There is an obscure little reference that, while German Tsingtao was under siege by the Japanese, an armored train was employed by the Germans breifly to attack Japanese positions. From the description in the text, it appeared to be a small narrow gauge locomotive and railcars that normally transported munitions to one of the coastal batteries. It seems to have been hastily armored, rolled out of the coastal battery, attacked the Japanese positions, then rolled back inside the cover of the big coastal battery fort. Now, clearly it was not a proper purpose built armored train, but it still might be interesting if anyone has ever seen a photo of it.
Secondly, "The Union Of South Africa's army that set off to conquer German South-West Africa was a mixed bag of volunteers and regulars, a few imperial troops, a regiment of Rhodesians, some foreign adventurers, and even a squadron of armoured cars supplied by the Royal Navy". This took place around early 1915. I wonder what manner of armoured cars they were?
Thirdly armored cars are mentioned being used again during the German East Africa campaign. Perhaps the same armored cars from German SW Africa?
I just thought this was an interesting angle on Armor. We are so used to thinking of WWI as taking place in Europe, that we forget the incredible stories of the Siege of Tsingtao, the battles for Togoland, the Cameroons, German SW Africa, and German East Africa. I find the high adventure of the colonial campaigns absolutely gripping reads.
