Putilov "Austin" Armoured Car

[David]

It was built at the same time as the "Izhorsk-Fiat" armored vehicles at Russian
works making use of the "Austin" chassis, which had some advantages. On 25
August 1916 with this firm a deal was closed for the delivery of 60 chassis
with double steering controls (other than that they did not differ from the
previously used armored cars "Austin" 2nd series). The dual-steering chassis
were adapted for armored machines of the "Austin" 3rd series.

In Russia the chassis armor application was done by the Putilov Works, which
had provided designs to the Armoured Department of Military Motor-Car School
in September 1916. While in obedience to the order; from 60 of the armored
cars, 39 were to have Kegresse traction (half-tracks), which had been
already been successfully tested on the "Austin" 2nd series. Initially the
works were to follow a production schedule: "10 pieces by 15 January 1917
and then 10 per month until the delivery of the last armored car on 15 June,
on condition that the chassis would be delivered three months from the date
of order" (i.e. November).

Delivery date of finished A/C:

· 15 January 1917 10
· 15 February 10
· 15 March 10
· 15 April 10
· 15 May 10
· 15 June 10

· total 60

However, because the chassis did not start to arrive in Russia until after
January 1917 (by February only about 20 pieces arrived) work on the armored
cars was delayed, and after the February Revolution work ceased.
Staff-Captain Ivanov observed the building of the combat machines at the
Putilovski factory and wrote this report on 18 March 1917. "At present
there stand at the Putilov factory the chassis of the "Austin" preparing to
be armored, which by July should have delivered 60 pieces. None of them are
armored and no progress is being made". Production moved again by August
1917 and by March 1918 two chassis were armored with another three half
finished. (at this point Bolshevik Russian was out of WWI.) It was clear at that
time that for "lack of fuel, necessary amount ofworkers and enterprise
nationalization" the Putilovski Works were in no condition to be producing "Austins".
Therefore production was handed over to the Izhorski works, where they were
produced from the summer of 1919 to spring 1920.

The Putilov Work's "Austins" did not have time to be used in the to fighting
of the First World War. But, were very active in the battles of the civil
war.

In constructing the Putilov "Austin" the designers took into account the
experiences of combat of the English machines of this types. Foremost the
armored cars were designed with diagonally positioned turrets and
anti-aircraft machineguns with tooling to elevate them to about 80 degrees.
In order to aviod the hits of machinegun bullets finding their way through
the chinks between the body and tower (such was the cases for the English
"Austins") the turret base had double plates. The drivers in the front and
rear steering post had a better view for moving in battle. The inside of
the armored car body was layered with felt for the crew's protection against
metal splintering off the armor from hits on the outside. The armor
thickness totaled 7.5-mm for vertical and 4-mm for horizontal surfaces. The
machines weight with a crew of five men, fuel, supplies and cartridges
totaled 5.2 tons and the speed was about 55 km/hr.

(A curious detail is that the machine is frequently titled in Soviet literature as
the "Austin-Putilov" yet this term does not exist in a single document of
that time period. In fact in 1918 to 1921 such armored cars were often
termed by the Russians as "Austins").

One of Putilov "Austins" preserved to our days has for the longest time been
referred to by "Steel Leader Tribune publication" as the legendary armored
car which V.Lenin came forward on in April 1917. However, the leader of the
"World Proletariat" never could have stepped on this machine because the
armored car left the factory's workshop in August 1919!

Follows to underline, that once Russia was no longer an ally to the Entente
all the deliveries of more chassis and completed armored vehicles
permanently stopped. However, the problem of early deliveries can be
judged from the work results of a representative in of the Arkchangelsk
Reserve Armored Divizion in January 1917. The "aforesaid representative
worked well to find and to load for dispatch to Petrograd fifteen "Fiat"
chassis, five "Austin" chassis for armoring, five light weight "Austins" and
later by chance two trucks and eleven motor-cycles...The representative
was sent on an official journey to find out that the "Austin" chassis for
armouring and completed "Austin" armoured cars, which were thought to
have been sent to Russia in November, were in fact still in England."

In connection with that, shipment could not come through Archangel
(Romanov-on-Murmansk - present day Murmansk - was not built) and the
White Sea in the winter months because it was ice-boand, the first transports
with chassis and armored machines arrived only in the spring of 1917.
The stormy political events of this spring affected the armored car's
assembly and armoring at Izhorski, Putilovski, Obukhovsk works and even in
workshops of Officer Rifle school. Meetings, strikes, demonstrations,
Bolshevik antiwar agitation had fully crippled these workshops by July 1917.