Dingoes, Beaverettes, Greyhounds, Pumas, and Other Steel Beasts

Um, you might want to rethink the concept, Freddie!
F.R. Simms' Motor Scout, built in 1898 as an armed car.

Much better, you might want to work on the name though...
F.R. Simms' 1902 Motor War Car, the first armored car to be built.

From "armed cars" to "motor war cars" we eventually arrive at the armored car ("armoured" for you folks in the Great White Up, Down Under, and Across the Pond). Rather useful vehicles in a number of contexts, reconnaissance, riot control, patrolling, if you can't have a tank - an armored car is probably the next best thing.

The first military use of the armored car was by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. The Turks called it the Tripolitanian War, the Italians called it the Libyan War, which will give you some idea of where it took place. It's how Libya came to be an Italian possession. Like much of North Africa it had been part of the Ottoman Empire. Oddly enough, it would see a lot more action involving armored cars 30 years later, when a fellow named Rommel came to "rescue" the Italians from the British Army.

The Belgians actually used them next, in WWI. They liked them so much they formed a Corps of Armored Cars. By the time they put the thing together the mobile phase of World War I had come to a close with everybody scrambling to dig trenches. So the Belgians sent the Corps to the East, to help the Russians.

Mors armoured car of the Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia.

Almost looks like the Russians want to buy the thing, doesn't it?

The next lot to use the armored cars were the Royal Navy.

Royal Navy Sarge, wouldn't they be using boats and ships, not cars?

Well, normally yes. But the Royal Naval Air Service (later combined with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force) sent aircraft to Dunkirk to help combat the Zeppelin menace.

The sausage lookin' thing, not the ship.

Not to be confused with these chaps -

Amazon

Seems the officers brought cars with them (surprise, surprise, surprise) and used them to go rescue their mates when the impudent Boche shot them down. As the Huns on the ground objected, the chaps figured it would be best to arm, and armor, their cars. Eventually the British government replaced those improvised armored cars with actual purpose design armored cars. But yes, all those trenches and the like made the going rather rough, so most British armored cars went East as well. Not to Russia but to the Middle East.

The use of armored cars was much more widespread in World War II, seems that everybody who could afford an army could at least afford armored cars, if not actual tanks. Most armies had both. The cars to scout with, the tanks to fight with. Some of them had rather interesting names as well.

Beaverettes of 53rd Reconnaissance Regiment on maneuvers in Northern Ireland, 1941.
I'm guessing the Canadians named them...

A Dingo with a Bren gun, followed by a Daimler Armored Car and a Humber Armored Car in 1942.
Three types of armored cars in one column. British efficiency?

Sd.Kfz. 234/2 Schwerer Panzerspähwagen „Puma“
Mean looking beast, innit?
(Source)

American troops in an M8 Greyhound passing the Arc de Triomphe after the liberation of Paris.
GIs in Paris. With a car. What could possibly go wrong?

Some of them were heavily enough armed that they could slug it out with other armored vehicles, such as tanks, long enough to get themselves out of trouble using their speed. The Germans were heavily into armored cars. Incidentally, Sd.Kfz is the German abbreviation for Sonderkraftfahrzeug or "special purpose vehicle." Schwerer Panzerspähwagen is the German for "heavy armored reconnaissance vehicle." Yes. of course, they also had a "light" version, the leichter Panzerspähwagen -

British soldiers inspect a captured Sd.Kfz. 222 Leichter Panzerspähwagen, North Africa, 1941.
Sarn't Major! How do you drive this bloody thing?

Useful vehicles when you don't have an actual tank at hand. Very good at crowd control as well. They were used in much the same way that light cavalry was used in the old days. You could use them in battle, but that's not what they were best suited for, supporting their heavier brothers, the tanks, was what they did best I suppose.

Heck, even the Air Force has armored cars. I've seen them used in Korea and other places for patrolling the base. Very useful against infiltrators and the like...

Security policeman aboard an armored vehicle participate in exercise Team Spirit '81.

So Sarge, how do you know those are Air Force guys?

Well, first off, the vehicle is made by Cadillac Gage (the vehicle name is the Commando), nothing but the best for the Air Force ya know. Secondly, there is no M-60 machine gun behind that big shield above the driver.Why? It's the Air Force, some lieutenant probably lost it. Lastly, the guy to the left of the gun shield has his "booger hook" inside the trigger guard of his M-16. A big no-no.

I don't recognize the base, I don't think it's Kunsan, but I know it's in Korea. That's where Team Spirit was held back in 1981. Yes, I was there but I wasn't off mucking about in the mud, nope, I was in a nice dry hangar, calibrating aircraft radars. Very civilized it was, though we did have to schlep around wearing flak vests and steel pots. We even spent a bit of time wearing our chemical warfare stuff as well. No fun that, even in a nice dry hangar.

I think juvat had rotated back to the States by then, even if he had been there he would be flying jets, the ones I'd calibrated the radars on. Also not mucking about in the mud like some primitive...

A staffer from the Pentagon was conducting a briefing for a group which included airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines one day, and posed the question: “What would you do if you found a scorpion in your tent?”

A sailor said, “I’d step on it.”

A soldier said, “I’d hit it with my boot.”

A marine said, “I’d catch it, break the stinger off, and eat it.”

An airman said, “I’d call the front desk and ask why there’s a damn tent in my room.”

In the Air Force, roughing it meant staying in a 2-Star hotel. With no pool.

Ask me how I know...