Marmon Herrington Mk II Captured

South Africa Armoured Cars

Mk I (1940) - two wheel drive only, armed with two .303 Vickers machine guns, one in a cylindrical turret, other in the left rear of the hull. 113 units built.

Mk II (1941) - lengthened chassis, all-wheel drive. Early vehicles carried the same armament as Mk I. Late production vehicles received an octagonal turret with Boys anti-tank rifle and Bren MG. There were pintle mountings for Vickers MG and Bren MG (the latter was rarely carried). Hull was riveted in early vehicles and welded in late production ones. 887 units built.

Mk III (1941) - similar to late production Mk II, with a slightly shorter wheelbase. Late production vehicles had single rear door, no radiator grille and no headlight covers. 2,630 units built.
- Mk IIIA - turret replaced by a ring mount for two .303 Vickers K machine guns protected by a steel skirt. The A denoted a modification of the armament.

Mk IV (1943) The Mark IV was a completely redesigned vehicle, though still based on the same engine and Marmon-Herrington components. The rear-mounted engine and the transmission were bolted directly to the welded hull. Armour protection was still thin at only 12 mm to the front and 6 mm thick elsewhere. A QF 2 pounder anti-tank gun was mounted in a two-man turret. The gun used an artillery mounting as the turret was not up to the stress of a tank mantlet mounting. Late production vehicles had a coaxial Browning MG. An anti-aircraft Vickers or Browning MG was mounted on the turret roof. Over 2,000 units built. After the war many Jordanian examples had the turret lengthened at the front and fitted with a 6 pounder (57mm) gun, while others had the turret removed and a Vickers 2.95" mountain howitzer fitted in its place.
- Mk IVF (1943) - due to a difficulty in obtaining the Marmon-Herrington kit, a version very similar to the Mk IV but based on the Canadian Ford F60L four wheel drive 3 ton truck chassis was built to fulfill a British order of 1,200 vehicles.

South African Heavy Armoured Car Mark V (1942) The Mark V was of four 8-wheeled designs built as a response to reports of the German 8-wheeled armoured cars (Schwerer Panzerspähwagen). . Power was from two Albion 6-cylinder engines driving only the two middle axles. The prototype had poor performance in desert conditions and was rebuilt with both engines at the rear. Although well-armoured it was heavy at 16 tons and performance still lacked so the project was stopped. A very large vehicle armed with the QF 6 pounder gun and armoured side skirts; only the one prototype was built.

Mk VI (1943) The Mark VI was a return to the 8-wheeled design. Powered by two Mercury V8 engines with an eight-wheel drive steered on the front and rear wheels. Two prototypes were built, one with a 2 pounder and other with a 6 pounder gun in an open-topped three-man turret with electric powered traverse and protected by 10 to 30 mm of sloped armour. Additional armament consisted of 2 or 3 machine guns. The two-pounder equipped version was sent to the UK for assessment, the transmission proved unreliable suffering several axle failures. The 2-pdr is now in the Bovington Tank Museum, the other in South Africa.

Mk VII An improved version of the Mk IIIA, the project was stopped after prototypes as it was only armed with a Vickers machine gun.

Mk VIII Similar to the Mk III but with a 2 pounder gun in a bigger turret. The project was stopped in 1943 as requirements had already moved on to larger weapons such as the 6 pounder gun.