The Fox Armoured Car was a wheeled armoured fighting vehicle produced by Canada in the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

History

Built by General Motors, Canada, based on a construction of the British

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. Development The Guy company did ...

Mk III, adapted to a

Canadian Military Pattern truck Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) trucks were mutually coherent ranges of military trucks, made in large numbers, in several classes and numerous versions, by Canada's branches of the U.S. 'Big Three' auto-makers during World War II, compliant to ...

(CMP) chassis. The turret was manually traversed and fitted with and

Browning machine gun Browning machine guns are a family of machine gun designs by John Browning, a prolific weapon designer. These include: *M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun, based on a design dating to 1889, was the first successful gas-operated machine gun to ent ...

s. 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 was Polish 15th ''Pułk Ułanów Poznańskich'' ("Poznań

Uhlan Uhlans (; ; ; ; ) were a type of light cavalry, primarily armed with a lance. While first appearing in the cavalry of Lithuania and then Poland, Uhlans were quickly adopted by the mounted forces of other countries, including France, Russia, Pr ...

s Regiment"), fighting in Italy in 1943–1944. After the Second World War many of them went to the

Portuguese Army The Portuguese Army ( pt, Exército Português) is the land component of the Armed Forces of Portugal and is also its largest branch. It is charged with the defence of Portugal, in co-operation with other branches of the Armed Forces. With its ...

, which used them from 1961 to 1975 in

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. The Netherlands, faced with a shortage of Humber armoured cars for use in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, acquired 39 Foxes, 34 of which were fitted with Humber Mk. IV turrets (which had a 37 mm gun). The resulting hybrid vehicle, called "Humfox", was immediately successful and popular, and some were passed to the

Indonesian Army The Indonesian Army ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat (TNI-AD), ) is the land branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It has an estimated strength of 300,000 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its ...

after independence.

Former operators

* * * *

Surviving vehicles

*Karl Smith Collection in Tooele, Utah. *Shopland Collection, Clevedon, Somerset, UK. *Robert Gill Collection - three, one displayed in

Heeresgeschichtliches Museum The Museum of Military History – Military History Institute (german: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum – Militärhistorisches Institut) in Vienna is the leading museum of the Austrian Armed Forces. It documents the history of Austrian ...

, Vienna) *Cavalry Tank Museum, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India *The Ontario Regiment RCAC Museum, Oshawa, Canada *Canada War Museum, Ottawa, Canada

Notes

References

External links