Landships II

Righto, here's what Milsom has to say:

Kegresse half‑track cars

An interesting outcome of this period was the work carried out by the French engineer, Adolpe Kegresse, who ran the Tsar’s Garage at Petrograd. In 1910 he adapted the American Holt Tractor principle into a flexible laminated rubber‑metal track, which was used in the conversion of a light automobile to the first half‑track. This invention was then completed at the RussoBaltic Factory which, at the beginning of 1913, produced the ‘Avtosani’ (Auto‑Sledge), a half‑tracked car. During the Winter of 1913‑14 a half‑track produced by the RussoBaltic firm was tested in Winter conditions (moving along icy roads, deep snow and so on), the results being very favourable to its adoption by the Army. On 21 February 1914 ‘Avtosani’ completed a march from the Tsar’s Garage to Pavlovsk and back. During this march, the vehicle travelled not only by road, but also through deep snow, over pits and bumps and snow drifts. It successfully negotiated all obstacles in its path. On good hard‑surfaced roads it developed a speed of 56 verst per hour. During this same Winter ‘avtosani’ completed a similar trek from the Tsar’s Garage to Luga and back.

The employment of the automobile in the Army, its tactical use and organization was meanwhile studied by a Colonel Dobrzhariskiy, and in 1913 he presented to the War Department a special report on the role of the armoured car in future war. He also took an active part in the design of an armoured car during 1913‑14. Under the circumstances, his was a good summary of the methods of exploiting armoured cars; this report was presented to Lieutenant‑Colonel Chemerzin, and it outlined one of the first attempts to define the tactics of various forms of armoured units under combat conditions.

Army adoption of half-track vehicles

After the outbreak of World War 1 half-tracked tractors began to be employed for towing artillery. Experience with these vehicles displayed the advantage of the tracked vehicle over the wheeled one for mobility and tractive effort, and motivated the application of this concept to an armoured fighting ehicle capable of advancing across-country under difficult conditions. As a result it was officially declared in 1915 that, in order to use automobiles in snow, it would be desirable to employ a vehicle like the Russo-Baltic half-tracked car, and the Putilov Firm (later renamed Kirov), which was the largest of the St Petersburg plants, was ordered to produce armoured and transporter half-tracks for the Russian Army. Three-hundred half-track assemblies of the Kegresse type, were ordered for installation on armoured cars during 1916.

During tests in August 1916, near Petrograd, a halftracked armoured car developed a speed of 40 kph. It easily travelled across open country and swamps. In the same year a half-tracked armoured car was test run for 1,500 km, and proved to be very successful. On poor road conditions it averaged a speed of 9-10 kph, whilst on good roads 20-22 kph. This half-track weighed about 5.3 tons. The armament consisted of two machine-guns, and the armour (designed to provide immunity to conventional small-arms bullets at ranges above 50 paces) was on a 7 mm basis. The vehicle was manned by 5 men. In order to increase the mobility of half-tracked cars, they were provided with additional wheels and skis for overcoming ditches and travelling through loose snow.

In October 1916 the Putilov firm built a new turret for armoured cars, mounting a machine-gun such that it could direct fire both on to the ground and at aerial targets. Turrets of this type were ordered for mounting on 30 half-tracked armoured cars (two turrets per vehicle) during autumn 1916. These half-tracks, based on the British Austin armoured cars, were completed by the October Revolution, and several were employed in the defence of Petrograd during autumn 1919. Mostovenko wrote:

“It is of interest to note that in some official documents released during the period 1919-20, half-tracked armoured cars became referred to as ‘Russian Type Tanks’. Actually, during this period armoured half-tracked cars carried out the role of light tanks more successfully than, for example, French light tanks-which proved to be considerably inferior to these Russian vehicles in mobility...”

The success of the half-tracked armoured cars resulted in a directive in the autumn of 1916, to equip all basic models of armoured cars with half-track assemblies, but owing to confusion and devastation during the rising this undertaking was not completed. In addition to producing halftracked armoured cars, however, work was also carried out on improving the mobility of conventional armoured cars, particularly with respect to overcoming barbed-wire obstacles.

Here's a drawing from his book of a Russo-Baltic Kegresse:

There's also a photo of an Austin Kegresse, but the same image appears on this page (illustrating some photos of a beautiful 1/35 scale model by Armo of Poland):

http://panzermodelkit.valka.cz/kegresaj.htm

Meanwhile, here are some closeups of a later Citroen Kegresse, with interesting views of the tracks and track mechanisms:

http://www.thetankmaster.com/english/afv/CIT_KEG_r.asp

Glad to help out, Eugene (I thought you'd be able to read the Russian site, which is why I didn't bother mentioning using Babelfish or anything!).

The Armo kit looks superb - check out this page:

http://www.jadar.com.pl/jadar-group/armo35/35030/page_01.htm

Good luck, and do post pictures when you've built it!

Fantastic site, Tim, thanks!

I love the Rolls Royce Kegresse - very classy!

Hello Guys

Here is a link to a picture I have of the Kegresse Half Track Ambulance.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ww1nsew/Kegresse_Russo-Balt_D24-40_1914_500.jpg

All the Best

Tim R.