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The RNAS Armoured Car Division
Cars, lorries and buses given armour to protect them from attack
Commander Samson’s squadron consisted of a large group of support aircrew and motor transport. Felix Samson, Charles Samson’s brother had brought his Mercedes car to France and this was soon fitted with a Maxim gun to use against aerial and terrestrial targets. The cars were sent forward of the planes to scout for potential landing sites and to rescue downed pilots.
After an encounter with a German patrol, Felix Samson designed a form of armour for his car, subsequently dubbed “Iron Duke”. Although initially only made from boilerplate, Charles Samson saw the potential benefits of armoured patrols and equipped two further machines. He then sent the Admiralty his brother’s designs as well as a request for proper armour plating and reinforcements in the form of Royal Marines. The director of the Air Department in London was Captain Murray Sueter. Capt. Sueter was enthusiastic for the venture and submitted a paper in September 1914 with a suggestion that 50 should be made, in the margin his superior, Winston Churchill, raised the proposal to 100. The final proposal came to 60 with 40 support cars.
As Samson’s force grew and his designs became more effective, the war began to change. The fluid, aggressive war was slowing down and stagnating into entrenched stalemate. The armoured cars, lorries and buses that now were being used by the military found less and less to do. As 1914 ended, Samson’s responsibilities were brought back towards his aircraft and he was soon fighting in other far flung fields of war. Samson’s armoured cars, however, had laid the path for future developments and these designs were strengthened during the war. The Armoured Car Divisions and also motorcycle divisions were used throughout the First World War in Gallipoli, East Africa and later in Russia.
Dardanelles, Gallipoli. RNAS Armoured car in its dugout (FAAM)
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The RNAS Armoured Car Division
