I'm looking for books dealing with the history of British armoured car (and scout car, light recce cars etc.) development up to and during WWII. Some operational history would also be nice - like how the vehicles did in the field, pros and cons of the design etc.

I got Fletchers books on British armour development, which include some stuff on armoured cars. And two old AFV in Profile books from the 1970ies. That's about it, but I really like more information. Particularily those vehicles used by the Danish Army:

- AEC Mk II AC
- Humber Mk IV AC
- Humber Scout Car
- Staghound Mk III AC
- Morris Light Reconnaisance Car

cbo

There's not a lot out there. Regimental Histories work well. Some books cover armoured car use as well. Sieze and Hold by Perett has a chapter on the use of armoured cars. Most of it's operational stuff and not so much development.

Fletcher, I think had a book out that covered armoured cars in the interwar years, but they were significant. There's also the out of print AFV Profiles magazines that likely covered that selection.

There isn't much out there, apparently. I just wondered whether it was me being unable to find it or the material just not being available.

I got the AFV-profiles, but they are not very detailed on many of the developments. And they are dated.

Also, I got Fletchers "Universal Tank", "The Great Tank Scandal" and "Mechanized Force" which are OK, but again not all that detailed on many of the developments. The one you are thinking about may be "War Cars" which is about the WWI ACs?

cbo

That's why I'm doing living history. Getting down and dirty with the cars, working on them in rough conditions and doing field exercises is a GREAT way to get an idea as to how tough it was for these crews and what sorts of heck they went through on a daily basis. Just long road marches had to be a bit trying. I'm in awe of the guys that were in North Africa in any sort of armor.



That's the one.

Not a book but a pretty good website:

http://www.warwheels.net/countryindex.html#UKflag

Try any of these (if you can find them):

Bartholomew, E, Early Armoured Cars, Shire Publications, 1988

Spielberger, Walter J and Feist, Uwe, Armor in the Western Desert, Aero Publishers Inc, California

Armoured Vehicles of Great Britain, 1939-1945, Bronekolleksya 4.96, 1996 [Russian language]

Light AFVs of Great Britain, 1939-1945, Bronekolleksya 2.99 [Russian language]

I'm sure there are others out there - good luck with the search...

Hunnicutt's 'Armored Car' has development of the Staghound iirc.