The Light Armoured Car (Aust), also known as Rover, was an armoured car produced in Australia during 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 opposi ...

History and description

At the outbreak of the

, the United Kingdom was unable to meet the needs of the Commonwealth for armoured fighting vehicles. This led many Commonwealth countries to develop their own AFVs. The Rover was designed in 1941. It used Ford 3-ton

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 ...

chassis, either F60L or the shorter F60S. The armoured bodies were produced by Ruskin Motor Bodies of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The production was stopped in 1943, a total of 238 cars were built. The Rover entered service with the Australian Army in April 1942. It never saw combat and was used mostly for crew training. A long narrow opening at the top of the hull earned the vehicle a nickname: "mobile slit trench". Late in 1943 Australia started to receive US-made armoured cars and the Rover was soon declared obsolete. There are three restored Rover Mk II cars on display in Australian museums: at the National Military Vehicle Museum in

Edinburgh Parks Edinburgh is an outer northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Salisbury. The suburb was created in 1997, on land straddling Penfield and Salisbury, that was compulsorily acquired by the Commonwealth Government in 1940 in ord ...

in South Australia; at the

Royal Australian Armoured Corps The Royal Australian Armoured Corps (RAAC) is a corps of the Australian Army which provides the Australian Defence Force's armour capability. Armour combines firepower, mobility, protection and networked situational awareness to generate shock ...

Tank Museum in

Puckapunyal, Victoria Puckapunyal (more formally the Puckapunyal Military Area, but also known as the Puckapunyal Camp or Puckapunyal Army Base, and colloquially as "Pucka") is an Australian Army training facility and base 10 km west of Seymour, in central Vi ...

; and at the

Australian Armour and Artillery Museum The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum is a privately owned museum dedicated to tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery from the Second World War and post war periods. It was officially opened in 2014, in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Th ...

in Cairns, Queensland.

Variants

*Mk I – F60L chassis (40 units). *Mk II – F60S chassis (198 units).

References

* Cecil, Michael K. (1993). ''Australian Scout and Armoured Cars 1933 to 1945'', Australian Military Equipment Profiles, Vol. 3, .

External links

Diggerhistory.info
at warwheels.net

at warwheels.net {{WWIIBritishAFVs World War II armoured cars World War II armoured fighting vehicles of Australia Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944