The Ford Tf-C Model is here

The Ford Tf-C (or FT-B model 1920), was designed in June 1920 by a Ministry of Military Affairs civil engineer, Tadeusz Tanski, on his own initiative. It was the first armoured vehicle ever constructed and built in series in Poland. At that time, Poland was in war with Soviet Russia and thus needed urgently armored vehicles. The design was presented to the authorities on 12 June 1920 and accepted at once, the prototype was completed in late June. tests were quickly carried out, the prototype was immediately accepted and a small serie of 16 vehicles was ordered. These were built in Gerlach & Pulst tool factory in Warsaw, a former railcar factory.

The chassis came from the Ford T, a very good vehicle for that era, with a a good speed and manoeuvrability, beeing adaptable, simple constructed, accepting low quality fuel and oil, with an easy maintenance and repair. . Even armored, it remained a light vehicle which could cross weak bridges and poor roads. with quite good off-road capabilities. Their low silhouette was easy to hide and gives a very small target and their silent drive was an advantage in surprising the ennemy. They could also rapidly escape because of their easy turning back. Moreover, the armored body was sufficient against rifle balls. Finally, Ford T chassis were easy to find because Poland bought several Ford T coming from military surplus after WWI.

On the other hand, the small vehicle led to a cramped interior and a very bad comfort even with only two crew members. The driver had to bend over the steering wheel when driving and the gunner had to kneel because of the narrow and low turret and had to force when rotating the turret beacuse there was no roller system. The wooden floor remained vulnerable to grenades. The rear springs and axles were overloaded and had to be changed regularly and engines tended to overheat after longer riding on sandy or rough roads. Finally even with quite good off-road capabilities, they were unusable on muddy roads due to their narrow wheels.

The armament was one water-cooled 7.92 mm Maxim 05/15 machine gun in a revolving turret. The armour thickness was 8 mm for the vertical plates made of trench shields. The upper plates were not armoured but made of ordinary 2 mm steel sheet. The bottom was unarmoured – made of wooden planks. There was also used armoured cover on the machine gun radiator. The armour was protecting against AP rifle bullets from 300 m, and against regular rifle bullets from all distances. Armour weight was about 590 kg. The armoured body could have been removed in one piece, and was supported on a frame in eight points. The turret was pentagon shaped, narrowing in front, with a small hatch in an upper plate. The radiator was protected with armoured doors. The crew consisted of two: driver and commander-gunner.

The Ford T chassis was slightly modified in Poland. It had a rectangular steel frame and suspension on semi-elliptic transversal springs. The rear axle were additionally strengthened with stringers. A position of a fuel tank was changed from transversal (under a driver’s seat) to longitudinal, next to the driver. The wheels were wooden, tire dimension was 30×3.5″. The tires could be ordinary pneumatic ones, or filled with a bulletproof porous pulp inside (« gusmatic »). Brakes were on rear wheels only. The engine was the Ford 22.5 HP, 2900 ccm, petrol, 4-cylinder inline, 4-stroke, water-cooled, started with a crank. The vehicle had two forward gears and one reverse. The rear axle was driven. A spare wheel was carried inside, along a rear hull plate. Cars had no headlights initially, later they were fitted with a single headlight before the driver’s front plate.

In october 1920, a proposal from an improved version was made but refused by the Army because war with Soviet Russia came to an end and because it had even more overloaded the chassis.

Colours and markings :

The cars were painted in the regular four colors camouflage pattern, yellow, dark brown, grey and dark green, separated with thin black stripes.

In 1920 the cars had no nationality signs. The Polish nationality sign introduced in mid-1920s was the white and red shield, with slant division line; painted on the side.

Reportedly some of the cars had their own names, like: « Osa » (Wasp), « Bąk » (Gadfly), « Mucha » (Fly), « Komar » (Gnat), but it is not clear, since when they were painted.

Combat use :

As soon as the cars were produced, they went to the front, two in July 1920, another four in August. The six vehicles were assigned to the 8th Cavalry Brigade of the 1st Army, and were covering Polish retreat, acting in reconnaissance and harassing Soviet forces. The employment of armored cars was very different between the two ennemies, the Soviets scattered them among big units in small numbers and the Polish Army used them in grouped mobile units. When the last two Ford arrived on August 14, 1920, all eight Fords, with numbers 101 to 108, formed the 1^st light armoured car column with three semi-armoured trucks: one Packard with 76 mm mountain gun M.1913 (nr. 114, also armoured by Gerlach & Pulst) and two White with open tops and four Maxim wz.08 machine guns each (nr. 112 and 113), and several supporting cars and trucks.

The column was assigned to the 5th Army of Gen. Sikorski and was during the next few days employed in combat of the Wkra river as part of the decisive battle, known as the Warsaw battle, 14-16 August 1920. On 16 August, the car nr. 105 was shot in steering mechanism, disabled, and lost. After the victory in the combat of the Wkra river, the 5th Army was disbanded in the end of August, and the 1st Column was assigned to the 3rd Army of Gen. Sikorski.

The most brilliant operation, in which Fords took part, was the raid on Kovel, a 95 km travel on the enemy’s ground which captured an important city and defeated the soviet 12^th Army. Three Ford armoured cars got damaged during the raid. In October 1920, the 1st Column was withdrawn to the rear for rest.

In late August and September 1920, the last 8 cars were built. At least some of them were used in combat, probably in the 2^nd light armoured car column, but there is not much known about this unit. It probably operated in the northern part of the front.

Twelve Ford survived the war. In 1920s, eight of them served in the 3rd Armoured Car Battalion in Warsaw. One was used in Cavalry Training Centre in Grudziądz. Their withdrawal started in 1926. In late 1920s most were gathered in the 1st Tank Regiment in Poznań – in 1930 there were three of them. The last car, no. 5021, was reported in 1931 as incapable of service. According to uncertain information, it existed until 1939 in the 3rd Armoured Battalion, as an exhibit, then its trace was lost. A replica was built in Poland using an original chassis.

Specifications :

Lenght : 3,25 m

Width : 1,55 m

Height : 1,73 m

Weight : 1,16 t – 1,35 t

Crew : 2

Speed : 50 km/h

Range : 250 km

This article is largely inspired from http://derela.pl/ftbp.htm