Standard Car 4x2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British

improvised Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

armoured car produced 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 opposin ...

History

The first version of the vehicle was built in 1940 by Standard Motor Company at the instigation of

Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...

, then Minister of Aircraft Production (hence the name Beaverette). It was based on commercial car chassis, on which a simple riveted armoured hull was mounted. The 11mm of steel was backed by 3 inch thick oak planks. The hull was open at the top and at the rear. The armament consisted of a Bren light machine gun, which could be fired through a slot in the

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

armour. Subsequent versions received all-around protection and a machine gun turret - an enclosed one with a Bren MG or an open-topped one with twin

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

s. Some vehicles also carried Boys anti-tank rifles. Some also had a No. 11 or No. 19 radio set. Production was stopped in 1942. About 2,800 units were delivered. Describing the vehicle in 1941, a correspondent for ''The Light Car'' magazine reported "touching the 60-mark []" while following one along a road. Restricted vision meant the Beaverette driver had to rely on an observer to relay information about other road traffic and also to consider situations well in advance, for example, when making a turn, the driver had to base his steering on "observations made something like ten yards [] back". The Beaverette was extensively used by the Home Guard (United Kingdom), British Army and RAF Regiment for home defence service and training. The vehicle is said to have suffered from excessive weight and to have been hard to handle. IWM-H-7331-Beaverette-Scotland-19410214

Variants

*Mk I - original version. *Mk II - had all-around armour and the radiator grill was moved from a vertical position to a horizontal one. *Mk III Beaverbug - had a shortened chassis, a redesigned hull without curved front wings, top armour and a machine gun turret. A Mk III was used by the RAF Regiment in the capture of a

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (" Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, ...

and destruction of another when they landed at RAF West Malling in April 1943. *Mk IV - glacis armour was redesigned to improve visibility. *A similar vehicle, known as Beaverette (NZ), was produced in New Zealand Railways Department Hutt Workshops. The car used a Ford 3/4 or 1-ton truck chassis and plate salvaged from the merchant ships ''Port Bowen'' and ''Mokoia'' for armour. They had a crew of four; 208 units were built.

Survivors

A Mark III Beaverette is displayed at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. In 2018, the Tank Museum acquired a similar Mark III for restoration whilst a third Mark III is in the Cobbaton Combat Collection, a private collection of military vehicles in Umberleigh, Devon in the United Kingdom A Mark IV Beaverette is displayed at the ''Museum Bevrijding Vleugels'' in the Netherlands. A second Mark IV is preserved at The Curragh Military Museum in Ireland.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography *George Forty - ''World War Two Armoured Fighting Vehicles and Self-Propelled Artillery'', Osprey Publishing 1996, . *I. Moschanskiy - ''Armored vehicles of the Great Britain 1939-1945 part 2'', Modelist-Konstruktor, Bronekollektsiya 1999-02 (И. Мощанский - ''Бронетанковая техника Великобритании 1939-1945 часть 2'', Моделист-Конструктор, Бронеколлекция 1999-02).

External links

Beaverette Virtual Museum
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 World War II armoured cars World War II armoured fighting vehicles of the United Kingdom

Beaverette Standard Car 4x2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British improvised armoured car produced during the Second World War. History The first version of the vehicle was built in 1940 by Standard Motor Company at ...

Armoured cars of the United Kingdom Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944 Improvised armoured fighting vehicles Improvised combat vehicles