CANADIAN CMP BASED

ARMOURED VEHICLES

All thumbnails on this page are links to the larger photo.

In addition to large numbers of very high quality trucks in numerous models, the Canadian Military Pattern family also included a significant number of Armoured and Scout Cars. This page is dedicated to those of the family built in Canada and which served in several theatres of war with varying success.

CAR, SCOUT, LYNX

In 1942, the Canadian Department of National Defence ordered a new scout car to supplement the supplies of the British Daimler Scout Cars then entering service. The resulting Lynx was similar in appearance to the Daimler although there were substantial differences.

Not the least of the differences was that the Lynx was designed around Ford's rear engined 4 x 4 armoured car chassis. The Lynx Mark 1 had an armoured roof that was deleted on the Mark 2. It was usually armed with a .303" Bren light machine gun.

The Lynx never attained great popularity among it's users although it was used by a large number of Canadian armoured units in Europe. A significant number of Lynxes were used by the Australian Army from 1944 to about 1955 when they were replaced by Daimler Ferrets.

ARMOURED CARRIER, 4X4

INDIAN PATTERN

Ford Canada produced a large number of it's rear engined armoured car chassis, Ford Part Nos. CO11QRF and C291QR. Most of them were sent to India where they were fitted with several armoured body designs for service on the sub continent. These vehicles had a number of roles including armoured personnel carrier and light armoured reconnaissance vehicle. After the war they were taken into service by the newly independent Indian Army. 4655 were built during the war years in at least four marks. Sorry I don't have any photographs available. See Page 217 of Bart Vanderveen's Historic Military Vehicles Directory for a little more information.

CAR, ARMOURED, CANADIAN

GM MARK 1, FOX 1

The Fox armoured car was made by General Motors of Canada by the simple expedient of marrying the British Humber III armoured car hull to the CMP Model 8446 rear engined 4 x 4 armoured car chassis. This was the same chassis used for the basis of the Australian "Rhino" heavy armoured car. 1506 Foxes were manufactured by GM between 1941 and 1943.

. . The Fox under restoration in the first photo belongs to an auto wrecker in Newtonville, Ontario, Canada. The second photo is an official factory photo.

. .Jan 2001. This Fox is under restoration by Bruce Parker of Nunavut, Canada.

The Fox was powered by the GM 270 cu in six cylinder engine and was armed with one .50 cal heavy machine gun and one .30 cal medium machine gun mounted co-axially in an armoured hand traversed turret. The Fox had a crew of four.

The Canadian, British and Indian Armies all used Foxes operationally although it was never particularly popular with it's crews. Canadian Foxes were relegated to the training role in mid 1943. India kept her Foxes in service into the early 1950s. A number of Foxes remain extant in the 1990s in both Canada and India.

CAR LIGHT RECONNAISSANCE

OTTER 1

1761 Otters were manufactured in Canada from 1942. The Otter was built on the Chevrolet C15A 4 x 4 chassis but was powered by the GM 270 cu in engine.

The Otter was a successful vehicle which served with the Canadian Army in Italy and France in it's reconnaissance role and for anti aircraft defence of road convoys. Post war, the Otter was used by the Arab Legion in it's fight against the new state of Israel.

The Otter was armed with a .303" Bren gun in an anti aircraft mount although it could also be used in the ground role. A 4" smoke discharger was also fitted.

TRUCK, 15 CWT, ARMOURED 4 X 4

During 1944 and 1945, General Motors of Canada manufactured some 4000 C15TA armoured trucks based on the Chevrolet C15A 4 x 4 chassis. The model number was C15TA-ARMD-1. Basically the C15TA was an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) variant of the Otter

The truck's main role was as an armoured personnel carrier that could seat six in the body of the vehicle as well the driver and commander in the normal positions. The truck was used extensively by both the Canadian and British Armies both during WW2 and post war. There were also General Service and ambulance versions of this vehicle.

DISCLAIMER. I do not pretend to know all there is to know about CMP based armoured vehicles. Should you see a mistake or have some additional information that may be helpful to me to complete this page, please email me.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I obtained most of the information on this page from various sites on the Internet but especially…..

George Bradford's excellent AFV NEWS

Chris Johnson's marvellously detailed STEEL CHARIOTS

Barry Beldam's comprehensive ARMOURED ACORN

As usual, Brian Gough has been a great help in building my information base on these vehicles.

I got most of the information on the Indian Pattern vehicles from Bart Vanderveen's excellent Historic Military Vehicles Directory, page 217. More details on this publication are available on the REFERENCES page.

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