The Daimler armourde car MkI model is here
History :
Because of the very satisfactory performances reached by the BSA scout car (later Dingo), it was decided to rework the model in a larger version as light tank, wheeled. Work began in April 1939 and by the end of the year the two pilot vehicles were already rolling. But the tests showed that the passage of a scout car to an armoured car was not so simple and the problems with the transmission caused by the weight of the vehicle led to production only in April 1941. During its development, the Daimler was denominated light tank, wheeled, mark II (the Mark I being the Guy), but later it took the new name of armoured car, Daimler Mark I. The original vehicle was to have two machine guns as per the Guy Wheeled Tank and also four-wheel steering as on the Dingo. This steering arrangement was never fitted in production, indeed only the earliest Dingo’s had it, and armament was a 2pdr gun even on the prototypes. This gave the car firepower similar to current British tanks and better than the machine guns of earlier armoured cars.There were two versions (Mark) in total. Daimler Company built 2,694 armoured cars.
Description :
The Daimler Armoured Car was another Birmingham Small Arms design. It was in fact 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. even the hexagonal fighting compartment and hull front bin were found on both. 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 6 cyl, 4095 cc 95 hp engine was, as for the Dingo, at the rear, linked through a fluid flywheel to a Wilson preselector gearbox (five speeds available for forward or reverse travel ) and then a H-drive 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. Armament was a 2pdr gun. The armour was 16mm turret front & mantlet, hull rear, 14mm hull front & turret sides, 10mm hull sides, 8mm turret & hull top, 7mm hull floor. The Daimler had full independent suspension and four wheel drive. Each wheel station was independently sprung, with four large coil springs mounted as two units of pairs one inside the other. This gave a large wheel travel and good cross country performance. Epicyclic gearing 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. One feature which was useful for reconnaissance work was the rear driving position, with a steering wheel and throttle on the left rear of the fighting compartment and a small peep slot in the hull rear. Turret hatch opened in a manner similar to early Crusader tanks, a series of rods and torsion bars allowed the hatch to open with a cantilever action. This meant the hatch was either fully open or fully closed. Photos of the prototype show it had no side doors and small detail differences form the production cars. Turret vision slots were different, smoke dischargers were fitted one each side of the turret, and there was a raised section above the driver’s position as well as headlight differences. Production vehicles had escape hatches in each hull side. The three man crew was the largest which could be fitted in, and without a major redesign a more powerful gun could not be fitted. As was common, detail improvements were introduced as production progressed. Most noticeably, the external stowage changed, a spare wheel was fitted on the left hull side (unfortunately blocking one of the side escape hatches) and later a rack to carry two sand channels on the right side, not often used for their original purpose in photos, and indeed cars in North Africa and Sicily often carried a rack for petrol or water cans on the hull side with the sand channels being carried on the front of the hull, while a sun compass bracket could be fitted on the right side of the turret. An external condenser can was carried in hot climates. It was planned to replace both Daimler and Humber armoured cars with the Coventry, designed and built jointly by both manufacturers. In the event, more Daimlers were built. Mk II cars had a more rounded gun mantlet, the older ‘Mounting, 2pdr and Medium BESA MG No 4 Mk II’ with its square-ended mantlet being replaced by the ‘No 10 Mk I’. There was now an escape hatch above the driver, the left hand side door was eliminated, while improved engine cooling meant armoured louvers over the whole hull rear plate and only two covered slots in the horizontal engine cover instead of four (oddly, the prototype seemed to have had this later arrangement) as well as a number of mechanical improvements. From 1944 many cars were fitted the Littlejohn tapered bore extension (which worked on the squeeze bore principle) which with special ammunition improved the performance of the 2pdr and allow for greater armour penetration.
Variants :
– Daimler MkI Armoured Car
– Daimler Mark 1 CS, Daimler Armoured Car Close Support : A version with a 3 inch (76.2 mm) Howitzer that could fire both HE and smoke, but not produced in great numbers, perhaps following the then current tank policy of CS or Close Support vehicles. These do not seem to have seen action.
– Daimler Mark 1 HA, Daimler Armoured High Angle Gun Mounting : experimental model carried out in the middle east to produce extra high elevation to the 2pdr and BESA MG main armament.
– Daimler MkII Armoured Car : Improved turret with additional armour around the pistol port, modified gun mount, better radiator, driver escape hatch above the front view port, and larger rear view port for reversing.
– Mark 3A Daimler Armoured Car or SOD : The SOD were converted Heavy Daimlers cars used to make up for the lack of available scout cars in late 1944-45
Serial Numbers :
The prototypes were F10472 Light Tank Wheeled Experimental Daimler, and also
F16354 Tank, Light, Wheeled, BSA Daimler.
Production vehicles were –
F19919-20418 500 Mk I
F117215-117714 500 Mk I
F207288-208187 900 Mk I
F208190-208689 500 Mk II
F339201-339800 600 Mk II originally, this order was later reduced to only 294 cars
Note – the ‘gap’ of F208188-9 was for Coventry prototypes, and the subsequent numbers to 208688 were to have been used for Coventry’s.
From 1948 cars were renumbered in the new style. Batches were in the range 75ZR40 to 90ZR91, although there were large gaps in the allocation of numbers, and also numbers in the ranges –ZU– and –ZV– ranges which may have been allocated when the vehicles were overhauled.
Chassis numbers were from AC1 to AC2694, and may not have followed the exact same sequence as the more visible serial numbers.
First vehicles were issued in the UK in 1941 and small numbers of cars went to North Africa from mid 1941 for evaluation. It was not until 1942 that the 11th Hussars became the first active service users followed by the Derbyshire Yeomanry. It was also later used in Europe and a few vehicles reached the South-East Asia theatre. British Indian Army armoured car regiment, the 16th Light Cavalry, which formed part of Fourteenth Army troops was partly equipped with Daimlers and served in the reconquest of Burma. Initially Daimlers served alongside other cars, mostly Humbers, and armoured car units also used Dingo’s. Looking at the 1944 establishment, it was possible to see Daimler armoured and scout cars working with Staghounds as command and anti aircraft vehicles, supported by AEC Matador Mk III cars or 75mm guns on half-tracks. Later on, the Daimler became the standard car in British armoured car regiments and the Reconnaissance Corps units attached to infantry divisions in place of Humbers, although Staghounds were used as command vehicles. Post war, both marks remained in service, many photos even show both in use in the same unit at the same time. The only changes made were the replacement of the 4″ smoke bomb throwers with sets of six barrelled dischargers as used on many British AFVs of the period.
Daimlers were used by the territorial units of the British Army until the 1960s, outlasting their planned replacement by 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 regiment, 63 Cavalry, was raised with Humber Armoured Cars 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 and were deployed in the defense of Chushul during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Surviving vehicles are highly prized among UK vehicle collectors, while Mk Is are on display in the Imperial War Museum in London and the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry, and a Mk II at the Tank Museum in Bovington.
Mass | 7.6 t |
Length | 13 feet 1 inch (4 m) |
Width | 8 feet 1 inch (2.46 m) |
Height | 7 feet 5 inches (2.26 m) |
Crew | 3 |
7–16 mm | |
Main | 2 pounder QF |
Secondary |
|
Engine | Daimler 27 4.1 litre 6-cylinder petrol |
Operational | 200 miles (320 km) |
Maximum speed | 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) |
Radio | No 19 set |
Sources : wikipedia, daimler fighting vehicles.co.uk
Many photos can be found here: daimler-fighting-vehicles.co.uk
This is the best site for the Daimler vehicles