Humber Scout Car MK.I w/twin K Gun

The role of the Daimler Scout Car was expanded 1942-43 to include Scouting, Liaison and Forward Recconnaissance, and so the production of the little vehicle could not keep pace with the increased demand. Humber were asked to build Scout Cars to fill the need, but instead of copying the Daimler, produced their own slightly larger vehicle using many components already in production. The result was the Humber Scout Car MkI, which appeared in early 1943. The Humber Scout Car MkI was powered by a 87 bhp Rootes 6-cylinder engine, which gave a top speed of 104 km/h on road, and a range of 320 kilometers. Armour was a maximum of 14mm and the combat weight was 3,390kg. It was normally armed with single, or twin, .303 Bren Light Machine Gun, on a PLM remote mounting on the roof of the car. A No19 Radio set was used for communication, the Humber usually carried a crew of 3 men including a radio opperator. The Humber was highly prized by its crews, it was fast, reliable and it had much better weather protection than the Daimler. It was mostly issued to Tank and Armoured Car regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps, but was also used by Infantry, Signals, Engineers and Artillery units. A total of 1,698 Humber SC MkI's were built before factories switched the the MkII version early in 1944. The Humber Scout Car MkII had a modified gearbox, but was otherwise identical, a total of 2,404 were built before the end of the war. Humbers were in widespread use by British & Commonwealth armies at the time of the D-Day landings, smaller numbers served in Italy, Greece and Palestine. The British Army retired its last Humbers in the 1960's.