Humber Scout Car

Humber Scout Car
Type Armoured car
Production history
Manufacturer Humber
Specifications
Weight 2.4 tonnes (2.4 long tons)
Length 3.83 m (12 ft 7 in)
Width 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Height 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Crew 2
Armour up to 14 mm (0.55 in)
Main
armament
 One or two 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Bren machine guns
Engine 6-cyl. petrol
87 hp (65 kW)
Power/weight 25.6 hp/tonne
Suspension 4 x 4 wheeled
Operational
range
 320 km (200 mi)
Speed 100 km/h (62 mph)

The Humber Scout Car was a British light scout car used in the Second World War. It entered service in 1942 and continued in production until 1945. Designed for reconnaissance, and liaison between armoured units, it provided protection only against light arms fire, so was not a front line vehicle. More importantly it was small and fast and could quickly evade trouble. It became the shape format for the post war Ferret armoured car which began production in 1952.

History

Humber Scout Car, side view.

Although at the outbreak of the Second World War the British Army had already selected the Daimler Dingo for production, the need for scout cars could not be met by Daimler alone, so other companies were required to produce similar vehicles. One of these companies was Humber which along with other companies in the Rootes Group was already producing armoured cars and the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car. In 1942 they built a vehicle similar to the Dingo in layout.

To comply with the official requirement to keep the weight down, the Daimler "Dingo" was open top (the Humber had an unarmoured floor).

The vehicle carried a crew of two, with an emergency seat for a third member. It was equipped with a No. 19 radio set. The armament consisted of one Bren light machine gun with a 100-round drum. A second Bren could be added if necessary. This was mounted above the roof, and could be operated from inside the vehicle using a system looking similar to bicycle handlebars, where the "brake" levers fired the triggers of the Brens.

Production of the vehicles continued until 1945. At least 4,298 were ordered and at least 4,102 delivered, 1,698 of them Mk I. They were used by British armoured units (e.g. the 11th Armoured Division and the Guards Armoured Division) for scouting and liaison and were generally considered less capable and reliable than the Dingo. A number of vehicles were given to the Polish II Corps and the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade. After the war, the vehicle was used by some European armies. Belgian police continued to use the car until 1958.

Most of the vehicles were destroyed in the 1960s by the British Army using them as tank target practice. There are now currently only about 20 known to exist.

Operators

Example in Falaise, France 1944

Variants

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "British Armored Car Vehicle Name/WD Serial Number Listing by Kevin Tucker" (PDF). www.warwheels.net. Retrieved 2013-09-05.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Humber scout car.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/6/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.