Austin-Putilow armored car
The Austin-Putilow armored car was a Russian armored car from the First World War .
history
The Austin-Putilow was actually a British design. However, the vehicle was mainly used by the Russian Army during the First World War. The Austin-Putilow took on tasks for security in the hinterland and scouting missions. Like many vehicles of that time, it lacked the appropriate off-road capabilities to be able to intervene offensively as a combat vehicle. The vehicles were dependent on the existence of roads or paved paths, which limited the ability to act for their main task. During the war, the Austin-Putilov was the armored car most used by the Russian army.
Austin-Putilov were used by both the newly formed Red Army and the White Guard troops in the Russian Civil War. Poland used some vehicles until the 1930s. After the introduction of new types, the Soviet Union even sold some vehicles to Japan . From 1935 the Austin-Putilow was withdrawn from all armies.
In the picture there is no "Russkij Austin" (the real name of the PzW Austin, which was developed in the Putilow works in Petrograd and manufactured in the Ischorsky works in Kolpino from 1917 to 1920), but a British Austin PzW, 3rd series of the White Guard Don Cossack Army from 1919. All British Austin from series 1 to 3 were developed by the Russian Military Automobile School and produced in England exclusively for the Tsarist Army. The "Russkij Austin" was manufactured in Russia on a British chassis. The main difference to the Austin 1-3 series was the arrangement of the towers - they are diagonal and not in a row. A total of approx. 60 Austin-Putilow PzW were built, 12 of which had half-chain drives from the Austin-Kegresse system.
The vehicle
The Russian designers took over the chassis of the British vehicle and changed the superstructure. The vehicle was armored all around, an armored, non-rotating turret was installed on the roof. It had two machine gun loopholes.
The vehicle was planned as a four-wheel vehicle. Later, the Russian designers took into account the climatic conditions in Russia and installed a shortened version of the Holt crawler chassis instead of the rear axle. This made the vehicle more off-road and manoeuvrable even in deep snow and mud. To make it easier to control the vehicle, the crawler chassis was also given a steering system.
The armor of the vehicle protected against fire from hand weapons and the effects of fragments and shrapnel. The two machine guns were firmly mounted in the turret. Most noticeable were the armor plates attached to the notches. In their shape they were reminiscent of blinders for horses. They were supposed to prevent the machine gun fire from coming through the notch from the blind spot. Ricochets occurring in the vehicle interior would have caused the most severe wounds.
Technical specifications
- Crew: 5 men
- Weight: 5200 kg
- Length: 4.88 m
- Width: 1.95 m
- Height: 2.40 m
- Armor: 8 mm
- Range: 200 km
- Drive / power: Austin petrol engine with 50 HP / 37 kW
- Top speed: 50 km / h (road)
- Armament: two Maxim machine guns
literature
- Philip Trewhitt: tanks. The most important combat vehicles in the world from World War I to the present day . Neuer Kaiserverlag, Klagenfurt 2005, ISBN 3-7043-3197-X , ( Worth knowing - Technology ).
