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Technology Model - Rolls Royce Armoured Car 1914-1941

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Overview

Handcrafted model of Rolls Royce Armoured Car.

The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car was a British armoured car developed in 1914 and used during World War 1, Irish Civil War, the inter-war period in Imperial Air Control in Transjordan, Palestine and Mesopotamia, and in the early stages of World War 2 in the Middle East and North Africa.

Historical information

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) raised the first British armoured car squadron during the First World War. In September 1914 all available Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost chassis were requisitioned to form the basis for the new armoured car. The following month a special committee of the Admiralty Air Department, among whom was Flight Commander T. G. Hetherington, designed the superstructure which consisted of armoured bodywork and a single fully rotating turret mounting a regular water-cooled .303 in (7.7 mm) Mk I Vickers machine gun.
The vehicle was modernized in 1920 and in 1924, resulting in the Rolls-Royce 1920 Pattern and Rolls-Royce 1924 Pattern. In 1940, 34 vehicles which served in Egypt with the 11th Hussars regiment had the "old" turret replaced with an open-topped unit carrying a .55 (14 mm) Boys anti-tank rifle, .303 in (7.7 mm) Bren light machine gun, and smoke-grenade launchers.
Twenty Rolls-Royce armoured cars in service with No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAFin Egypt and Iraq received new chassis from a Fordson truck and became known as Fordson Armoured Cars. In addition to RNAS and Tank Corps-supplied armoured cars, the RAF had Rolls-Royces built to equip its armoured car companies

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-913

Contextual Information

The models in this collection were crafted from scratch by Mr Tom Runeckles. They were periodically displayed at the Museum before their eventual donation as part of the Mobility and Firepower story.

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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