The 39M Csaba was an armoured car produced for the
Royal Hungarian Army
The Royal Hungarian Army ( hu, Magyar Királyi Honvédség, german: Königlich Ungarische Armee) was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Hon ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Development
Hungarian expatriate
Nicholas Straussler
Nicholas Peter Sorrel Straussler (in Hungarian: ''Straussler Miklós Péter'') (7 May 1891 – 3 June 1966) was an engineer mainly remembered for devising the flotation system used by Allied amphibious DD tanks during World War II. Born in Hun ...
designed several armoured cars for Britain while living there between the two world wars. Straussler came to an agreement with the
Weiss Manfred factory of
Csepel, Budapest to produce vehicles from his designs for use in his home country – the most prominent was the Csaba (named after the son of
Attila the Hun) which was designed based on his experience of the
Alvis AC2 armoured car.
After successful trials in 1939, the Hungarian Army placed an order for 61, and a further order for an additional 40 vehicles was placed in 1940. Of these, twenty were used as actual fighting vehicles, with the remainder serving as armoured command cars and reconnaissance vehicles.
The Csaba had a 20 mm
Solothurn anti-tank rifle and an 8 mm machine gun fixed on a centrally mounted turret, with 9 mm armoured plating. The vehicle was also equipped with a detachable 8 mm light machine gun fired through the rear hatch in the anti-aircraft role. The crew could dismount and carry this MG when conducting reconnaissance on foot. It also had two driving positions – one at the front as normal, and an additional one at the rear.
The 40M Csaba was a command version armed only with the turret-mounted 8 mm machine gun. This vehicle was fitted with a second R-4T radio, which had a large lattice radio mast.
References
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World War II armoured cars
Armoured fighting vehicles of Hungary
Tanks of Hungary
Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s
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SPGs. SPAs. Armored cars and trucks of 1939