The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car

Osprey New Vanguard #189

by David Fletcher, Henry Morshead (Illustrator)

The first Rolls-Royce armoured car was a privately owned vehicle fitted with a machine-gun and a limited amount of armour plate at a dockyard in France. It was used by a squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service in Flanders in 1914. Backed by First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill more and better versions followed until, by 1915 there were about 100 of them which were then handed over to the Army. "They searched the world for War" as Sir Albert Stern said of them and before long there were Rolls-Royce armoured cars operating as far apart as German South West Africa, the Western Desert, Gallipoli, all over the Middle East and the north west frontier of India.

All of them used the classic 40/50hp Silver Ghost chassis. They were fast, silent and reliable but above all strong. "A Rolls in the desert is above rubies" said Lawrence of Arabia and the Duke of Westminster would have agreed with him following his famous raid to rescue the kidnapped crew of the steamship HMS Tara. At least one car accompanied the adventurous MP Oliver Locker-Lampson on his adventures in Russia.

After the war, unable to find a better model the War Office simply copied the original Admiralty design with minor improvements. If that was not enough the Royal Air Force also acquired some to support their operations in the Middle East. A new design with a larger body and dome shaped turret also appeared for service in India. They also served in Ireland and even, briefly in Shanghai.

The 11th Hussars still had Rolls-Royces in Egypt when the war against Italy began and the youngest of these was over fifteen years old when they went into action, but after that their numbers dwindled as newer vehicles came along. But then history repeated itself. Britain was threatened with invasion and a new army of veterans was raised to assist with defence. Some battalions built home made armoured cars, on private chassis and at least three of these were based on Rolls-Royces.

48 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2012

About the author

David Fletcher is a historian at the Tank Museum at Bovington and has written a great number of books on British armour.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bitter disappointment for me. I should have expected this, as these armoured cars deserves more than a 48-page book to cover it's exploits and the impact it had on modern warfare. The use of the Rolls Royce as an armoured car was first used by Royal Naval personnel in Belgium at the start of World War 1, but soon had little to do as trench warfare began, then they started to travel the world to make war and served all across the globe during the conflict and are most probably best remembered for their exploits in the deserts of North Africa and Arabia where they ranged far and wide to raid.

In the inter-war years they were further developed and was still serving in those desert when World War 2 started and they played roles in the early defeats of Italian forces in North Africa, and a major role where they were decisive in the British victory in the Battle of Habbaniya in Iraq in 1941 (this is not even mentioned in the book).

All these aspects are just touched on by the author, and I hope that one day a larger volume of work will be published about this astonishing car and the men who fought in them.

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is probably the most striking thing about the story of the Rolls-Royce armored car is that for all their seeming ubiquity there were actually not that many of them, perhaps about 200, though that is probably a commentary on their durability and the relative poverty of the inter-war British armed forces.

Originally written: February 16, 2019.