WEAPONS OF WAR
An early innovation in armoured fighting vehicles originated in Canada, where the ideas of an émigré millionaire bore fruit. John Ash profiles a pioneering forerunner to mechanised warfare
ALL EIGHT ARMOURED AUTOCARS AT THE ROCKCLIFFE RANGES, NEAR OTTAWA, WITH OTHER VEHICLES OF THE BRIGADE. NOTE THE COLT ‘POTATO DIGGER’ MACHINE GUNS
MUSÉE HÉRITAGE MUSEUM ARCHIVES/ CA MHM 2014.22.09
SIX OF THE ARMOURED AUTOCARS UNDERGOING MAINTENANCE, PROBABLY IN 1918. NOTE THE LARGE STOWAGE BOX BENEATH THE REAR AND THE TWO VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. THE FOREMOST VEHICLE HAS TWO HOLES CAUSED BY SPLINTERS OR BULLETS JUST ABOVE AND AHEAD OF THE FRONT AXLE
ATLAS/TOPFOTO
October 22, 1918, and future major-general and ‘father’ of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, Frederic ‘Fighting Frank’ Worthington, advanced on a bridge over the Canal de l’Escaut. Then a captain in the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, his detachment arrived to find the Germans preparing the bridge for demolition. Four machine guns mounted on two armoured steeds drove them off and thwarted rushes to secure the bridge.
