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VEHICLES IN SOLDIERSby David C. Isby

The age of the internal combustion engine wasjust beginning in 1914. As the automobile hadonly been recently invented, there was nowidespread military use of it. In the fifteen orso years preceding the outbreak of the GreatWar, however, just about every nationexperimented with arming and armoringautomobiles. In most cases, these ideas werequickly forgotten and to most people, thearmored car was an invention more at home inan H.G. Wells novel than a modern battlefield.Most nations attached touring cars to theirheadquarters to take officers on inspectiontours. The Germans, however, took theprecaution of making every motor-truck in theReich liable to call-up, and in 1914 these wereused for carrying artillery ammunition fromrailroad stations. German cavalry divisions alsohad a few unarmored civilian sports cars forscouting, each manned by a cavalry officerwith a carbine and his chauffeur. These werefairly successful in the scout role in northernFrance, although they were dead when facedwith any sort of resistance. The Belgiansarmored many civilian automobiles and usedthese for reconnaissance, although they werenot much better than the German types. TheBelgians also produced a genuine armored car,the Minerva, which was not widely used in the1914 campaign and most built were sent toRussia. The only real users of motor vehicles in1914 were the British.

Earlier armored car ideas in Britain met thesame resistance as they did elsewhere. Britainwas, however, more "motorized" than anyother European nation. Most important, theBritish had Winston Churchill, Lord of theAdmiralty. Churchill was often looked upon in1914 and afterwards, as an advocate ofimpractical ideas such as machine guns, heavyartillery, armed airplanes, and armored vehi-cles. While the Army brushed these things off,Churchill was awake to the possibilities ofthese new inventions. Hence, by 1914,Churchill had assembled an interesting force:eight armored cars, Rolls-Royce, Lanchester,and Peerless types under Lieutenant-Com-mander Samson. To get them into action,Churchill attached them to the Royal Naval AirService, under the premise that they were tobe used for rescuing downed pilots, whichthey were in' fact used for on at least oneoccasion. The real purpose, however, was forChurchill to get his "toys" into action as soonas possible. The "toys" as they were derisivelyknown at the time, each carried a .30 calibreBritish Army machine gun, some carrying asecond gun in reserve. Weighing about fourtons, they could still make between 45 and 60miles an hour on a road. At its thickest, theirarmor was nine millimeters thick, only slightly

thinner than that of the first tanks which werenot to appear for another two years. Theirwheels were bullet-proof, as was the wholecar, by virtue of its armor plate. TheRolls-Royce model was used, with but minormodifications, by the British Army until 1941.

The armored cars landed, along with a Marinebrigade, at Dunkirk on 26-27 September 1914.They moved inland to the Lens sector. In thismovement, the Marines were aided becausethey had been issued, before leaving England,with a number of London buses. These red,double-deck type "B" buses had beenborrowed from the London Transport com-panies, and the drivers and conductors enlistedinto the Marines. Churchill sent these buses,still in their red paint, down to join the rest ofthe Marine brigade. This proved to be anexcellent idea. Once the Marines wereestablished, they became responsible forproviding information onGerrnan troops in the"race to the sea," troops trying to get aroundthe allied flank. The armored cars and thebuses proved their worth in the scoutingaround Lens, and on 30 September, thearmored cars and some troops carried inbuses, along with French troops, repulsed astrong German cavalry probe on the roadbetween Motbeque and Cassell. Later, as thefront solidified, the armored cars were sentinto the Ypres salient. They were just about theonly type of unit that could survive reconnais-sance missions in the area. They were also, onat least one occasion, used to spearhead anattack. By this time, the army had also becomeconvinced of the value of motor transport, andthey grabbed all the buses and drivers theMarines had left. The buses were usedthroughout the war, gaining the nickname"Old Bill" after the Bairnsfeather cartooncharacter, a bedraggled old soldier. Thearmored cars became less useful as the frontentrenched. Their great weakness was that athree-foot ditch could stop them, and thetrenches proved an insurmountable obstacle.The increased artillery fire also make lifedifficult for the armored cars, so they were, in1915, shipped off to Gallipoli, where the hillyterrain made them ineffective. Armored carswere, however, kept in France until the end ofthe war. Although they were not to see anyreal action until the British breakthrough of 8August 1918, Churchill's "toys" had openedthe eyes of the army to the fact that armoredfighting vehicles were possible, and in 1915,development started on the tank, a newweapon that would alter the face of the war. Inthe following Soldiers scenario, the player cansee how the Armored Car, in its few actions in1914, made a lasting impression on theBritish staff. It is not only included for its

historical importance and for being good"games" but so that players could see what itwasliketobea "Panzer Leader," -1914style.

[6.!°112 [~O[15RULES FOR VEHICLESIn Soldiers there are two types of vehiclesarmored cars and buses. Only British Navaland Marine units were equipped with suchvehicles. Bus units may be used to transportinfantry or Machine gun units. Armored Carunits cannot transport other units but functionas mobile machine gun platforms

(A) Vehicle units may move only on RoadHexes or through Clear Terrain Hexes.

(B) Up to one Infantry or Machine Guncompany may be transported by a bus unit in agiven Movement Phase.

(C) To pick up a "passenger" unit, the busexpends four Movement Points and the"passenger" unit expends two MovementPoints. The "passenger" unit may move to thehex which the bus is on or the bus may moveto a unit's hex to pick it up. No actualmovement on the map is accomplished by theMovement Point costs of boarding the bus.

(0) Leaving a bus requires the bus unit toexpend an additional four Movement Poin sand the passenger unit must expend twoMovement Points. Again no movement on themapsheet is accomplished by this MovemenPoint cost.

(e) When a unit is moving on board a busplace the bus unit on top of it. A unit may enits Movement Phase on board a bus.

(F) Units may not fire or "observe" fire wh :::being transported in a bus.

(G) Bus units defend with the Defens=Strength of "2" regardless of the type of hsthey are in. If a bus unit is "eliminated"transporting a unit, the unitlsl are as.:"eliminated." If bus units are "disrupwhile transport units the "passenger" unitsconsidered dropped-off before a "disrup ecmarker is placed on top of them. The bus _itself may not move in its next Movem=rPhase.

(H) Armored Car units are armed with MaGuns. They have the same combat ca ~as British Machine Gun units; i.e.. their A~Strength doubles against units three or ==-

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29VEHICLES IN SOLDIERS(continued from page 14)

hexes distant, they may fire over units, theymay interdict two adjacent Clear Terrain hexes.

(J) Armored Car units have a DefenseStrength of "seven" except when in Townhexes. In Town hexes their Defense Strengthis "twelve."

(K) Only Artillery and Machine Gun units mayattack Armored Car units. Machine Gun unitsmust be in an adjacent hex to fire on armoredcar units. Artillery units may attack armoredcars up to their maximum range.

(Ll Each Armored Car unit must be attackedindividually Results affecting other units in thesame hex as an armored car unit have no effecton the Armored Car unit. Results of attacks onArmored Car units also do not effect any otherunit in the same hex.

1M) If an "e" result is obtained in an attack onan Armored Car unit the unit is destroyed. If a"c" result occurs the Armored Car unit mustuse all its Movement Points to retreat in itsnext Movement Phase directly away from theunit that fired on it. It may not fire at the end ofthis retreat movement.

IN) Armored Car units require two unusedMovement Points to fire in the Fire Phase aftertheir Movement.

IP) Armored Car and Bus units may never gointo Improved Positions or enter Entrenchedhexes.

(0) Armored Car and Bus units may not be inthe same hex with Mounted Cavalry units;otherwise vehicle units do not count towardstacking limits at all.

FRENCH AND BRITISH REPULSE OFGERMAN PROBE, MOTBEOUE-CASSELAREA (30 SEPTEMBER 1914)The British Marine Brigade landed at Dunkirkto help safeguard the flank. They brought withthem their armored cars, the first of their type.The Marines scouted from their base at Casselwith Commander Sampson's eight armoredcars accompanied by Marines in comman-deered London buses. Cooperating with theFrench 63rd Independed Chasseur regiment,they repusled a probe by units of the German9th Cavalry Division, who ran when they sawtheir carbine bullets bouncing off thearmored cars.

ORDERS OF BATTLE. ALLIED6 French infantry companies, 2 Frenchmachine gun sections, 4 armored cars, 3 busunits, 2 British infantry companies, 2 Britishmachine gun sections. DEPLOY first. AllFrench units deploy in Wood H. All Britishunits enter the mapsheet by road 6. All Britishunits may be carried in buses at the start.

GERMAN12 cavalry squadrons, 1 cavalry machine gunsection, 2 gun batteries. DEPLOY enter themapsheet turn 1 from the northern edge,anywhere west of the railroad. MOVE FIRST.

GAME LENGTH12 Game-Turns

VICTORY CONDITIONSThe Allied Player wins if there are less than 3undisrupted German units south of the canal atthe end of the game.

The German Player wins if the Allied Playercannot fulfill his victory conditions .••