Armored Car In Warfare

1915

European Armies Have Found It of the Greatest Value in Their Operations

Although an engine new to warfare, the armored motor car has proved extremely useful, especially for outpost and scouting duty. Fast, silent, and mobile, it covers a vast amount of ground on the splendid roads that crisscross the field of war in western Europe.

Most of the cars are encased in a light frame of tough steel plate that ranges in thickness from three-sixteenths of an inch to a quarter of an inch, and that is impervious to rifle and machine-gun fire. All the vulnerable parts of the motor, such as the radiator and steering gear, and in some of the newest cars the wheels, are protected by the steel covering.

The wheels, both wood and wire, are said to withstand the roughest sort of usage. Accidents to the tires are much less common than anyone would expect.

The cars carry a light armament — one or two machine guns so mounted that they can be swung through a complete circle — and a large supply of ammunition. The crew, which may number from four to eight or more men, are armed with rifles and revolvers. Some of the cars have a steel superstructure that rises from the chassis frame high enough to enable the crew to stand upright, and that is capped with a domed roof, from which bullets and shrapnel usually fly off at a sharp angle without even denting the steel. — Youth's Companion.