Leyland Armoured Car refers to four

armoured cars Armored (or armoured) car or vehicle may refer to: Wheeled armored vehicles * Armoured fighting vehicle, any armed combat vehicle protected by armor ** Armored car (military), a military wheeled armored vehicle * Armored car (valuables), an arm ...

, built between 1934 and 1940, which were used by the

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The Ar ...

. The first Leyland Armoured Car was built in 1934, and three more were built by 1940. The Leylands served with the Irish Army until 1972, and with the reserve ''An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil'' (FCA) until the early 1980s.

History

The Leyland Armoured Car was based on a 6×4

Leyland Terrier Leyland may refer to: Places * Leyland, Lancashire, an English town ** Leyland Hundred, an hundred of Lancashire, England * Leyland, Alberta, a community in Canada Companies * Leyland Line, a shipping company Automotive manufacturers * Le ...

lorry A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

.Armoured Car, Leyland (E1986.83) The first chassis was purchased from Ashenhurst of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in 1934 and an armoured hull was built and fitted using armour and turrets from an obsolete

Peerless armoured car During the First World War, sixteen American Peerless trucks were modified by the British to serve as armoured cars. These were relatively primitive designs with open backs, armed with a Pom-pom gun and a machine gun, and were delivered to the Br ...

.Salisbury p.1 The new vehicle was tested and it was recommended that the twin Peerless turrets be replaced with a single turret. In 1935, three more Leyland Terrier chassis were bought and the Swedish Landsverk L60 tank turret was selected in 1936 to replace the twin Peerless turrets, however it was not until 1939Salisbury p.2 that all four Leyland Armoured Cars were finished. The armament of the Leylands was a Madsen 20mm cannon and a

.303 .303 may refer to: * .303 British, a rifle cartridge * .303 Savage, a rifle cartridge * Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the B ...

Madsen machine gun The Madsen is a light machine gun that Julius A. Rasmussen and Theodor Schouboe designed and proposed for adoption by Colonel Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen, the Danish Minister of War, and that the Royal Danish Army adopted in 1902. It was the wor ...

. The Leylands entered service with the 1st Armoured Squadron alongside the

Landsverk L180 The Landsverk L-180, L-181 and L-182 are a family of armored cars developed by the Swedish company AB Landsverk during the interwar years. They had a good international reputation for being fast, robust and reliable and were acquired in small num ...

and Irish built Dodge armoured cars. They were then set up as A Troop of the 2nd Motor Squadron until recombined with the L180s in 1942. In 1958, the Leyland's front hull was modified and the engine replaced with Ford V-8s. .30 Browning machine guns replaced the Madsen machine guns, and another Browning was fitted in the hull next to the driver. One Leyland was scrapped in the 1960s. In 1972, the 1st Armoured Squadron was re-equipped with

Panhard AML The Panhard AML (''Auto Mitrailleuse Légère'', or "Light Machine Gun Car") is an Armored car (military), armoured car with reconnaissance capability. Designed on a lightly armoured Four-wheel drive, 4×4 chassis, it weighs an estimated 5.5 tonne ...

armoured cars and the three surviving Leylands joined the reserve ''Forsea Cosanta Aituil'' 5th Motor Squadron until they were also equipped with Panhard AMLs in the early 1980s. One of these was also owned by the 4th Cavalry squadron in Longford in the years 1979 to some time in the early eighties, although it did not see service and was more a museum piece The Bovington Tank Museum gained their example through an exchange for a

Ferret Armoured Car The Ferret armoured car, also commonly called the Ferret scout car, is a British armoured fighting vehicle designed and built for reconnaissance purposes. The Ferret was produced between 1952 and 1971 by the UK company Daimler. It was widely ...

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * *{{citation , url=http://www.warwheels.net/images/ACJfinal28.pdf , title=Irish Armored Cars, Swedish Landsverks and Leyland-Irish Look-A-Likes , first=Mark , last=Salisbury , work=Armored Car - The Wheeled Fighting Vehicle Journal , issue=28 , date=March–April 1995 , via=warwheels.net , publisher=AC Publishing, pages=1–6 1934 establishments in Ireland Vehicles introduced in 1934 Armoured cars of Ireland