French and German armored cars of the First World War
The French-Russian “BA Nakashidze” on the cover of an American magazine. April 1906 of the year
It would seem that France - the birthplace of Renault, Peugeot and Citroen - with the start of the war should have become a leader in the creation of armored cars, and the rest should imitate it, but ... nothing like that happened. That is, the release of BA company Renault began. Moreover, this concern in the town of Billancourt near Paris produced about one-fifth of all passenger cars produced in France in 1914, and this created a good base for their production. But was it possible to consider them so perfect? The very first order from the army was for 100 armored vehicles. And the cars were made, but in essence they were a real improvisation: the armored body was equipped with a machine gun mount on the counter behind the shield and ... everything! A characteristic feature of these BAs was the location of the air intakes of the radiator, but there were not any special designer delights! In general, the BA turned out to be poor, although in fairness it can be said that there were cars with both a machine gun and an 37-mm gun. The shield was not flat, but V-shaped, that is, it gave more protection than the same plates on American BA. The wheels, for example, had wooden knitting needles (!), And that was on the “instrument of war”. The weight of the "auto" reached 4 tons. Engine power - total 16 hp Speed - 45 km / h. Armor thickness - 5 mm. Crew - 3 person. But in a positional war, why were even such armored cars needed at all?
Armored car "Renault" model 1914 year: front view
France ended the war, having only 39 armored vehicles of this type, so it is obvious that they were used in battles, and quite actively. But the French did not like their own chassis, and since the end of 1915, they began to build their own BAs on the chassis of the American White trucks.
Armored car "Renault" with 47-mm gun "Hotchkiss". The box-shaped armor shield of the gun in the back of the BA and the design of the car itself, which does not allow it to fire forward, attracts attention. Only back and sideways.
At the same time, an Autocanon armored car armed with an 2,5-mm gun was made on the chassis of a Renault 47-ton truck with rubber tires. The first prototypes were completed by the end of January 1915. Tests have shown that this armored vehicle was too heavy, and the speed was too low, so only four such machines were made. It was believed that they would be able to attack any target ... in the rear of their troops, that is, to counteract the breakthrough of the defense. But again, for this purpose, the 47-mm gun was too weak.
Armored car on the “White” chassis. The strange tower double tower, which has numerous embrasures for firing from personal weapons and observations. The gun is the same as on tank Renault FT-17 - 37 mm PUTO system.
And it was not for nothing that already in 1915, when the White car arrived in France from Cleveland, Ohio, the first twenty more or less acceptable tower armored vehicles were made on their basis! Four-cylinder engine with water cooling, rear-wheel drive, there was a duplicate steering, that is, these machines were adapted for reversing in an emergency. The maximum speed of this 6-ton BA was 45 km / h. The range was about 250 km.
The normal crew consisted of four people, and the weapons - from one 37-mm cannon and one gun "Gochkis". A feature of the design of the machine was that the gun in the tower looked in one direction, but the machine gun - in the opposite. That is, at the same time it was impossible to shoot at the same target with a cannon or machine gun. This required to deploy the tower 180 degrees! The tower was abundantly equipped with observation ports, but that was where its advantages ended. And again, the most important question: why such a design? What he gives real benefits? None! It only makes it difficult to maneuver with fire! And after all, it would be possible to put a “Sparka” from a machine gun (even if such a terribly awkward one as “Hotchkiss”) and a cannon, so as not to waste time on its turn!
By the end of the First World War, the French army had at least 205 armored vehicles of this type, which is more than three times the total figure for Renault and Peugeot armored vehicles. It turns out that, having created the best light tank of the First World War, the engineers of the same company failed to make an exemplary BA. After all, it was no wonder that White armored vehicles were used only in the French (albeit up to the Second World War and even in its years!) And also in the Brazilian army in the 20 of the XX century.
In Germany, before the war, there were cars and their car companies. The first BAs, though still very primitive, completely open at the top, appeared there in 1905-06. But they did not go to the series. Therefore, we can say without exaggeration that the war also took them by surprise, like all the others. In the first months of its war, the opponents relatively quickly started to release their BA, signals came from the front and the Germans reluctantly began to catch up. A competition of three firms was organized: Daimler, Erhard and Büssing. “Bussing” released its BA already in 1915, and it just so happened that it was just a huge machine - 9,5 meters long and weighing 10,2 tons. At the same time, the car was equipped with a 6-cylinder engine, which provided him with a maximum speed of 35 km / h. By car stood 3 machine gun MGS, but the crew she was not less than nine people. Like Ehrhardt, this BA, designated A5Р, was built in the minimum number of copies (how many exactly - English historians still argue with German until now!), But they were used on the Eastern Front, for example, in Romania in 1916 and in 1918 year - in Ukraine.
BA company "Büssing"
All this rivalry ended with the fact that Ehrhardt received an order from the army, and the first twelve armored vehicles of Erhard EB-4 were built in 1917. Over twenty Erhards were ordered in 1917. On these last BAs, the weight was reduced by 1,75 tons. Headlights were enclosed in armored boxes. The rear wheels were also covered with armor. The radio equipment, which was on the first cars, was removed, since it could not work while driving, and occupied too much space inside. The crew of the car was a man from 10. Weight - 7,75 t. Armor thickness - 9 mm. The car had several original technical solutions. For example, the radiator shutters could be opened by means of a special thrust directly from the driver’s seat, and the engine then did not overheat. The wheels had metal broadening with embossed lugs. When the tire fell into the ground, this widening did not allow the wheel to fall even deeper and provided good interaction with it.
BA "Ehrhardt"
Some cars were used first against Romania in the 1917 year, and then on the Ukrainian front in the 1918 year. After the war, twenty more cars of this type were built in Germany in 1919 to fight against local insurgents and the allies had nothing against it. They were almost identical to the 1917 model, only the armor on them was of poor quality, so the machines of the war period were much inferior in protection.
These machines were used during the so-called Silesian uprisings in the 1919-1921 years, which took place in the Upper Silesian speeches of the Poles against the Germans, to join this region to Poland. Two Polish cars of this type were either captured in battle, or transferred to the Poles by the French from the Military Control Commission. Most of the Polish armored vehicles had a color of their former owners, but with Polish names on the sides and a red and white shield on the armor.
Polish "Ehrhardt"
The main feature and at the same time a disadvantage of the German BA was the absence of a rotating tower. That is, the tower was on them, but tightly attached to the body! Therefore, both in the turret and in the corps of German armored vehicles there were so many embrasures and so many machine guns with such a large crew. Where necessary, they were targeted there, but transferred from one place to another!
In any case, neither the French nor the German armored cars played in the First World War the role that the armored cars of Britain ... and Russia played in it!
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