Home made tanks and other armor

[kerick]

Convoy escort and the idea of guntrucks has been around a long time. Since there were trucks I suppose. One of the problems is for each truck converted to a guntruck is that its one less truck hauling cargo. Since hauling beans and bullets is the point of the whole convoy, there always the trade off between security and getting the job done. So, depending on the threat, there may be no guntrucks at all, outside units providing escort to maximize the number of trucks hauling cargo, or something in between.
Its not that the US military didn't know how to protect itself. I was there in 2003 and at first the Iraqis were glad to have us there. A few months later the insurgency got going and that's when crap hit the fan. And as usual with any organization, it took time for people to react to this. That's not the reasoning people want to hear, but that's what happens.

[rickshaw]

Somewhat related question. I know there were guntrucks in Vietnam and in Iraq but what about WW2 and Korea? I haven't seen anything about it for WW2 and much of Korea gets left out of the history books.

What boggles my mind is why didn't the DoD use the lessons learned in Vietnam (and other low-intensity conflicts) about convoy escort, and keep them in the back of the playbook.  Then the wheel wouldn't have had to have been reinvented in the last 14 years.

An interesting question.

I'd suggest it was because it wasn't career enhancing.  Military officers in the US military appear to have been infected with the civilian idea that whatever they do should "enhance their career" above all else, whereas in other militaries, officers seem to have a lot less of that problem.   America, AIUI, has a long history of fighting what we could call "non-conventional wars" against their own Indians, in China and the Philippines.  Before and after that, it was involved in what Napoleon called "the war of the big battalions" - formal, large battles which required manoeuvrings to bring armies together to decide wars.   The sort of things that are easy to study at Academies and which enhance careers if done well.   The result was that rich history got buried, more or less and when it came out again in Korea (to a lesser extent) and then Vietnam, it was seen as an aberration, rather than the norm.   Only in Afghanistan and Iraq did it become important and the junior leaders responded well, it was the senior ones, still looking for that "war of the big battalions" which didn't, until reality crashed into their cosy existence in the Pentagon.

Smaller armies like the Australian one, which has (and basically still is) been fighting the Japanese since WWII, in the jungles of SE Asia still heavily emphasizes the "war of the small platoon" and so we can adapt easily to different environments and conditions.   While our Army may be a little antiquated in it's equipment (although that is changing rapidly), its how we use that is important and we interact as much as possible with the local population, protecting and helping them to fight off the insurgents.   Something the British learnt in the NW Frontier and the French in North Africa.

[dadlamassu]

Armored cars predate WWI and the RNAS ones were not 'the first cars', indeed the Russians did a lot of work on the concept before
the Brits and used them far more than anyone else.

Quite true armoured cars did predate WW1.  The Russians did do a lot of early work following their experience in the Russo-Japanese War with imported armoured cars.  Russia produced its first one in France (1905) because they lacked the industrial capability to build it themselves. 

More here http://dartzkombat.com/en/history/russian-armored-cars-a-historical-perspective--26076

[Rick Lowe]

What about Australia's Sentinel tank?

It went through four different marks and, while not used in action, IIRC the lessons learnt in the manufacture of large castings (it was cast in 3 sections, plus the turret) was acknowledged to have been of use in later WW2 US tank production.

The Mk3 with twin 25-pdrs is pretty darn cool, too - I can see that as an assault/bunker-busting tank.
Yes, I know it was only a test vehicle to see whether the whole could handle the trunion pull/recoil of a 17-pdr, but this is Whiff-World, so all reality-based bets are off...

Cheers

Rick