The Daimler Armoured Car was a successful British armoured car design of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

that continued in service into the 1950s. It was designed for armed reconnaissance and liaison purposes. During the postwar era, it doubled as an

internal security vehicle An internal security vehicle (ISV), also known as an armored security vehicle (ASV), is an armoured personnel carrier/ armoured car used for supporting contingency operations. Design Security vehicles are typically armed with a turreted heavy ma ...

in a number of countries. Former British Daimler armoured cars were exported to various

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...

member states throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 2012, some were still being operated by the Qatari Army.

Design and development

The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H21767

The Daimler Armoured Car was a parallel development to the

Daimler Dingo The Daimler Scout Car, known in service as the Daimler Dingo (after the Australian wild dog), is a British light, fast four-wheel drive reconnaissance vehicle also used for liaison during the Second World War. Design and development In 193 ...

"Scout car", a small armoured vehicle for scouting and liaison roles. It was another Birmingham Small Arms design. A larger version designed on the same layout as the Dingo fitted with the turret similar to that of the Mark VII Light Tank and a more powerful engine. Like the scout car, it incorporated some of the most advanced design concepts of the time and is considered one of the best British AFVs of the Second World War. The 95 hp engine was at the rear linked through a

fluid flywheel A fluid coupling or hydraulic coupling is a hydrodynamic or 'hydrokinetic' device used to transmit rotating mechanical power.

to a Wilson

preselector gearbox A preselector gearbox is a type of manual transmission mostly used on passenger cars and racing cars in the 1930s, in buses from 1940-1960 and in armoured vehicles from the 1930s to the 1970s. The defining characteristic of a preselector gearbox ...

and then a

H-drive An H-drive drivetrain is a system used for heavy off-road vehicles with 6×6 or 8×8 drive to supply power to each wheel station. H-drives do not use axles but rather individual wheel stations, usually carried on a punt chassis. A single differ ...

arrangement with propshafts to each wheel. Four wheel steering similar to early models of the Scout car was considered but not implemented following experience with the Dingo. The prototypes had been produced in 1939, but problems with the transmission caused by the weight of the vehicle delayed service entry until mid-1941.

Daimler Company The Daimler Company Limited ( ), prior to 1910 The Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The compan ...

built 2,694 armoured cars. The Daimler had full independent suspension and four wheel drive.

Epicyclic gearing An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...

in the wheel hubs enabled a very low ratio in bottom gear - it was credited with managing 1:2 inclines. The rugged nature combined with reliability made it ideal for reconnaissance and escort work. The variant of the turret and the 2pdr gun were also used on the

Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch The Light Tank Mk VII (A17), also known as the Tetrarch, was a British light tank produced by Vickers-Armstrongs in the late 1930s and used during the Second World War. The Tetrarch was the latest in the line of light tanks built by the company ...

Combat history

Tanks and Afvs of the British Army 1939-45 MH4081

The Daimler saw action in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

with the

11th Hussars The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 10th Royal Hussars (Princ ...

and the

Derbyshire Yeomanry The Derbyshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794, which served as a cavalry regiment and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and provided two reconnaissance regiments in the Second World Wa ...

. It was also used in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and a few vehicles reached the South-East Asia theatre. A typical late war recce troop in north-west Europe would have two Daimler Armoured Cars and two Daimler Dingo scout cars. A

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which cou ...

armoured car regiment, the

16th Light Cavalry The 16th Light Cavalry is a regiment of the Armoured Corps, a primary combat arm of the Indian Army. Prior to India gaining independence from the British in 1947, it was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1776 ...

, which formed part of Fourteenth Army troops was partly equipped with Daimlers and served in the reconquest of Burma. To improve the gun performance, some Daimlers in the European Theatre had their 2-pounders fitted with the

Littlejohn adaptor The Littlejohn adaptor was a device that could be added to the British QF 2 pounder (40 mm) anti-tank gun. It was used to extend the service life of the 2-pounder during the Second World War by converting it to squeeze bore operation. "Lit ...

, which worked on the

squeeze bore A squeeze bore, alternatively taper-bore, cone barrel or conical barrel, is a weapon where the internal barrel diameter progressively decreases towards the muzzle resulting in a reduced final internal diameter. These weapons are used in conjuncti ...

principle. This increased the gun's theoretical armour penetration and would allow it to penetrate the side or rear armour of some German tanks. Daimlers were used by the territorial units of the British Army until the 1960s, outlasting their planned replacement, the Coventry Armoured Car. It was still being used, along with Daimler Dingoes, by B Squadron, 11th Hussars in Northern Ireland as late as January 1960. An

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...

regiment,

63 Cavalry 63rd Cavalry is an armoured regiment of the Indian Army. Raising It was raised on 2 January 1957 at Alwar, Rajasthan. Lt Col Harmandar Singh (later Brigadier) was the first commanding officer. The third armoured regiment to be raised under the g ...

, was raised with

Humber Armoured Car The Humber Armoured Car was one of the most widely produced British armoured cars of the Second World War. It supplemented the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car and remained in service until the end of the war. Development The Guy company did ...

s in one of its squadrons. This squadron was later hived off as an independent reconnaissance squadron and the integral squadron re-raised with Daimlers. In the early sixties, Humbers and Daimlers of the Indian Army formed the mounts of the

President's Bodyguard The President's Bodyguard (PBG) is an elite household cavalry regiment of the Indian Army. It is the senior-most regiment in the order of precedence of the units of the Indian Army. The primary role of the President's Bodyguard is to escort and ...

and were deployed in the defense of

Chushul Chushul is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Durbuk tehsil, in the area known as "Chushul Valley", south of the Pangong Lake and west of the Spanggur Lake. The Line of Actual Control with China runs about 5 m ...

during the 1962

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

Conflicts

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

* Indo-Pakistani War * Ceylonese insurrection of 1971 * Sri Lankan civil war

Variants

* Mark I * Mark I CS - close support version with 76 mm gun. * Mark II - improved turret, modified gun mount, improved radiator, driver escape hatch incorporated into roof, WP grenade container fitted in turret and smoke generator container modified. * A turretless regimental command version, known as SOD ("Sawn-Off Daimler").

Operators

Current

Former

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Gallery

File:The British Army in North Africa 1942 E19084.jpg File:The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H34779.jpg File:IWM-B-10147-Daimler-Armoured-Car-19440920.jpg File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19000-3359, Berlin, britische Spähpanzer.jpg File:Daimler Kashmir 1948.jpg

Notes

References

External links

Missing-lynx.com

* Daimler Armoured Car at Tanxheaven.com

The Daimler Fighting Vehicles Project
{{WWIIBritishAFVs World War II armoured cars World War II armoured fighting vehicles of the United Kingdom Reconnaissance vehicles Armoured car Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944