The American Truck Turned WWI Fighter: The Putilov-Garford Armored Automobile

In September 1914, Russia’s Chief Army-Technical Division (GVTU) created the first Armored Car Firm for the Imperial Military’s first armored division. Very similar to the armored vehicles of the U.S., Russia additionally slapped some armor plating on prime of current shopper autos, together with the Russo-Balt Kind C/M that used a four-seat passenger automobile from Russian automobile maker Russo-Baltique. 

However, it additionally used components from wherever doable, together with the German-made Mannesman-Mulag. This was widespread apply then, as even the Germans reused captured armored autos with out hesitation.

The chassis of selection for the Putilov-Garford Armored Automobile was a 5-ton truck constructed by Garford Motor Truck Firm in Elyria, Ohio. The biaxial RWD (4×2) lorry was powered by a 36hp air-cooled 4-cylinder fuel engine, with a prime pace of simply 22 mph. However we’re speaking 1914 right here, when vehicles had been nonetheless a revolutionary new idea, and a just-off-the-production-line Ford Mannequin Ts topped out someplace between 40 – 45 mph. 

Plated with 6.5 mm (quarter inch) rolled metal sheets and riveted to a metal body connected to the Garford 5-ton truck chassis, it was successfully “bulletproof” to rifle hearth. On the rear was a 76.2mm M1910 discipline gun. Three 7.62 mm Vickers machine weapons firing 5,000 rounds every sat inside sponsons across the hull. Early variations weighed nearly 9 tons, whereas later variations weighed 11 tons, which minimize the pace all the way down to about ten mph (lower than two in reverse).

[Image by Unknown via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY Public Domain]