LANCHESTER "RUSSIAN SERVICE" WITH 37MM HOTCHKISS GUN BRITISH WWI ARMOUR

The Lanchester 4x2 was a British armored car from the First World War. The car was 4.88 m long and 1.93 m wide. The car was powered by a single 60 HP 6-cylinder engine. The armament was usually provided by a single 7.7 mm Vickers machine gun. The Lanchester 4x2 was developed on the basis of the Lanchester Storting Forty civilian sports car. A special office in the British Admiralty was responsible for its development, which at the end of 1914 sought to obtain an armored car for the use of the Royal Naval Air Service. The new vehicle was to provide cover to its own airports in France, as well as to save downed pilots. The first prototypes, however, turned out to be underdeveloped, and only after the necessary corrections had been made, the vehicle was sent to France in May 1915. However, in the course of service on the Western Front, it turned out that the Lanchester 4x2 did not have a sufficiently strong suspension and had other minor design flaws. For these reasons, as well as in connection with the desire to unify the equipment of the British army fighting in France, at the end of 1915 the Lanchester 4x2 cars returned to Great Britain. From there, in December of the same year, some of them were sent to Russia, and some were later sent to the Near and Middle East. In the Russian service they took part in the Brusilov offensive in 1917, but also in the civil war in Russia.