The Lanchester armoured car was a British armoured car built on the chassis of the Lanchester "Sporting Forty", it saw wide service with the Royal Naval Air Service and

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The Lanchester was the second most numerous World War I armoured car in British service after the Rolls-Royce armoured car.

Design

The Lanchester was a turreted armoured car, built on the chassis of a Lanchester Sporting Forty luxury

tourer Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

. The layout of the Lanchester was similar to the Rolls-Royce, with a front mounted engine, crew compartment in the middle and rear cargo deck; the fighting compartment and turret was almost identical to the Rolls-Royce. The engine of the Lanchester was located beside the driver's feet, allowing for a more effective, well sloped frontal armour than the Rolls-Royce. A number of changes were made to the Sporting Forty chassis, including reinforcing to accommodate the additional weight of the armour, strengthened rear cantilever spring suspension and the addition of

Rudge-Whitworth Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle, motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co. of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pug ...

spoked wheels with quick-release knock-on hubs, double wheels were used on the rear to improve handling. The Lanchester monobloc six-cylinder engine was retained from the Sporting Forty, it delivered a very useful and had many advanced features for the era, including dual ignition and full pressure lubrication. The transmission was via a very advanced pre-selective

epicyclic gearbox An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...

. The Lanchester's turret was the standard

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

pattern as fitted to the Rolls-Royce, with beveled sides and mounting a single .303 Vickers machine gun.

History

In December 1914, the prototype of what was to become the Lanchester armoured car was produced from a Lanchester Sporting Forty in the service of the Royal Naval Air Service in Dunkirk, the designs were heavily influenced by the experiences of Commander Charles Samson and his subordinates, Arthur Nickerson designed the turret. Production models followed, produced in Britain from early 1915, the only differences from the prototype were the reinforcing and strengthening works to the chassis and suspension, and the wheels.

Service

In 1915, three squadrons of the

Royal Naval Armoured Car Division The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

were equipped with Lanchester armoured cars and sent to France. In September 1915 the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

handed all of their armoured cars over to the

, the latter decided to standardise on the Rolls-Royce to reduce the logistical demands of operating various types of vehicles, and the Lanchesters were withdrawn to Britain whilst some were also sold to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and Imperial Russia. Around 36 Lanchesters formed the nucleus of a large force under Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson that was sent to Russia to assist the

Imperial Russian The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

government. The force departed Britain in late 1915, bound for

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...

, but the ships encountered heavy storms enroute and subsequently became icebound, putting in to Alexandrovsk instead. The cars were found to have broken loose in the hold during the storms and were badly damaged, additionally many of their radiators had cracked in the freezing weather as they had not been drained prior to departure, so they were all returned to Britain for repair. In 1916 Locker-Lampson's force, No 1 Squadron, Royal Naval Armoured Car Division, returned to Russia with their Lanchesters and other vehicles, and the entire unit drove to the Caucasus, the majority of the force operating throughout the Caucasus down to the Turkish border, whilst a detachment went into north

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. When the rainy season arrived in October, the force drove via the northern shores of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

into

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. In June 1917 the unit moved into Galicia to support the unsuccessful Kerensky Offensive. In November 1917 the Russian Revolution had overthrown the Imperial government, putting an end to the force's operations, so in January 1918 the entire unit was evacuated out of Archangel back to England. By the time they returned to Britain in 1918, the Lanchesters of Locker-Lampson's No 1 Squadron had driven over , much further than any other vehicles of World War I, and in such varied terrain as mountains, desert and near arctic conditions, in service they proved to be reliable and fast. The Lanchesters were operated in a manner that was to become the norm for armoured cars in armoured warfare, acting as scouts, fire support vehicles and raiders, usually operated well forward of the main body following in trucks.

Gallery

File:Lanchester armoured car, IWM Q 72875.jpg File:Lanchester armoured car, IWM Q 50674.jpg File:Lanchester armoured car, IWM Q 107436.jpg File:IWM-MH-9934-Lancheter-armoured-car.jpg File:Lanchester armoured car, IWM Q 81088.jpg

References

External links