I'm trying to track down a couple of articles on Rolls Royce armoured cars that appeared in Classic Military Vehicle magazine several years ago. The first was on page 18 of the November 2001 issue and the second was on page 56 of the August 2002 issue. One of these articles is supposed to be about the 1914 Rolls Royce armoured car that turned up in the cavalry museum in Ahmedgnar, India.
As the 2002 issue is no longer availible in back order, I was wondering if anyone out there on the forum has a copy of either article and can describe them for me so that I can decide if they are worth the trouble of tracking down.
I have both issues. It is the August 2002 issue that has the David Fletcher article that first mentioned the existence in India of the only surviving 1914 Pattern Rolls-Royce armoured car.
The article is a typical good read by David, but as he states, it is largely a creative excercise in a possible history of the this car, since little factual information is available. The article has no pictures of the survivor, but it has a great collection of other 1914 Pattern Rolls-Royce Armoured cars. These pictures and pictures of the survivor are available from The Tank Museum. It is largely an empty hulk outside on concrete pad. But, most of the armour and the NAP tires are original.
The November 2001 issue just has an interesting, but very small picture of a 1920 Pattern Rolls-Royce armoured car in Irish service in 1933. The short accompanying paragraph misidentifies it as a 1914 Pattern.
Thanks for the reply and the description of the articles. I'll skip the 2001 article then. Unfortunately, the 2002 article is no longer in print. - I am curious as to what David Fletcher hypothesized the history of the car might be.
David Fletcher at the Bovington Tank Museum was kind enough to send a xerox copy of a postcard to me showing the Ahmedgnar car. - It is amazing that the car has survived!
Having seen a number of photo's of the car in question it is a definately a 1914 Pattern Roll-Royce Armoured car. It has one of the two common Indian modifications. It has the NAP semi-solid tires on pressed steel wheels. It does not have the other common modification of rifle/pistol ports in the turret side bevel armour. It does have a metal rear pickup body and very beat-up rear metal fenders. The pick-up body does not appear to be original.
