The Guy Armoured Car was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 armoured car produced in limited numbers during World War II. The car saw limited action during the Battle of France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

.

Production history and description

In 1938 Guy Motors

Guy Motors

Guy Motors was a British company based in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton that made cars, lorries, buses, and trolleybuses.-History:Guy Motors Ltd was founded in 1914 by Sydney Guy who had been the Works Manager of nearby Sunbeam. A factory was built on the site at Fallings Park, Wolverhampton...

 built five Guy Quad armoured car prototypes based on the Quad-Ant artillery tractor chassis. The vehicle successfully completed field trials and in 1939-1940 101 Guy Armoured Cars (initially designated Guy Wheeled Light Tank) were produced.

The vehicle had a welded hull (making it the first British armoured car with an all-welded construction) with a sloped glacis plate. Above the center of the hull was mounted a turret

Turret

In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...

 with two Vickers or Besa machine gun

Besa machine gun

The Besa Machine Gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine-gun, which in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the TK vz. 37...

s. The engine was located at the rear. The vehicle carried a No. 19 radio set

Wireless Set No. 19

The Wireless Set No. 19 was a Second World War mobile radio transceiver designed for the British Army to give armoured troops reliable communications.- Specifications :...

.

The body of the Guy vehicle formed the basis of the later Humber Armoured Car

Humber Armoured Car

The Humber Armoured Car was one of the most widely produced British armoured cars of the Second World War. It supplemented the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car and remained in service until the end of the war.-Development:...

, which employed a new chassis.

Deployment history

Six cars were sent to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 with the British Expeditionary Force

British Expeditionary Force (World War II)

The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....

 (BEF). Four were used by the mobile guard of the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

 (a troop from 12th Lancers) and two by cabinet ministers. The rest served with different British, Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 units stationed in Britain. By 1943 they were replaced by more modern vehicles.

Variants

• Mk I - original version. 50 units built.
• Mk IA - was armed with Besa
  Besa machine gun
  The Besa Machine Gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine-gun, which in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the TK vz. 37...
  
  15 mm and 7.92 mm machine guns instead of the Vickers. 51 units built.