Garford–Putilov armoured cars were armoured fighting vehicles produced in Russia during the First World War era. They were built on the chassis of Garford Motor Truck Co. lorries imported from the United States.
Although considered to be a rugged and reliable machine by its users, the Garford–Putilov was severely underpowered. With a total weight of up to 11 tons, and only a engine, the vehicles had a top speed of approximately . The design was also top-heavy and therefore had very limited, if any, off-road capability.
Armament consisted of a single 76.2 mm cannon in a turret with 270 degrees of traverse at the rear of the vehicle, and two or three 7.62 mm machine guns. Two of these machine guns were in casemate-like mounts towards the front of the vehicle, but the guns could not provide full frontal cover at short range.
During its production from 1915 to 1916 the Putilov factory produced 48 of these armoured cars which were used during the First World War and the Russian Civil War. They possessed powerful weapons and adequate armour for their class and time and, despite their rather mediocre mobility, were very effective in battle, distinguishing themselves in reliability and construction, giving them a comparatively long service life.
Development history With the outbreak of the First World War it became more pressing for Russia to develop domestically produced armoured vehicles and by 19 September 1914 the first unit of the Russian Imperial Army equipped with armoured vehicles was sent to the front – the "First Auto-Mobile Machine Gun Company" which used the fully domestically produced machine gun equipped armoured car the "Russo-Balt type C". In order to provide fire support to the armoured cars the company also had three foreign made trucks with artillery guns mounted onto their bodies, one of these, the Mannesmann-MULAG was also armoured. Military use quickly demonstrated the high demand for, and effectiveness of, armoured vehicles in battle, although it became clear at the same time that the "Mannessmann" was not yet sufficiently developed. It was simply a truck with an artillery gun mounted on the back protected by basic armour. As a result, the Main Military Technical Directorate of the Russian Imperial Army took the decision to form new auto-mobile machine gun platoons which would include two machine gun armed vehicles and an armoured vehicle equipped with a cannon which would be more technically advanced than the "Mannessman Mulag".
Soon after, in the spring of 1914, design work was started at the Putilov factory for a heavy armoured car equipped with a cannon and machine gun and with fully encompassing armour. The initiator and ideological inspirer of the whole process for the creation of armoured cars was Major-General N. M. Filatov, who, at this time occupied the post of head of the Officers Rifle School. According to his concept such a machine should qualitatively strengthen a unit of machine gun armoured vehicles. Filatov personally developed the project for future armoured vehicles. One of his first designs proved to be the most successful. A dual axle, rear wheel drive (4 x 2) five ton truck from the American Garford Motor Truck company, a firm which specialised in the construction of such vehicles, was chosen as the base for the armoured vehicle. There are references in the literature that refer to the use of a truck with a 4-ton carrying capacity but this is unlikely because the Garford motor truck company produced only 5, 3 and 2 ton trucks, moreover of these only the 5 tonners possessed chain drive.
The truck had a maximum speed of 35 km/h and the combined weight of the chassis (without cabin and load bed) was 3931 kg. Garford trucks attracted the attention of Filatov and other military leaders because of their high load capacity, which allowed the use of thicker armour and larger guns, but also because these trucks were already "in hand"; by the middle of December 33 Garfords, purchased by General Sekreteva's commission, had already arrived in Petrograd and were ready and waiting in the garage of the Military Automobile School. Filatov chose a 76mm "counter-assault gun" designed in 1910, which was a conversion of the French 76 mm mountain gun M1909. This was a powerful weapon and its use required significant modifications to the chassis of the Garford truck and presented a whole series of other technical problems. The choice of this weapon was made as a result of comparison trials carried out at Officer's Rifle School on 8 November 1914. As well as the 76mm gun, the 37mm automatic Maxim cannon, the 47mm "quick-firing" Hotchkiss gun and the 5.7 cm Maxim-Nordenfelt were also tested. In essence the Maxim cannon was a larger version of the Maxim machine gun, it did not possess high explosive shells and because of its high rate of fire resulted in a large expenditure of ammunition, explosive shells for the 47mm cannon proved ineffective and the 57mm was not much better than the 47mm and produced too much recoil for the Garford chassis. The 76mm gun used a powerful TNT projectile which was similar to the projectile of a 3-inch field gun and capable of penetrating any armour then in use, but had relatively low recoil and compact dimensions which made it easier to fit to an armoured vehicle. The 76mm cannon also had the benefit of using the same shells as the 3-inch field gun which facilitated supply.
Design work continued until the end of 1915 when the Putlilov Factory received an order for the construction of 30 armoured cars. Construction of the armoured vehicle began in March, and by 16 April the first Garford–Putilov armoured car was sent to an armoured company. Two and a half weeks later, on 3 March 1915, after the formation and training of the crew the new armoured car was sent to the south-western front into the composition of the 5th auto-mobile platoon
Mass production Mass production of the Garford started at the Putilov factory at the end of March 1915. The order from the main military supply directorate specified the construction of 30 armoured cars. By 20 August 1915, 19 armoured vehicles had already been delivered and a further 11 were in various states of construction. The last vehicle was finished on the 28 September. On the 2 September 1915 the Putilov factory received an order to construct another 18 armoured cars intended for the Navy. These were planned to be used for guarding the Peter the Great's Naval Fortress in the city of Revel (later Tallinn) this "naval Garford" possessed a number of differences to the "Army" version (see below). The extra chassis purchased from America only arrived at Petrograd on the 13 February 1916, which significantly delayed production. As a result, construction was only started in March and the last vehicle was delivered in early December 1916.
Construction
Body and turret
The body of the armoured vehicle was designed by N. M. Filatov and was of an unusual construction. Sheets of steel armour 6.5 mm (1/4 inch) thick produced by the Izhora factory were used in the construction of the body. All the sheets of armour were subjected to a test firing from a 7.62mm Russian Mosin rifle M1891 and a 7.92mm German Mauser M1898. The factory guaranteed protection from armour-piercing rifle rounds from 150 paces and from ordinary rounds at 75 paces. Subsequent battles would show that the armour was also capable of withstanding fire from shorter distances. The armour sheets were rivetted to the metal frame itself fastened to the chassis. The majority of the armour sheets were vertical although a few elements of the bodywork had a slight incline. The functional and technical part of the armoured vehicle was divided into three sections. The control compartment was in the front section. The engine was covered by an armoured hood and the nose section had swinging armoured doors for access to the radiator. Seats for the driver and commander were located on the left and right respectively above the engine and fuel tank. This was extremely dangerous but allowed the overall length of the vehicle to be shorter. For observation the driver and commander had rectangular observation hatches in the front armour plate which were covered by folding armour flaps with adjustable slits. There were round observation hatches in the armoured doors located on the left and right of the bodywork. Finally there was one more hatch in the roof of the control compartment which was used while driving on the road and while not in combat.
In the middle part of the body was the machine gun fighting compartment. to the left and right were placed small sponsons each of which had a machine gun. The sponsons gave the machine guns a field of fire of 110 degrees. The space between them was occupied by a box for 32 shells and essential tools. In the rear part of the body was the cylindrical turret with a large angled forward plate where the 76mm cannon was located. The weapon could be traversed through 260 degrees. The turret was connected to the forward machine gun section of the vehicle by the lower part of the turret. The upper section of the cannon turret moved on top of this section on a track with the aid of three rollers. In the stowed position the turret was fixed along the axis of the vehicle by two pins located near the rear wheels. Access to the turret was through a two leaf hatch in the top. There was also an internal hatch communicating with the machine gun compartment, through which ammunition could be passed. Besides the main weapon in the front plate of the turret there was a third machine gun. In the walls of the bodywork were small embrasures with armoured covers for observation and shooting personal weapons. The machine gun embrasures and sighting windows for the cannon could also be covered with armoured hatches. The fighting compartment was lined with felt and canvas to avoid injury to the crew from secondary fragments. The machine gun compartment could be screened off from the driver with a canvas curtain and also if necessary with hanging armoured sheets.
Armament The main armament of the Garford armoured car was the "3-inch counter-assault gun Model 1910". This was a re-worked version of the 76 mm mountain gun M1909 from which the new gun inherited the barrel and breech. The cannon was installed on a new carriage, lighter than its predecessor but not capable of being disassembled in the same way. Mass production of this armament had started at the Putilov factory in 1911 and continued to the middle of 1915. Altogether in this period 407 guns were produced in two batches. At first these types of guns were used in various fortifications, intended both for defence and to provide fire support to their own troops during sorties. It was considered suitable for installation in the Garford firstly because it provided excellent ballistic characteristics for the time and had low recoil. The shells used in this weapon were normally those from the type 1909 mountain gun but with a smaller charge. The maximum muzzle velocity of the 6.5 kg high explosive shrapnel shell was around 381 m/s which was sufficient to provide effective fire. Canister shot was also available for this weapon with an initial velocity of 274 m/s. The cannon was mounted on the rear part of the vehicle on a pedestal made from welded iron plates. A copper "head" was riveted to the top part of the pedestal, serving as a bearing for a pivot which passed through the pedestal and at the same time serving as a support for the bottom of the rotating part of the turret. The pivot was the axis of rotation for the turret to which it was firmly riveted. At the bottom the pivot was supported by a bronze bearing riveted to the circular section supporting the pedestal.