My dad fought in these antiques at the Battle of Kipushi, Congo 1962. His section of two Fords fired 48,000 rounds in support of Irish and Gurkha troops. He won the DSM for his bravery and leadership in that action.
The two that Kevin Knightly commanded in Jadotville were used as pillboxes, one stationed at each end of the position which stretched out along a road. I think they may have been partly "dug in" either in manually dug scrapes or with sandbags, or with a combination of the two.
And if it DID catch on fire and was recovered later, the scrap value would be roughly equivalent to the value of a present-day Ford the moment you drive it off the sales lot. 🤣
I reckon a two hand wide handle above the driver door would assist the emergency egress (and ingress). Stick your upper body out, reach up, grab the handle and pull yourself out. Don’t need to bother the front ‘passenger’ at all.
The Americans who shipped these to the Congo were utterly amazed at this junk being brought out that far. The Irish were offered better vehicles and the Govt refused. Our troops went out with no artillery or anti aircraft cover and paid for it, because of penny pinching by the State.
@@OscarOSullivan Important point: The guys on horses are *cavalry*. Use the abbreviation "CAV" as a crib. "Calvary" refers to the place in what was then called Judea where the Romans nailed three guys to crosses about two thousand years ago, give or take a bit. One of them turned out to be rather important.
@@christopherreed4723 I think that might be a shortened etymology of the word Cavalry. from Italian cavalliere "mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady's escort," from Late Latin caballarius "horseman," from Vulgar Latin *caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for "horse". The biblical site you refer to was called Golgotha (Biblical Greek: Γολγοθᾶ) The place of the skull. Known today as Skull Hill.
Yes for sure. 120mm heavy mortars were used but the UN had described it as a "police action" and that heavy weapons like arty and AAA were not needed. Doh!
If that was, in fact, a fire extinguisher mount by the Commander's seat, it was quite the thoughtful gesture. Since the Commander would have to wait for the driver (or possibly the gunner) to exit the vehicle first, he would have a means to combat the fire while he waited.
Also, giben the contortions the chieftan does, he really should consider starting a 'Chieftan does Yoga' series - so you too can contort yourself into your local 1930s ergonomic Dali masterpiece
8:00 A Colles Fracture (a specific type of wrist fracture) was known back in The Day as a chauffeurs fracture. I remember the phrasing used back in the 80's by older colleagues.
Commendable that they used welding which was only beginning to take over in British armoured vehicles when they were first made. Especially as the British shipyards were offering good money to welders at the time and I dare say most Irish welders went there to benefit from good wages.
Even in Denmark, during the German Occupation, the Resistance Movement built an armored car for the End-Fighting in Denmark, during the war. It became used and it is still to be seen outside the new Resistance Museum in Copenhagen (The first Museum became burned from arson, some years ago, as it was built from wood!). Finn. Denmark
At 5:30 the image of the front drum brake shows a bolt head in the upper right corner of the brake backing plate. That is the brake adjustor, on the other side is a snail cam that interacts with a post on the brake shoe. as you rotate the bolt, the cam engages the brake shoe post and push the brake shoe out, till it locks against the drum. Same system as on my series Landrover. The handcrank is very useful for setting valves
Reading your comment, I was thinking just like series brakes, then I read it. Haha. They're swines to undo when there's not much to grip on the internal bolt head!.🤬
We had a 1967 Dodge van with the same suspension. I remember it developed a steering shimmy which was fixed by the highly skilled application of a sledge hammer.
So this is essentially the same thing as a Soviet BA series armored car, which were built on GAZ chassis, which were just Ford AA truck chassis. Except they used the heavier three-axle varient. The layout and concept is almost identical. Or rather it's similar to the BA-20, but on a heavier chassis, without the heavier cannon turret armament that the Soviet truck-based armored cars got). Although you could say it is similar to the FAI-M armored car, in that the chassis is longer than the hull and sticks out behind it. Which is interesting because the FAI was based on the Soviet copy of the Ford Model A automobile, while this is a truck chassis like the later BA-3/7/10 (although really a Ford AA or AAA truck is pretty similar to the car, it just uses thicker steel for the frame, stronger springs and different gearing in the axle and transmission). The FAI-M ended up with that shelf because they switched to the newer generation car chassis when Ford came out with the 32 Ford chassis, which was a bit larger, so they just took the valuable and expensive hulls they already made off of the old chassis and adapted them to the new, longer ones (which makes you realize just how amazing the amount of equipment they produced during the war really was, when a few hundred armored cars was considered a major expense a few years before that, and the US was building tanks by dozens, not thousands). So im curious if something kind of similar happened here, they designed the hull to fit a car chassis, and then someone decided it really want strong enough, so they just switched it to a truck chassis without changing the design at all. Anyway, if you just want a vehicle to patrol the roads and guard convoys, these work quite well, and are much cheaper than purpose built off-road types. I like to speculate just how miserable it must have been trying to drive something like this in snow or mud. Two wheel drive, skinny tires with not much tread, no modern snow tires, and it has the weight of a fully loaded truck. I have to assume they used tire chains, because that just wouldn't work well.
@@nexthewargamer1024there is a whole series of them, the FAI, the FAI-M, BA-20, and the BA-3, 6 and 10 which are pretty similar except they are heavier and use three axles, and have a turret from a BT-5 tank.
Thompsons of Carlow; they were and are an engineering firm and they also made landmines, gunshields and any other engineering requirement of the Irish Army of the time.
The red lever on the dash is a battery dissconnect "Key", the key can be removed but only locks in the "on" or "take out" position. It's not spring loaded like a typical car key. I have the very same one in my GTO as a battery disconnect .
The chassis is a Ford 3/4 ton truck with the body on the mk6 being built from Thompsons in Co. Carlow. @Karl Martin has a video on UA-cam with a handful of the running vintage fleet on parade on Cavalry Day. Great video and thank you for your content
A modeler should be able to scratchbuild one of these relatively easily from sheet stock on the truck chassis as kits of that vintage truck seem to be readily available. The only complex shape is the turret but it’s a simple cone and all the other small stuff like the tools and tow hooks could be scavenged from in-period tank kits. What a cool old vehicle. I have the same soft spot for oddball military vehicles. More please, as you find them.
If you're in for the carnage, get some 1/35th Fords (Zvezda's GAZ-AA, ICM's Model A) and mix mash them to your liking. A WWI Vickers Gun Team by the latter would provide the armament. I'd simplify things and go for the GAZ-AA chassis and wheels, and download the V8 engine and ancilliaries, Vickers gun and ammo box, shovel, axe, pickaxe, etc for 3D printing. If you don't have a 3D printer, maybe the local club or somebody you know has one. Mind you, watch a couple of tutorials on working with 3D resin. Not a "schtuff" to joke around, even when cured. Cheers. (Yes, I'm a bit of an armored cars fan.)
The left seat position reminds me of nothing so much as David Fletcher's remark about the similar crew position in the Charioteer tank: "They've done away wth the front hull machine gunner, although they sometimes sat a man in there, in supreme discomfort."
From the bit I could see of the fire extinguisher rack it looks like a carbon tetrachloride model which I have handled in the distant past of the 1950's before CO2 models came into use on a wide scale. We also had the big flip it over to use 5 gal models with water and a gas generator which activated when you flipped it over.
Carbon tet is great for cleaning stains of your uniform, but bad if you chuck it on a fire in a confined space as it creates phosgene gas. Also it's carcinogenic. Ah, the good old days...
I'm no physicist, and calculations are, therefore, not my thing, but, that being said, that bonnet/glacis seems like a ramp perfectly designed to send any ricocheting rounds straight into the crew compartment. It is an excellent movie for its budget, I was happy I bought it on DVD without knowing a damn thing about it and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to see what Lt Thomas Meehan did after Easy Company.
Mind, if you look carefully, the slope actually ends the better part of a foot short of the windows, so ricochets should not actually threaten the windows, which would be closed in action anyway. I won't say it is IMPOSSIBLE for a ricochet to threaten the window, but I would say it is improbable enough to not worry about.
@@genericpersonx333 Yeah, the front glacis really isn't much to worry about, but the rest of perimeter on the other hand - as with this general style of armored car - is such a steep angle of that it really only serves as the "suggestion" of slope, "emotional support armor"
My understanding is that this is why Saladin is shaped the way it is. Anything that slips off the glacis either hits another plate or misses it entirely. As for the rest: it's an armored car, not a tank. It's just so someone firing a rifle in your direction has as much a chance of inflicting damage to you or your vehicle as they have of surviving the encounter. I think people really underestimate how lethal a cooled machinegun or mid caliber cannon is to infantry.
@@cheyannei5983 I don't think anyone post-ww1 underestimated that. It's possible, looking at some of the interwar designs that a few people overestimated it
I particularly enjoyed this episode because the creation of this vehicle was less an exercise in marshaling specialized industrial resources to produce a specialty military vehicle but more an exercise in industrial ingenuity. When people have to do what they can, where they are, with what they have we start to see all sorts of creative thinking coming into play. I'd like to see some comparison with this and other examples of converting civilian manufacturing capabilities to making military vehicles. Maybe look at the Fahd APC? This might be an interesting opportunity for another collaboration with Perun where you could expand the subject to look at common chassis systems like the Stryker, Patria, and Boxer.
I absolutely love armored cars from the interwar and ww2. They have a cool style and are so interesting. I really hope you have the opportunity to make more videos about armored cars
That last segment about the Congo makes me wonder how this truck conversion compares in combat ability with the modern, universal, truck conversion: the Technical, with a .50 calibre machine gun on the bed of a Toyota Hilux.
Every single Ford flathead sounds the exact same, lol. Sounds just like my grandfather's 1936 pickup starting. So much of this thing is stock late 30's-early 40's ford pickup, it's cool
This thing is evidence of "you fight with what you have - not what you want". For fighting light infantry or paratroops with no heavy weapons - this ain't too bad. The water-cooled Vickers keeps going as long as it has ammo to shoot - and some water in the jacket to cool. If you run out of water - some other readily available body liquid will do.... The armor isn't great - but to stop some small-caliber bullets or light shrapnel - it does the job. Plus: In an environment with some cover (like buildings in a city) and with quite good mobility - it's a lot better than nothing. If you as a commander know and understand the limitations of your gear (in WW2, the British in particular were very good at that) - and use it accordingly - it will be a lot more effective than most people give them credit for.
Actually it's been known from prior to WW2 as Checker Plate. There is a wooden version of pressed plywood known as Checker Board. That is extremly rare as it was never successful as it would flatten and delaminate when it got damp. Diamond Plate is different again as it has raised lines that form a diamond style pattern. It is no good for tread plates as it holds water as the lines dont allow it to drain. It was made to be a wear/skid plate of some sort.
25:35 "Too much money to replicate." I think that if I had an old truck with approximately the right wheelbase I could replicate this for filming purposes on a long weekend out of a bunch of old refrigerator shipping cardboard boxes. Nearly everything is a straight, flat edge. The hardest part would be the fenders, but any civilian truck and many civilian cars of this era could donate fenders that would look convincing enough.
On the subject of European Fords, how did Ford USA deal with Ford Germany, during the War? The proclivity of hand-cranked Ford engines to kick back and break the cranker's wrist was infamous as far back as the Model T. In Buster Keaton's silent 1920 short 'Neighbors,' a character appears with his arm in a sling. When another character asks him what happened, he replies - via intertitle 'card' - "I bought a Ford."
On Ford of Germany ,guess who's picture was on Hitler's wall? Henry Ford of course. Various reasons , and Ford trucks and parts built there in factories, means wartime trucks still around. I know the Model T killed a lot of people as everyone around was a "new driver". Hindsight, maybe a broken arm saved lives
Definitely. better than nothing. I noticed the driver's seat has an adjustable back, so you may find that the driver can slide in and out of the seat and adjust it to suit.
Crank handles survived into the 1960s because they were useful for turning a petrol engine over during the piston-decoking process and for setting valve or distributor timing. I did all of that with my first two cars, in the 1980s. This is why … if your vehicle comes with a crank handle, you keep that tool. Much handier than leaning over the radiator and mucking around with accessory drive belts!
A little detail you overlooked, or may it was removed and not replaced. The Ford didn't have synchromesh, of course, but just under the gear-lever knob was a tab that operated a clutch brake, which helped the driver when double-declutching.
I would hope they wore hearing protection. I would imagine the noise from firing even a medium machine gun would be horrific in that acoustic environment. I am also noticing no brass catcher on that gun which to me implies those firing cases would be pelting everyone inside the vehicle.
I suspect not. It is only been in the last handful of decades that people have taken hearing protection very seriously. The issue is that Human Ears are actually very good at adjusting to loud noises, so while one's ears will hurt and ring at first, most people quickly get used to it, and it is usually only when they get much older that they actually have perceptible hearing problems compared to people who had quieter lives than them. Seems that the older we get, the less able the ear and brain are able to "compensate" for the damage done earlier in life, which is why most people who go deaf only do so many years after the fact.
@@genericpersonx333 I agree. Growing up I knew many WW2 and Korea vets that needed hearing aids. Four decades ago I worked on a Brink's armored car and know from experience how loud a shot can sound inside one of those steel boxes. I very much suspect firing a medium MG is probably a lot worse. All, the more so envisioning hot brass hitting the turret wall and bouncing gosh knows where.
Not a chance. The only ear protection was cotton wool, I only ever saw that at the last Comet/Churchill shoot, and we all declined it anyway because using it was seen as cissy-ish.😂
That rack behind the Commanders head makes me wonder if the crews of this vehicle had to be 5 feet tall or less. Also the 1/2" mild steel "armor" makes me wonder what caliber rifle rounds could it stop ? And was it impervious to hand grenades ? I am a huge fan of armored cars.
Having fired a bunch of different rounds at a 1/4" mild steel plate back in the day, a 1/2" plate would stop 5.56x45mm, 7.62x39mm, and *probably* most full-bore battle rifle rounds, assuming ball ammo. 7.62mm/.30 machineguns with long barrels or AP rounds might be too much for it at close range, but probably at the 'it almost stops it' level, so at longer ranges or hitting at an angle you'd be okay-ish (aside from the noise). As for hand grenade fragments - it's stop them no problem, but the noise from a close grenade explosion would be deafening.
@@robertrobert7924 That's correct - it wouldn't stop .50 HMG rounds, anti-tank rifle rounds, AP rounds from 20mm cannons, and so on - at least not when they hit at anything less than an extreme angle. But... if you look at the way the plates are mounted, if you shoot at the vehicle from the front hits on anything but the vision port covers and the radiator louvres will be at extreme angles, so might well be deflected. OF course those hits to the radiator or vision ports will penetrate and that'll be it for either the engine or the crew...
That bracket behind the seats scares me a bit. If you stop suddenly, I could see a skull fracture or broken neck in the future as your neck and head whipped backwards fast. You would a good protective skull bucket to avois that. Maybe it was heavily padded originally?
Was this for the 1968 Lemans? I can guess what the race strategy was but I don't recall the FIA's rules for adding ammunition during the race at pitstops.
As an Irish man who is from where the unit was built, its more of a mystery / a rare opportunity to hear a flathead V8 running when it's out on parade.
I love armored trucks and cars like this. Its such an interesting middle ground for armored vehicles and we just sorta passed them by. Largely because war didn't break out in the 20s or 30s where they would have been most useful. Its just always interesting to think about.
Im really glad you made this, i have been kind of wondering what the interior of the BA-20 and other Soviet armored cars looks like, and this is probably pretty much the same idea. It's hard to find images of stuff like that. Hard enough to find info about the interior of major tanks, armored cars are even more neglected. I assume the dashboard is just the factory equipment refused in the modified vehicle. It's all designed to work already, you already have it, so why bother changing it?
Another rousing edition of "Can The Chieftain fit?" 😅 Definitely an odd little armoured car. But, the Bob Semple Tank makes this vehicle look like a Tiger in comparison. 😎👍
This looks a whole lot like Soviet FAI armored car. Parola museum in Finland have a nice collection of Soviet armored cars. Would they be accessible to Chieftain?
My dad fought in these antiques at the Battle of Kipushi, Congo 1962. His section of two Fords fired 48,000 rounds in support of Irish and Gurkha troops. He won the DSM for his bravery and leadership in that action.
Irish and Gurkhas.......sounds like sure win to me. Great job by your dad
Thank you.
48000 rounds??!
The two that Kevin Knightly commanded in Jadotville were used as pillboxes, one stationed at each end of the position which stretched out along a road.
I think they may have been partly "dug in" either in manually dug scrapes or with sandbags, or with a combination of the two.
@@jayfelsberg1931Thank you.
Ahhh the "oh bugger, the vehicle is on fire". I missed that segment! It's been a while!
Same here!
No challenge here.
And if it DID catch on fire and was recovered later, the scrap value would be roughly equivalent to the value of a present-day Ford the moment you drive it off the sales lot. 🤣
Amazing video quality on the inside.
I reckon a two hand wide handle above the driver door would assist the emergency egress (and ingress). Stick your upper body out, reach up, grab the handle and pull yourself out. Don’t need to bother the front ‘passenger’ at all.
The correct term for manual steering is "Armstrong Steering".. If you don't have strong arms when you start, you will after you're done.
I love the ingenuity of using the bicycle brakes for the ball mount. Sometimes a simple solution just works.
Reminds of bike chains used to swivel nozzles on the Harriers.
And there certainly would have been plenty of them readily available
" if it works, it aint stupid!"
The Americans who shipped these to the Congo were utterly amazed at this junk being brought out that far. The Irish were offered better vehicles and the Govt refused. Our troops went out with no artillery or anti aircraft cover and paid for it, because of penny pinching by the State.
I can believe it. A surplus M3 half-track would be superior in just about every way, and a lot more generally useful.
Soon after the Calvary got Panhard AML’s which were in use until 2013/2014.
@@OscarOSullivan Important point: The guys on horses are *cavalry*. Use the abbreviation "CAV" as a crib. "Calvary" refers to the place in what was then called Judea where the Romans nailed three guys to crosses about two thousand years ago, give or take a bit. One of them turned out to be rather important.
@@christopherreed4723 I think that might be a shortened etymology of the word Cavalry. from Italian cavalliere "mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady's escort," from Late Latin caballarius "horseman," from Vulgar Latin *caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for "horse". The biblical site you refer to was called Golgotha (Biblical Greek: Γολγοθᾶ) The place of the skull. Known today as Skull Hill.
Yes for sure. 120mm heavy mortars were used but the UN had described it as a "police action" and that heavy weapons like arty and AAA were not needed. Doh!
If that was, in fact, a fire extinguisher mount by the Commander's seat, it was quite the thoughtful gesture. Since the Commander would have to wait for the driver (or possibly the gunner) to exit the vehicle first, he would have a means to combat the fire while he waited.
While under fire
I suppose it beats having to be slow-roasted.
Also, giben the contortions the chieftan does, he really should consider starting a 'Chieftan does Yoga' series - so you too can contort yourself into your local 1930s ergonomic Dali masterpiece
Even though they were camera shy it was awesome of them to give you access! She's a beauty!
ANY armour is better than no armour, especially if the opposition has none.
Thanks Nick, as usual, you're sense of humour shines through. Oh, happy fathers day to all the dad's out there.
My first thought on seeing the thunbnail was: "There is an amoured version of the 2CV???" 😂
nice bit of history. hope we get to see the other bits of kit they have at some point.
8:00 A Colles Fracture (a specific type of wrist fracture) was known back in The Day as a chauffeurs fracture. I remember the phrasing used back in the 80's by older colleagues.
Thank you for the “unusual vehicle” walk around🤠
This is a unique example
Commendable that they used welding which was only beginning to take over in British armoured vehicles when they were first made. Especially as the British shipyards were offering good money to welders at the time and I dare say most Irish welders went there to benefit from good wages.
A vehicle where the engine and reliability may be somewhat more bulletproof than the (not armor grade) armor :D
Really enjoyed seeing this
Oh this is awesome! I love seeing these oddball vehicles.
Go back in time, make a tracked variant so we can have a track tension segment
Even in Denmark, during the German Occupation, the Resistance Movement built an armored car for the End-Fighting in Denmark, during the war. It became used and it is still to be seen outside the new Resistance Museum in Copenhagen (The first Museum became burned from arson, some years ago, as it was built from wood!). Finn. Denmark
At 5:30 the image of the front drum brake shows a bolt head in the upper right corner of the brake backing plate. That is the brake adjustor, on the other side is a snail cam that interacts with a post on the brake shoe. as you rotate the bolt, the cam engages the brake shoe post and push the brake shoe out, till it locks against the drum. Same system as on my series Landrover. The handcrank is very useful for setting valves
Reading your comment, I was thinking just like series brakes, then I read it. Haha.
They're swines to undo when there's not much to grip on the internal bolt head!.🤬
We had a 1967 Dodge van with the same suspension. I remember it developed a steering shimmy which was fixed by the highly skilled application of a sledge hammer.
So this is essentially the same thing as a Soviet BA series armored car, which were built on GAZ chassis, which were just Ford AA truck chassis. Except they used the heavier three-axle varient. The layout and concept is almost identical. Or rather it's similar to the BA-20, but on a heavier chassis, without the heavier cannon turret armament that the Soviet truck-based armored cars got).
Although you could say it is similar to the FAI-M armored car, in that the chassis is longer than the hull and sticks out behind it. Which is interesting because the FAI was based on the Soviet copy of the Ford Model A automobile, while this is a truck chassis like the later BA-3/7/10 (although really a Ford AA or AAA truck is pretty similar to the car, it just uses thicker steel for the frame, stronger springs and different gearing in the axle and transmission). The FAI-M ended up with that shelf because they switched to the newer generation car chassis when Ford came out with the 32 Ford chassis, which was a bit larger, so they just took the valuable and expensive hulls they already made off of the old chassis and adapted them to the new, longer ones (which makes you realize just how amazing the amount of equipment they produced during the war really was, when a few hundred armored cars was considered a major expense a few years before that, and the US was building tanks by dozens, not thousands). So im curious if something kind of similar happened here, they designed the hull to fit a car chassis, and then someone decided it really want strong enough, so they just switched it to a truck chassis without changing the design at all.
Anyway, if you just want a vehicle to patrol the roads and guard convoys, these work quite well, and are much cheaper than purpose built off-road types.
I like to speculate just how miserable it must have been trying to drive something like this in snow or mud. Two wheel drive, skinny tires with not much tread, no modern snow tires, and it has the weight of a fully loaded truck. I have to assume they used tire chains, because that just wouldn't work well.
I was wondering : "That really looks like a BA10 but with a machine gun instead"
@@dse763 i think those were the BA 20 if i recall
@@nexthewargamer1024there is a whole series of them, the FAI, the FAI-M, BA-20, and the BA-3, 6 and 10 which are pretty similar except they are heavier and use three axles, and have a turret from a BT-5 tank.
Thompsons of Carlow; they were and are an engineering firm and they also made landmines, gunshields and any other engineering requirement of the Irish Army of the time.
The red lever on the dash is a battery dissconnect "Key", the key can be removed but only locks in the "on" or "take out" position. It's not spring loaded like a typical car key.
I have the very same one in my GTO as a battery disconnect .
This and the Swedish KP car was probably the coolest vehicles on 1960s Congo 😅
I don't know I would want the m113
Nah mate, the coolest vehicles were the armed Land Rovers.
@@R.Sole88109 As a LR owner my self I might have to agree 😁
The chassis is a Ford 3/4 ton truck with the body on the mk6 being built from Thompsons in Co. Carlow. @Karl Martin has a video on UA-cam with a handful of the running vintage fleet on parade on Cavalry Day. Great video and thank you for your content
A modeler should be able to scratchbuild one of these relatively easily from sheet stock on the truck chassis as kits of that vintage truck seem to be readily available. The only complex shape is the turret but it’s a simple cone and all the other small stuff like the tools and tow hooks could be scavenged from in-period tank kits.
What a cool old vehicle. I have the same soft spot for oddball military vehicles. More please, as you find them.
If you're in for the carnage, get some 1/35th Fords (Zvezda's GAZ-AA, ICM's Model A) and mix mash them to your liking. A WWI Vickers Gun Team by the latter would provide the armament.
I'd simplify things and go for the GAZ-AA chassis and wheels, and download the V8 engine and ancilliaries, Vickers gun and ammo box, shovel, axe, pickaxe, etc for 3D printing. If you don't have a 3D printer, maybe the local club or somebody you know has one. Mind you, watch a couple of tutorials on working with 3D resin. Not a "schtuff" to joke around, even when cured.
Cheers.
(Yes, I'm a bit of an armored cars fan.)
The left seat position reminds me of nothing so much as David Fletcher's remark about the similar crew position in the Charioteer tank: "They've done away wth the front hull machine gunner, although they sometimes sat a man in there, in supreme discomfort."
From the bit I could see of the fire extinguisher rack it looks like a carbon tetrachloride model which I have handled in the distant past of the 1950's before CO2 models came into use on a wide scale. We also had the big flip it over to use 5 gal models with water and a gas generator which activated when you flipped it over.
Carbon tet is great for cleaning stains of your uniform, but bad if you chuck it on a fire in a confined space as it creates phosgene gas. Also it's carcinogenic. Ah, the good old days...
I'm no physicist, and calculations are, therefore, not my thing, but, that being said, that bonnet/glacis seems like a ramp perfectly designed to send any ricocheting rounds straight into the crew compartment.
It is an excellent movie for its budget, I was happy I bought it on DVD without knowing a damn thing about it and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to see what Lt Thomas Meehan did after Easy Company.
Mind, if you look carefully, the slope actually ends the better part of a foot short of the windows, so ricochets should not actually threaten the windows, which would be closed in action anyway. I won't say it is IMPOSSIBLE for a ricochet to threaten the window, but I would say it is improbable enough to not worry about.
@@genericpersonx333 Yeah, the front glacis really isn't much to worry about, but the rest of perimeter on the other hand - as with this general style of armored car - is such a steep angle of that it really only serves as the "suggestion" of slope, "emotional support armor"
My understanding is that this is why Saladin is shaped the way it is. Anything that slips off the glacis either hits another plate or misses it entirely.
As for the rest: it's an armored car, not a tank. It's just so someone firing a rifle in your direction has as much a chance of inflicting damage to you or your vehicle as they have of surviving the encounter. I think people really underestimate how lethal a cooled machinegun or mid caliber cannon is to infantry.
@@cheyannei5983 I don't think anyone post-ww1 underestimated that. It's possible, looking at some of the interwar designs that a few people overestimated it
I particularly enjoyed this episode because the creation of this vehicle was less an exercise in marshaling specialized industrial resources to produce a specialty military vehicle but more an exercise in industrial ingenuity. When people have to do what they can, where they are, with what they have we start to see all sorts of creative thinking coming into play. I'd like to see some comparison with this and other examples of converting civilian manufacturing capabilities to making military vehicles. Maybe look at the Fahd APC? This might be an interesting opportunity for another collaboration with Perun where you could expand the subject to look at common chassis systems like the Stryker, Patria, and Boxer.
Cool to see how much of the original truck was used. Looks like stock fenders, lights and running boards.
I absolutely love armored cars from the interwar and ww2. They have a cool style and are so interesting. I really hope you have the opportunity to make more videos about armored cars
That last segment about the Congo makes me wonder how this truck conversion compares in combat ability with the modern, universal, truck conversion: the Technical, with a .50 calibre machine gun on the bed of a Toyota Hilux.
I'd say this thing beats a Technical, as long as the baddies don't have RPG's. Without power steering it will be like a moveable pillbox.
Every single Ford flathead sounds the exact same, lol. Sounds just like my grandfather's 1936 pickup starting. So much of this thing is stock late 30's-early 40's ford pickup, it's cool
This thing is evidence of "you fight with what you have - not what you want".
For fighting light infantry or paratroops with no heavy weapons - this ain't too bad.
The water-cooled Vickers keeps going as long as it has ammo to shoot - and some water in the jacket to cool. If you run out of water - some other readily available body liquid will do....
The armor isn't great - but to stop some small-caliber bullets or light shrapnel - it does the job.
Plus: In an environment with some cover (like buildings in a city) and with quite good mobility - it's a lot better than nothing.
If you as a commander know and understand the limitations of your gear (in WW2, the British in particular were very good at that) - and use it accordingly - it will be a lot more effective than most people give them credit for.
"Stamped pattern" = chequerboard / checkerboard.
You're welcome! :-)
Interesting vehicle - a bit different. Good presentation, Chieftain. Again.
@blatherskite9601 I always thought it was checker plate. Checker board being the thing you play drafts on.
We Yank mecho types call it "diamond plate".
Actually it's been known from prior to WW2 as Checker Plate. There is a wooden version of pressed plywood known as Checker Board. That is extremly rare as it was never successful as it would flatten and delaminate when it got damp. Diamond Plate is different again as it has raised lines that form a diamond style pattern. It is no good for tread plates as it holds water as the lines dont allow it to drain. It was made to be a wear/skid plate of some sort.
25:35 "Too much money to replicate."
I think that if I had an old truck with approximately the right wheelbase I could replicate this for filming purposes on a long weekend out of a bunch of old refrigerator shipping cardboard boxes. Nearly everything is a straight, flat edge. The hardest part would be the fenders, but any civilian truck and many civilian cars of this era could donate fenders that would look convincing enough.
Ah, so THAT'S where Lancia got the idea for the control layout of the Stratos rally car!
On the subject of European Fords, how did Ford USA deal with Ford Germany, during the War? The proclivity of hand-cranked Ford engines to kick back and break the cranker's wrist was infamous as far back as the Model T. In Buster Keaton's silent 1920 short 'Neighbors,' a character appears with his arm in a sling. When another character asks him what happened, he replies - via intertitle 'card' - "I bought a Ford."
On Ford of Germany ,guess who's picture was on Hitler's wall? Henry Ford of course. Various reasons , and Ford trucks and parts built there in factories,
means wartime trucks still around. I know the Model T killed a lot of people
as everyone around was a "new driver". Hindsight, maybe a broken arm saved lives
Thanks for sharing this. Always love seeing the different vehicles other countries use/used.
if he fits, he sits
It's true 👍
CMP truck:
Definitely. better than nothing. I noticed the driver's seat has an adjustable back, so you may find that the driver can slide in and out of the seat and adjust it to suit.
That patterned flooring is called "diamond plate" in the trade, Nick...
Why, yes. It's a lovely little Emergency armored truck. Gotta pester a friend of mine now and have him design and 3D print it for me.
18:20 A Bob Semple Tank would be the holy grail, right?
23:27
"Oh bugger, someone fookin farted in this thing."
The wind blew so freely through its many orifices that wind-chill frostbite was more of a risk than toxic farts.
The oil on the floor confirms that it is a Ford.
Crank handles survived into the 1960s because they were useful for turning a petrol engine over during the piston-decoking process and for setting valve or distributor timing. I did all of that with my first two cars, in the 1980s. This is why … if your vehicle comes with a crank handle, you keep that tool. Much handier than leaning over the radiator and mucking around with accessory drive belts!
A little detail you overlooked, or may it was removed and not replaced.
The Ford didn't have synchromesh, of course, but just under the gear-lever knob was a tab that operated a clutch brake, which helped the driver when double-declutching.
What a neat historical vehicle! Happy father's day!
I would hope they wore hearing protection. I would imagine the noise from firing even a medium machine gun would be horrific in that acoustic environment. I am also noticing no brass catcher on that gun which to me implies those firing cases would be pelting everyone inside the vehicle.
That's just the old school audio and visual entertainment system.
Comes standard in the Texas Longhorn edition to this day.😁
I suspect not. It is only been in the last handful of decades that people have taken hearing protection very seriously.
The issue is that Human Ears are actually very good at adjusting to loud noises, so while one's ears will hurt and ring at first, most people quickly get used to it, and it is usually only when they get much older that they actually have perceptible hearing problems compared to people who had quieter lives than them.
Seems that the older we get, the less able the ear and brain are able to "compensate" for the damage done earlier in life, which is why most people who go deaf only do so many years after the fact.
@@genericpersonx333 I agree. Growing up I knew many WW2 and Korea vets that needed hearing aids. Four decades ago I worked on a Brink's armored car and know from experience how loud a shot can sound inside one of those steel boxes. I very much suspect firing a medium MG is probably a lot worse. All, the more so envisioning hot brass hitting the turret wall and bouncing gosh knows where.
@genericpersonx333 ...I heard that...
Not a chance. The only ear protection was cotton wool, I only ever saw that at the last Comet/Churchill shoot, and we all declined it anyway because using it was seen as cissy-ish.😂
Ohhh man, is so lovely!!
That rack behind the Commanders head makes me wonder if the crews of this vehicle had to be 5 feet tall or less. Also the 1/2" mild steel "armor" makes me wonder what caliber rifle rounds could it stop ? And was it impervious to hand grenades ? I am a huge fan of armored cars.
Having fired a bunch of different rounds at a 1/4" mild steel plate back in the day, a 1/2" plate would stop 5.56x45mm, 7.62x39mm, and *probably* most full-bore battle rifle rounds, assuming ball ammo. 7.62mm/.30 machineguns with long barrels or AP rounds might be too much for it at close range, but probably at the 'it almost stops it' level, so at longer ranges or hitting at an angle you'd be okay-ish (aside from the noise). As for hand grenade fragments - it's stop them no problem, but the noise from a close grenade explosion would be deafening.
@@rupertboleyn3885 So like WW2 Japanese light tanks, it would not protect against .50 cal machine guns?
@@robertrobert7924 That's correct - it wouldn't stop .50 HMG rounds, anti-tank rifle rounds, AP rounds from 20mm cannons, and so on - at least not when they hit at anything less than an extreme angle.
But... if you look at the way the plates are mounted, if you shoot at the vehicle from the front hits on anything but the vision port covers and the radiator louvres will be at extreme angles, so might well be deflected. OF course those hits to the radiator or vision ports will penetrate and that'll be it for either the engine or the crew...
That bracket behind the seats scares me a bit.
If you stop suddenly, I could see a skull fracture or broken neck in the future as your neck and head whipped backwards fast.
You would a good protective skull bucket to avois that.
Maybe it was heavily padded originally?
Would love to see a video on the AML series. Was always curious about them
Yes Dunlop still makes them, many kinds of farm equipment still use them to this day.
"Cant fix what isnt broken"
"I've been in worse Irish vehicles..." Oddly specific--and restrictive--categorization. 😀
I hope we get a closer look at those AMLs soon!
That vehicle would look so cool with a wooden back cargo area like a Hillbilly truck, overhanging the rear axle. Nice video, thanks.
That driving position sounds very familiar to anyone who has driven an old-style Mini.
Well that’s a crazy design
Was this for the 1968 Lemans? I can guess what the race strategy was but I don't recall the FIA's rules for adding ammunition during the race at pitstops.
As an Irish man who is from where the unit was built, its more of a mystery / a rare opportunity to hear a flathead V8 running when it's out on parade.
I love armored trucks and cars like this. Its such an interesting middle ground for armored vehicles and we just sorta passed them by. Largely because war didn't break out in the 20s or 30s where they would have been most useful.
Its just always interesting to think about.
Please tell us your going through the whole collection?
I wouldn't know what it was, if not for remembering this odd duck from your video on the history of Irish armored cars.
It does look a little Hot Rodish from certain angles . in a Wacky Races sort of vibe .
Ok, now I really want to rock up to Tesco in one of these.
Nice looking vehicle for what it is.
This makes me wonder... Are there any old A-Team TV props for you to do a show on? I'd love it when a plan comes together.
There is a replica Bob Semple tank just outside of Geraldine, NZ.
Im really glad you made this, i have been kind of wondering what the interior of the BA-20 and other Soviet armored cars looks like, and this is probably pretty much the same idea. It's hard to find images of stuff like that. Hard enough to find info about the interior of major tanks, armored cars are even more neglected.
I assume the dashboard is just the factory equipment refused in the modified vehicle. It's all designed to work already, you already have it, so why bother changing it?
Didn't two of these manage to damage a Fouga Magister at Jadotville?
The seat back looked to be able to fold down which would have made things a lot easier. Thanks for your videos.
thanks the gods, another upload!
Imagine that having to face Pz.Kpfw. IIs let alone even early Pz.Kpfw. IIIs or IVs.
Another rousing edition of "Can The Chieftain fit?" 😅
Definitely an odd little armoured car. But, the Bob Semple Tank makes this vehicle look like a Tiger in comparison. 😎👍
Seems very similar in concept to the Marmon-Herrington right down to the Ford chassis?
A very beautiful car - I reckon the Chieftain will fit too lol.
Could block average AR ammo but not even M80A1 still looks good , nice video
Thompsons of Carlow in fact.
Anyone have an idea about what it´s the relative effectivity of mild steel vs Plate armor? 12mm of mild steel don´t seem much
Its a Grand look'n Yoke boy!!
Are there bicycle racks anywhere on the vehicle?
There was also a 3-axle version,
Quite an elegant vehicle
Does this thing use positive ground electrics?
It does
The bike brake solution is something straight out of a Spike Milligan sketch.
6:24 the large front of the vehicle belies its normal sized engine.
From the outside it looks like a Dalek is driving.
Truly terrifying in the 1960's
Can't forget the tail light!
8:24 That's the snazziest gauge cluster I think you'll ever see on an armored car
Thompsons of Carlow, also wings for Bristol fighters during Ww1
Didn't they use the armour and turrets from the Peerless and Lancia vehicles that they had when the army was formed?
Never knew they did a cav day!
1st weekend September every year, invitation only
If only Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) had one of these. He had a passion for Ford flathead V-8 power!
This looks a whole lot like Soviet FAI armored car. Parola museum in Finland have a nice collection of Soviet armored cars. Would they be accessible to Chieftain?
How does one tension the track?
Wait! Where was the track tensioned?