any theater, I would appreciate it.

keep in mind that many of the armored cars back then had solid rubber tires (pneumatics were common with civilian vehicles but ones meant for more offroad use tended to use solid rubber for its durability) so even if the wheels were hit, it wouldn't have had a lot of effect. they also tended to use spoke type wheels that were mostly empty space (which were fairly typical for the time. they looked a lot like modern bicycle tires) which meant that there just wasn't a lot to hit.

the big problem tended to be the fact cars back then had very rudimentary suspensions, so rough ground tended to shake the vehicle and its crew up pretty badly. and many of the armored cars didn't even have proper seats, instead having little more than flat places to sit, which the crew would pad using blankets or replace with hammock like affairs. combined with the fact that the base chassis for the armored cars tended to be civilian touring cars with little in the way of ruggedization, and the biggest source of damage to armored cars tended to be broken axles, holed fuel tanks, crew injury, and other such damage caused by uncareful driving across rougher ground.

most of them had been designed for more urbanized enviroments (in cities, ports, shipyards, etc) or at least on the moderately developed road systems of western europe. their deployment to colonial enviroments tended to put a lot of wear and tear on the vehicles as they traversed the largely undeveloped (in european sense) regions.

[Moriarty]

Hi, might get some ideas from a search for ‘interwar action reports, armoured car’? Will need some sifting, though.

I’d venture the opinion that armoured cars were more often immobilised through the conditions in a Colonial setting, rather than knocked out by enemy action. You could trawl the Spanish Civil War and British Home Guard settings for information - plenty of reports of petrol in wine bottles setting fire to vehicles, crow-bars dislodging tracks and improvised anti tank methods. Although, as these are track rather than wheel oriented, you could come up wanting. If all else fails, go back to your copies of ‘Wizard’ and see how the Wolf of Kabul’ did it :-)

[dadlamassu]

From my reading that on the rare occasions when armoured cars were put out of action by deliberate enemy action in a colonial setting it was by:
1. artillery if it was available
2. rocks and boulders rolled downhill into defiles
3. mines - often home made
4. IED - culvert and track/roadside bombs also under bridges
5. pit traps - just like trapping big animals, trench or pit covered and camouflaged so the vehicle fell in
6. Molotov cocktails and incendiaries hand thrown, dropped from above
7. Italian tankettes in Abyssinia were tipped over using crowbars

Often they were immobilised as a result of mechanical failure, accident, bogging in, sabotage etc then "besieged" until water and/or ammo ran out.