Canadian Armoured Autocar, World War 1
The Armoured Autocar was developed by Major Raymond Brutinel, who immigrated to Canada from France. Brutinel, a Captain in the French Army Reserve, became a self-made millionaire in Canada prior to the beginning of World War I. At the beginning of the war, he promoted an idea to combine machine guns and mechanical mobility and personally assured the Minister of Militia that he could raise a mobile machine gun unit for testing with private funds on his own initiative so the Canadian military agreed. As Vickers machine guns were unavailable at the time, Brutinel travelled to the Colt Company of Hartford, Connecticut and placed an order for 20 Colt machine guns. He then travelled to the Auto Car Company of Ardmore, Pennsylvania to purchase 20 delivery vans which were to be the basis for the conversion. He then moved on to the Bethlehem Steel Company where he bought stocks of armour plates. Returning to Canada, Brutinel directed the design of the armoured bodies that would be mounted on the original 2 ton Autocar delivery truck chassis, when modified 3 ton.
The end result was an open topped armoured box with an armour plate skirt that was fitted to the chassis with 5 to 9.5 mm thick steel plates at the front and sides and 3 mm at the rear of the vehicle. The protection did not enclose the upper body of the gun crews and would only offer minimum protection from long range small arms rifle fire. The armoured side skirts could be lowered if needed for addition room for the gun crew to operate the weapons and in addition to the two swivel machine gun mounts there was also a position to mount an additional 303. Lewis machinegun. All the machine guns were pedestal mounted, capable of firing over the sides of the vehicle, and also able to be dismounted for ground use.
The Autocar truck itself was powered by a 22 horsepower engine which gave the 'Autocar’ Machine Gun Carrier a top speed of 25 miles per hour on decent roads. It’s off-road capability was lacking as it used solid rubber tires with rudimentary commercial suspension. The truck was served by two three-man machine gun crews, a driver and an officer who might also man the additional Lewis Gun. The other armoured trucks were used as ammunition and supply carriers and officers transports and one was outfitted as a medical field ambulance. All the vehicles had open tops and two main compartments with the driver in a separate armoured open top box to the gun crews in the rear compartment. One to three lights were fitted for night operations depending on the vehicle.
On 15 September 1914, the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, C.E.F. was mobilized, comprising the 1st and 2nd Sifton Batteries. The Establishment called for a Major (Brutinel), 9 other officers and 124 other ranks. At the time of mobilization, the Brigade was equipped with 8 Armoured Autocars, 20 machine guns, 8 trucks and 4 automobiles. Within the following year, a further 3 batteries named Eaton, Borden and Yukon, were raised with additional private funding which lead to the establishment of a second unit. On 16 May 1915, the units were redesignated 1st and 2nd Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades, C.E.F. Each consisted of A, B, C, D and E batteries. Each battery consisted of 8 Armoured Autocars and 12 specially designed light trucks.
An individual Armoured Autocar carried 2 to 3 machine guns, ammunition, extra gasoline and enough food for 14 NCOs and men. A Section was made up of 2 cars under the command of a Lieutenant, and a Battery consisted of 4 Sections under the command of a Captain. In addition to the armoured vehicles, each brigade also included a Section of motorcycles with 51 scouts who operated as signallers and dispatch riders.
When dismounted from the autocar as machinegun infantry the crew of eight was deployed with a gunner also carrying the tripod to the setup position, a belt feeder carrying the gun itself to the setup position with two men in charge of the ammo boxes, cooling water and spare parts, a scout and runner and a range taker and another support carrier. They were all trained in all positions and could strip and reassemble the weapon blindfolded and some also carried personal .303 rifles for close defence of the machinegun.
An early Armoured Autocar, one armed with some of the 20 M1895/14 Colt-Browning machine guns while in training.
Due to being purchased in America the machineguns used the American 30. calibre chambering not the standard .303 British and the Colt machine guns were found to be unreliable and difficult to operate with the limited ammunition supply so were replaced with the more standard .303 Vickers Guns once these were available in 1916 for which it carried 20,000 rounds of ammunition. The 'Autocar’ Machine Gun Carriers of the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade spent the first two years of the war in Britain until they deployed to France in 1916. The brigades moved overseas to the Western Front and while there was not the original mobile role for them that Brutinel had envisioned the unit, as spearheading an advance through the enemy lines, they were to ultimately excel in the defensive role by utilizing their firepower and mobility in the static trench fighting of the time.
When deployed in combat, three men operated the 2 Vickers (Two machine gunners and a single loader) plus the driver and officer. When dismounted, the crew of eight was deployed, with a gunner also carrying the tripod to the setup position, a belt feeder carrying the gun itself to the setup position, two men in charge of the ammo boxes, cooling water and spare parts, a scout and runner and a range taker and spare body carrier. They were all trained in all positions and could strip and reassemble the weapon blindfolded. The armoured autocar was sometimes brought forward in extra support, its front facing the enemy lines, and carrying an Lewis Machine Gun mounted in front. While on the Western Front the Armoured Autocars were primarily used as rear line mobile security vehicles, deploying into action when a breakthrough happened in the frontline trenches and the cars were used as mobile armoured machinegun bunkers that were to engage the enemy forces who had penetrated the allied lines and supress them to keep them pinned down, ideally from longer ranges where return fire would be less effective due to the Autocars open top which made the gun crews vulnerable to enemy snipers, explosive shrapnel and massed rifle fire at closer ranges. Once the enemy forces were pinned down the cars would be used as rolling machinegun support for an infantry counter-attack on the lost trenches, but the autocars were found to be ineffective in frontline trenches due to poor offroad handling and while it had decent on-road speeds it was never designed for the no-man's land muddy cratered nightmarish landscape of the Western Front.
The cars were also increasingly used in the anti-aircraft role as the war progressed and armed aircraft become more common, being much faster to deploy to an area than on foot machinegun teams when enemy aircraft were above a section of the trenches. Once the war became more mobile during the German offensives in 1917 and the spring of 1918 breakthrough that the Autocars saw their most extensive combat operations, being involved in the battle of Arras in April of 1918 as well as the Ludendorff Offensive.
Brutinel's Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades were the world's first specifically designed and equipped armoured units. That they ever saw the light of day was a direct result of the Minister of Militia of the day, Sam Hughes who was more open to the concept of mechanical mobility in combination with firepower than were the traditional army commanders of the period. Brutinel never contacted the military, which was not pleased as a result. The Canadian Armoured Autocar was a powerful influence on later armoured car designs, guiding the creation notably of the M2/M3/M5 Half-Tracks units during the Second World War. Although this is not credited directly, the Germans kew about them and developed the Panzergrenadiers, motorized infantry carried by the Sd.Kfz 251, or the Russians to create companies using the BA-30. This was an early influence for modern day reconnaissance units and armoured vehicles and even modern wheeled APCs.