In response to the recent posting under tanks re armoured cars in Africa. 1. The armoured cars in use in S W Africa and East Africa were sections from No 1 Armoured Car Squadron RNAS. 2. Since the cars used in SW Africa were Rolls Royce (see photo attached) then its is very likely that the ones in E Africa were as well 3. As both sections were despatched to Africa in 1914 it is unlikely that the same physical armoured cars were used in both theatres. ie there were two sections both with their own Rolls Royces 4. As well as the RR cars there is some evidence of improvised armed, if not armoured, vehicles 5. In North Africa RR armoured cars and armed Modell T Fords were used in the Western Desert campaign. Lorry mounted artillery was also used on a small scale. One WW1 armoured car officer serving in the Western Desert in 1915/16 found himself back in the same location in 1940 commanding an armoured unit against the Italians.
BTW I've also attached photos of two of the three German planes used in SW Africa and the one British BE2, also an improvised S African AA gun from the same campaign
Thank you very much Centurion! Very interesting, now I can actually put faces to the vehicles mentioned in the books I was reading.
Sorry for posting the intial thread in the Tanks section - I'm still extremely used to the one-forum design of th old boards. While I think the current forum design is exellent, sometimes I wonder if there is enough threads to warrant individual forums for all these different subjects. It was far easier to peruse and enjoy when everything was muddled into one forum I think. Nevertheless, I shall try to remember that non-tank threads do not belong in the Tank forum, something I apparently have trouble remembering!
Thanks again!
---Vil. P.S. The Rolls Royce armoured cars do not appear to be the open-topped-turret desert type as used in the middle east. These vehicles must have been absolutely horrible to man in the pervasive heat and humidity of the African campaigns!
---Vil. P.S. The Rolls Royce armoured cars do not appear to be the open-topped-turret desert type as used in the middle east. These vehicles must have been absolutely horrible to man in the pervasive heat and humidity of the African campaigns!
Semi desert Namibia (as German South West Africa is today) in general doesn't have a humidity problem (except for its lack, especialy in the Kalahari) although it might share with the problem that exists in parts of the Middle East of coastal humidity (so that, for example, Jeddah and Al Kobar can be increadibly humid - up to 100% but drive inland and it becomes very dry indeed). I think also that conditions in East Africa in places can be not unpleasant. I have to admit that my only experience that far south is working on a project in Zambia (ex Northern Rhodesia) but compared, say, to Qatar, Kuwait or Baghdad the climate was not unbearable, more like the warmer parts of California. Kenya has a similar climate and was a much favoured place for white settlers because of that climate. Africa is a huge continent and has many climates. Some parts of Africa can be positively miserable and my experience of Nigeria was not one I would wish to repeat. In any case one of the GSWA Rolls Royces in the photo I enclosed does seem to have had its top removed (the one nearest the camera).
