The Morris CS9/Light Armoured Car was a British armoured car used by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

in 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

History

The vehicle was based on a

Morris Commercial Morris Commercial Cars Limited was a British manufacturer of commercial vehicles formed by William Morris, founder of Morris Motors Limited, to continue the business of E G Wrigley and Company which he purchased as of 1 January 1924. The ma ...

C9 4x2 truck chassis. On this chassis, a riveted hull was mounted with an open-topped two-man turret. The armament consisted of either

Boys anti-tank rifle The Boys anti-tank rifle (officially Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys, and sometimes incorrectly spelled "Boyes"), is a British anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It was often nicknamed the " elephant gun" by its users due to its s ...

and

Bren light machine gun The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also used ...

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and ...

. The vehicle carried a No. 19 radio set. The prototype was tested in 1936. A further 99 cars were ordered and were delivered in 1938. Thirty-eight of these cars were used by the

12th Royal Lancers The 12th (Prince of Wales's) Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army first formed in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war ...

in the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

, where all of them were destroyed or abandoned. Another 30 served 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 (Prin ...

in the North African Campaign. It was found that, when fitted with desert

tyres A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which t ...

, the vehicle had good performance on soft sand. However, its armour and armament were insufficient. The vehicle was retired halfway through the North African Campaign.

References

Forty, George George Forty (10 September 1927 – 19 May 2016) was a British Army officer who was chief of staff of the Royal Armoured Corps gunnery school and later director of the Tank Museum, and also author of many books on warfare. Education and military ...

- ''World War Two Armoured Fighting Vehicles and Self-Propelled Artillery'', Osprey Publishing 1996
wwiivehicles.com: Morris CS9 scout car
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 CS9 World War II armoured fighting vehicles of the United Kingdom Armoured cars of the United Kingdom Armoured cars of the interwar period Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s Vehicles introduced in 1938 SPGs. SPAs. Armored cars and trucks of 1938