The Beaverette MkII model is here

History :

After the evacuation of Dunkirk, the British Army was able to repatriate almost 340,000 soldiers but left almost all its armaments and vehicles in France. At this moment, the German invasion became a real threat and there was little in the way of effective defences. The rush was on to rearm and every usable arm and vehicle was pressed into service. The Standard Motor company Beaverette was one of these vehicles.

Standard Motor company was founded in 1903 in Coventry and initially produced engines and cars. During WWI, it produced war materials among them aircrafts. In 1939, it was included in the shadow factories program to produce aircraft equipment (among them the well known Mosquito). The company continued to produce its cars during the Second World War, but mainly fitted with utility bodies (“tillys”).

Adapted from a pre-war car, the Beaverette comprised the Standard Flying14 chassis and was powered by a 46hp engine. The idea came at the same time from an Air Ministry’s requirement for light armoured cars for the home guard and for the RAF to defend airfields, from a likely encounter between William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, conservative MP and owner of the Daily Express and London Evening Standard) and Capt John Black ( Standard’s MD who had been appointed chairman of the Aero Engine Development committee), and from around 500 uncompleted chassis leftover from car production. The idea was to simply and quickly build a flat armor protection around the chassis.

Mk I:

The first vehicles were very simple in design but went out of Canley factory quite quickly. The 14hp chassis (and its four-cylinder side-valve engine, at 1,776cc and 46 HP) with a beam front axle and four semi-elliptical springs was supposed best appropriate. The 9 mm flat steel plates were welded at angles at the edges and backed by 3 inch thick oak planks at the front and sides with rivets. The hull was open at the top and at the rear . A solid floor added strength and more rigidity than just the usual C-channel chassis from the car that still lived underneath. The Beaverette only offered protection against small arms fire. The armament consisted of a bren light machine gun, which fired through a slot in the front armour. The driver and gunner sat in the open cockpit, which was completely exposed to the rear. The heavy offroad travel was of course impossible. The driver would probably have had a difficult task keeping all two-and-a-quarter tons on the road or stopping it using the Bendix cable braking system at his disposal. Moreover, the completely unbalanced vehicle led to a very dangerous drive with possible overturns. The crew was three (driver, gunner, the third probably assisting the driver because restricted vision through thre little slots only meant the Beaverette driver had to rely on an observer to relay information about other road traffic and also to consider situations well in advance, for example, when making a turn, the driver had to base his steering on « observations made something like 9.5 m back ». The radiator protection was vertically designed and weight was 2,2 t. Some also had a No.11 or No.19 radio set.

Mk II :

The Mk II version, though still open topped incorporated an armor protection for the rear with two hinged steel plates that could be lowered. The armour plates were bigger so fewer rivets were used. The radiator grill was now horizontaly designed.

Mk III :

The Mk III version known as the beaverbug came after Standard had exhausted the supply of the car-type front rounded wings and chassis. This one was now purpose-built and shortened to remove the rear overhang and the curved front wings were now replaced with steel plates. An armour-plated roof was added as well as a machine gun turret which increased the weight to 2,9 t. The vision was improved by hinged visors instead of slots. The turret was either closed with a Bren machine gun or open- topped with a twin Vickers machine gun. The braking and steering were as before, but with an increased weight, the drive must have been even more difficult. A prototype was also fitted with the boulton-Paul Defiant turret but not adopted.

Mk IV :

The MK IV had a modified glacis plate to improve vision for the driver, armor was increased to 12 mm thick. A cylindrical machine gun was still atop the wholly-enclosed hull roof. After the war, several Beaverettes found their way to the Eire Army, again for training purposes. these Mk IVs had their turrets and top half of the armour cut off.

Some 2800 vehicles were built till 1942.

A similar vehicle, known as Beaverette (NZ), was produced in New Zealand Railways Department Hutt Workshops. The car used a Ford 3/4 or 1-ton truck chassis and plate salvaged from merchant ships for armour. They had a crew of four; 208 units were built.

Combat use :

The Beaverette was extensively used by the Home guard, British Army and RAF Regiment for home defence service and training. The vehicle is said to have suffered from excessive weight and to have been hard to handle. The beaverettes never saw any combat and this was better for their crews.

Specifications :

Lenght : Mk I, II : 4.11 m / Mk III : 3.10 m

Width : Mk I, II : 1,6 m / Mk III : 1,73 m

Height : Mk I, II : 1,52 m / Mk III : 2,16 m

Armor : Mk I, II, III : 9 mm / Mk VI : 12 mm

Armament : 7.7mm Bren MG or twin Vickers machine gun

Crew : 2 or 3

Engine : Standard four-cylinder side valve petrol engine, 46hp

Range : 300 km (MKIII)

Speed : 38 km/h (MKIII)

Sources : wikipedia, keymilitary.com, aviarmor