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26-594: Built by General Motors, Canada, based on a construction of the British Humber armoured car Mk III, adapted to a Canadian Military Pattern truck (CMP) chassis. The turret was manually traversed and fitted with 0.30 in (7.6 mm) and 0.50 in (13 mm) Browning machine guns . The four man crew consisted of the vehicle commander, the driver, a gunner and a wireless operator. 1,506 vehicles were manufactured. It saw operations in Italy, UK and India. Among its users

52-537: A 37 mm gun). The resulting hybrid vehicle, called "Humfox", was immediately successful and popular, and some were passed to the Indonesian Army after independence. Background: British armoured fighting vehicle production during World War II , Tanks in the British Army This Canadian military history article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This military vehicle article

78-399: A centrally mounted transfer box which distributed power to front and rear differentials. The rigid axles were mounted on leaf springs front and rear with hydraulic dampers. The welded armoured hull was mounted at four points – front, rear and sides – to give some flexibility but with precautions against excessive movement of the hull on the chassis. For forward vision the driver had a flap in

104-656: A low rate of fire (450–550 rounds per minute) for long-range combat or area targets. The Mark III and Mark III* versions did away with this selector and had simplified parts like the Mark II* but were incompatible with the Mark II. The Mark III had a fixed high rate of fire (750–850 rpm) and the Mark III* had a fixed low rate of fire (450–550 rpm) Damaged or malfunctioning Mark IIIs were converted to Mk III* at factories during repair. The earlier wartime Mark I, Mark II and Mark II* versions of

130-597: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Humber armoured car The Humber armoured car was one of the most widely produced British armoured cars of the Second World War. It supplemented the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car and remained in service until the end of the war. The Guy company did not have sufficient production capacity to produce sufficient Guy armoured cars as well as other vehicles, so shortly after war broke out

156-723: Is on display at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Cairns , Australia. Two Portuguese cars are on display, one at the Museu do Combatente in Lisbon and the other at the Military Museum of Elvas . Background: British armoured fighting vehicle production during World War II , Tanks in the British Army Besa machine gun The Besa machine gun was a British version of

182-506: The 2-pounder (40mm) armed Coventry armoured car , was underway, the Mark IV was designed. This put the US 37 mm gun in the turret but at the cost of one crewman. The Coventry was not ordered as a replacement and so production of Mark IV continued, for a total of 2,000. The Humber was a rectangular chassis frame with a rear mounted engine. The gearbox was mounted to the front of the engine; it fed

208-709: The Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine gun (called the TK vz. 37 in the Czechoslovak army ). The name came from the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), who signed an agreement with Československá zbrojovka to manufacture the gun in the UK. The War Office ordered the weapon in 1938 and production began in 1939, after modifications. It was used extensively by the armed forces of United Kingdom during

234-493: The Humber Armoured Car Marks I–III. Over 3,200 15 mm Besa were manufactured until it was declared obsolete in 1949. It fired a 75 grams (1,160 gr) bullet from a 15×104 mm  [ ru ] cartridge with a muzzle velocity of 818.3 m/s (2,685 ft/s) at a rate of 450 rounds per minute. The 15 mm Besa was fed from 25-round metal belts, which limited its practical rate of fire, although

260-799: The Rootes Group were approached to produce an armoured car – at the time the terminology "Tank, Light (Wheeled)" was used by the Army. Working from the Guy design, Karrier designed a vehicle using as a basis their KT 4 artillery tractor chassis (already in production for the Indian Army ) and the armoured body of the Guy armoured car. Karrier moved the KT4 engine to the rear and fitted welded bodies and turrets provided by Guy. As it had been based on proven elements, trials of prototypes passed without serious issues and an order for 500

286-662: The Royal Armoured Corps was already separate from the other fighting arms of the British Army and the round was not changed for British production. Since the Besa used the same ammunition as Germany used in its rifles and machine guns, the British could use stocks of captured enemy ammunition, albeit without the ability to use their ammunition belts as packaged. The .303 version of the ZB-53

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312-516: The Second World War as a mounted machine gun for tanks and other armoured vehicles as a replacement for the heavier, water-cooled Vickers machine gun . Although it required a rather large opening in the tank's armour, it was reliable. Although British forces used the .303 in rimmed round for rifles and machine guns, the ZB-53 had been designed for the German 7.92×57mm Mauser round; referred to by

338-541: The Besa 7.92 mm were declared obsolete in 1951 and all Mark III versions were converted to Mark III*. The Mark III/2 introduced in 1952 was a conversion of the Mark III* with a new bracket and body cover. The later Mark III/3 introduced in 1954 was a conversion of the Mark III/2 that replaced the barrel and sleeve and made the gas vents larger on the gas cylinder to make it easier to use belts of mixed ammunition. The post-war Mark III/2 and Mark III/3 remained in service until

364-468: The British as the 7.92 mm. The British had intended to move from rimmed to rimless ammunition but with war imminent, wholesale change was not possible. It was falsely believed by BSA and the Ministry of Supply that the industrial, technical and supply difficulty of converting the design to the .303 round would be more onerous than retaining the original calibre, especially given that the chain of supply for

390-564: The Guy down to the faults in the armour, but this was later rectified. The Mark III improved upon the Mark II by providing a three-man turret. Mark III production ended in 1942 after 1,650 had been built. The Humber was a relatively complicated build compared to the Daimler Amoured Car but the Rootes Group had larger production capacity so both companies worked on a common design for production. While design of this possible replacement,

416-572: The brief fights that occurred in the border villages of Doromagogo, Malinguém and Polem, and in the break through the Indian troops surrounding the Portuguese forces in Mapusa . Several static and operational cars are distributed through North America and Europe. The Tank Museum , Bovington, England has an original and sole survivor Guy Wheeled Tank on display and a Humber Mk II not currently on display. A Mk IV

442-486: The front of the "cab" (which became part of the glacis from the Mark II onwards). When shut the view he was protected by a Triplex bullet proof glass block. These could be readily replaced if damaged. There were other flaps to the sides. In order to see to the rear there was a combination of a flap in the rear bulkhead between the fighting compartment and engine bay and a mechanism that raised the engine cover. The turret, armed with one 15mm and one 7.92mm Besa machine guns ,

468-602: The late 1960s. A larger, heavier (121 lb (55 kg) in total, 50.5 lb (22.9 kg) of complete barrel ) 15 mm version (also belt-fed) was developed by BSA from the Czechoslovak ZB-60 heavy machine gun as vehicle armament. It could be fired in semi-automatic mode as well as fully automatic. It was introduced in British service in June 1940 and was used on the Light Tank Mk VI C and on armoured cars such as

494-843: The reconquest of Burma. Portugal received a number of Humber vehicles in 1943, most of them going to the Army , but with 20 going to the National Republican Guard . After the Second World War, the Humber was employed by Egypt in 1948–49 as well as by Burma , Ceylon , Cyprus , Denmark , India , Mexico and the Netherlands . The Humber armoured car was used in Burma Campaign by the 16th Light Cavalry , an Indian armoured car regiment, which formed part of Fourteenth Army troops. After Independence , an Indian Army regiment, 63rd Cavalry ,

520-615: Was Polish 15th Pułk Ułanów Poznańskich ("Poznań Uhlans Regiment"), fighting in Italy in 1943–1944. After the Second World War many of them went to the Portuguese Army , which used them from 1961 to 1975 in counterinsurgency in Angola , Guinea and Mozambique . The Netherlands, faced with a shortage of Humber armoured cars for use in the Dutch East Indies , acquired 39 Foxes, 34 of which were fitted with Humber Mk. IV turrets (which had

546-625: Was hand traversed. The vehicle commander acted as the wireless operator. The vehicle was used in the North African Campaign from late 1941 by the 11th Hussars and other units. It was also widely used in the European theatre by reconnaissance regiments of British and Canadian infantry divisions. A few vehicles were used for patrol duty along the Iran supply route . A British Indian Army armoured car regiment, partly equipped with Humbers, served in

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572-450: Was modified to be more rapidly and economically produced and three simplified models, the Mark II*, Mark III and Mark III*, entered service in August 1943. The Mark II* was a transitional model designed to use the new simplified parts but was compatible with the Mark II. All those versions had a selector to give a high rate of fire (750–850 rounds per minute) for close combat or focused targets or

598-608: Was placed in 1940 and the first deliveries made in 1941. The Karrier name was dropped to avoid confusion with the British Universal Carrier tracked vehicle and the vehicles were designated "Armoured Car, Humber Mk 1" using the name of Humber Limited (another member of the Rootes Group) though production was by Karrier at the Luton works of Commer (another Rootes company). The first Humbers were more or less identical to

624-648: Was presented to the British officials in early 1937 and passed field trials in November 1937 with flying colours (0.5% of stoppages), however in September 1937 the Small Arms Committee had already decided it wanted the 7.92 mm version for which BSA was already tooling up because of the urgency. The Mark II version, license-produced by BSA in Birmingham as opposed to ZB's Mk I, entered service in June 1940. The design

650-527: Was raised with Humber Mk IV armoured cars as one of its squadrons which was later hived off as an independent reconnaissance squadron and the integral squadron re-raised, the second time with Daimlers. The Humbers and Daimlers of the Indian Army formed the mounts of the President's Bodyguard and were deployed in the defense of Chushul at heights above 14,000 ft during the 1962 Indo-China War . The Humber

676-672: Was used against the Indian Army in 1948 by the 2nd and 4th Hyderabad Lancers, armoured car cavalry units of the Hyderabad State Forces, during Operation Polo . Humber armoured cars were employed during the Indian invasion of Goa in December 1961 . These vehicles equipped the four reconnaissance squadrons of the Portuguese garrison in Goa . The Portuguese Humbers engaged the invading Indian forces in

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