Fowler B.5 Armoured Road Locomotive

[David]

Fowler steam traction engines emerged most successfully from War Office trials in 1899 for engines to be employed in the South African war. As a consequence, machines built by John Fowler & Co. Ltd of Leeds represented by far the biggest proportion of the forty or so traction engines that were in South Africa by mid-1900. The traction engines were used for pulling trains of supplies - alongside oxen or mule transport - or towing guns to different positions. For protection against attacks on supply columns by Boer raiding parties some armoured traction engines were ordered, and the first of these vehicles, together with four bullet-proof trucks, arrived in South Africa in July 1900, followed by a second train two weeks later.
The armoured engines were Fowler model B.5s of 10 n.h.p. (nominal horse-power) or 115-125 maximum i.h.p. (indicated horse-power). The bullet-proof plates completely enclosed the body of the machine in a slab-sided structure, only the chimney projecting. At the front a hinged semicircular plate protected the lower part of the boiler, and at the rear the armour was extended out either side, partly over the driving wheels. Three loopholes for the use of the crew's weapons were provided in each of these projections. Access to the vehicle was by means of a door through the armour at the rear. The armoured trucks which went with the Fowler
B.5s were four wheelers, the front axle, which incorporated the tow-bar, being mounted on a turntable. The armour on each side was in three sections, which could be hinged inwards independently. Each section carried a loophole. There was no overhead armour pro­tection. A field gun could, by means of special channels, be hauled into a truck and carried, instead of being towed.





A total of four Fowler B.5s was armoured - Nos. 8894, 8895, 8898 and 8899. The first two armoured road trains were sent to Bloemfontein on arrival, where the armour was removed from both engines and trucks and used to make armoured railway trains. Towards the end of 1901 the General Officer commanding the Kimberley District asked for further trucks to be fitted with armour so that the troops needed for road-convoy escort duties could be reduced, and the War Office was requested to supply two armoured trucks. Remembering that the first two sent had been stripped of their armour to make armoured railway trains, it is not surprising that the War Office did not meet this request.
The gun-carrying truck, mentioned above, inspired Lieut.-Colonel von Layriz, a prominent German military writer, to suggest that quick firing guns should be mounted on the wagons to act as a sort of mobile fort to protect bridges and other important points against flying columns of Boers. This idea was not adopted, but if it had it is interesting to speculate that it would have anticipated by many years some of the elements of the tank.