Russian Lanchester Armored Car Model is here

As soon as the automobile appeared, the military took an interest in this new invention. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress made on the chassis and engines, the first armored cars projects appeared: Simms in England then Daimler in Austria-Germany, Panhard and Charron in France. But it was during the First World War that these vehicles became indispensable.

In England, the government organized the production of war and distributed the tasks between the various industrialists. Among these, the Lanchester Motor Company was designated for the manufacture of shells. Disgruntled brothers Frederick and George Lanchester, their owners, used their political backers to persuade the government that their company would be more useful in the manufacture of military vehicles, thus winning a contract with the military to manufacture liaison cars, ambulances but also an armored car. In fact, at the same time, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), encouraged by Charles Samson’s experience aboard improvised armored vehicles, was looking for more standardized armored vehicles to protect aerodromes and save downed pilots behind the lines, Pragmatic, the British naval armament specialists produced a hull and a turret (Admiralty type) which with some modifications could be adapted on frames supplied by the civil industry. For their part, the engineers of the Lanchester Motor Company were inspired by the chassis of a touring car (Lanchester sporting forty luxury tourer 38hp) reinforced and modified among other things by a twinning of the rear wheels and presented the first prototype in December 1914. The armored hull could be redesigned because the engine was deported towards the rear close to the driver’s feet), which allowed a greater inclination of the front armor and therefore better protection. The reinforced Chassis were produced at the Lanchester plant in Birmingham, the armored elements by William Beardmore and Co of Glasgow, and final assembly at the Vickers plant in Erith (Kent) or at the Talbot Works in Barlby road (North Kensington)
The RNAS ordered 36 vehicles for its Royal Naval Armored Car Division, production was rapid because, out of the three planned squadrons (5th, 6th, 15th), the 5th received its 12 vehicles in March 1915, the 6th received its 12 vehicles. in April 1915 both were sent to France, and the 15th to Belgium in June with its 12 vehicles (under the command of Oliver Locker-Lampson). Each squadron named its vehicles, the 5th with names beginning with F, the 6th with names beginning with G and the 15th with names beginning with U, V and W. Meanwhile, Locker-Lampson, a wealthy and ambitious politician who funded partly the purchase of the Lanchesters of his squadron believed himself authorized to rent four copies to the Belgian army until the end of the war (these are the four camouflaged vehicles that we see in all the photos of Belgian Lanchesters and three were found at the end of the war in a Birmingham square with an Austin). Unfortunately, with the trench warfare rendering them useless, in September 1915 the Royal Navy surrendered the Lanchesters to the British Army. This one, for reasons of standardization, chose to keep only the Rolls-Royces and the 32 Lanchesters returned to England.