Tag Archives: 11th Hussars

Desert Rat Wake Up Call

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80 years ago this week. Official caption: “A Daimler armored car opens fire in the gloom of early morning at the start of the Battle for Tripoli, 18 January 1943.” The car is likely of the famed 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own), attached to the 7th Armored Division’s “Desert Rats,” who both used them in North Africa and were present in the Tunis campaign.

Photo by Keating G (Capt), No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM collection E 21333

Note the infantrymen behind, their .303 SMLEs at the ready. They would need them. Over the course of the next five days, Montgomery’s 8th Army would fight one of their last battles with the Afrika Korps and enter Tripoli on the morning of 23 January after Rommel abandoned the town.

When it comes to the Daimler armored car, the company made almost 2,700 of these light (7.6 ton) 4x4s during the conflict. Clad in just 7-to-16mm of steel plate, they were only proof against small arms rounds and shrapnel but were toast to anything .50 caliber or above. Nonetheless, they we fast, capable of 50 mph on good roads and handy both in the open and in built-up areas due to their size. 

Canadian Daimler Mk. 1 Scout Car, Sallenelles, France, LAC 4233182, original color

They proved effective in their standard (40mm Ordnance QF 2-pounder) and Mk I CS variants (with a 76mm gun) enough to remain in use with the 11th Hussars in Northern Ireland as late as 1960 and with Commonwealth and Middle Eastern countries until at least 2012.

Some peculiar Englishmen, their hound, and their umbrella, 74 years ago today

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Part of the five-man crew of a MkI Staghound armored car “Frascati” of 1st King’s Dragoon Guards shelter from the sun and take a brew-up beneath a parasol fitted to the turret of their vehicle, somewhere in Italy, 13 July 1944.

Note the camo netting and packs tied to the hull. Via IWM

Chevrolet made 3,844 4×4 T17s between 1942-44 and, capable of making 55mph on good roads, they were fast and had decent range (longer than most tanks, anyway).

Most– some 2,844– were sent to the UK (designated Mk I) armed with a 37 mm M6 gun good enough for poking holes in anything that wasn’t a tank, a coaxial .30 cal Browning M1919A4 machine gun, and a British-pattern 2-inch smoke mortar in a rotating turret, another M1919A4 in the hull, and an option to add a third M1919 or similar up top on the turret.

As for the KDG’s, they traced their lineage back to 1685, fought in both World Wars and were amalgamated with the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays) in 1959 to form the seniormost (line) cavalry regiment in the British Army: 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards (QDGs, “The Welsh Cavalry”) which endure today riding Jackal armored vehicles which are very much like the old Staghound.

As for Englishmen and umbrellas, that is a whole other thing.

But since you have come this far, how about some more umbrellas on tanks, IFVs, and APCs:

Officers of the 11th Hussars rest under the shade of a beach umbrella with their Morris CS6 during a patrol of the Egyptian/Libyan frontier, 26 July 1940

Trooper John Weire of Mentone, Vic, uses an umbrella to shelter from the shower of rain, during Operation Ballarat which began 4 August 1967 and ended 16 August 1967, while the remainder of the crew, Sergeant John Murphy of Cressy, Vic (left), and Craftsman Terry Parker of Launceston, Tas, keep a sharp lookout for Viet Cong (VC) from their armoured personnel carrier (APC) from A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment. South Vietnam. AWM Photo EKT 67 0063A VN 

A US M48A1 tank crew in Vietnam, March 1971. Note the track links used as extra armor, the non-standard twin .50 caliber machine guns mounted at the commander’s hatch, and the beach umbrella

Bovington Tank Museum’s visiting Leopard C2, complete with Jolly Roger and umbrella