Australian White Scout Car?

[lynx42]

Good morning Cliff, what you have there is the Australian modified version of the normal M3A1 White Scout Car. It has added armour all around the rear and over the doors. The height of the added armour is 13 inches and angled in at 30 degrees. It is also only 3/16 on an inch thick whereas the sides are 1/4" thick. The tops of the doors were cut to a straight line to meet the over-door armour and the rear step was strengthened to enable a spare wheel to be carried there. The extra armour stopped the use of the majority of the tourelle skate rail for the one .50cal and 2 x.30cal Browning machine guns normally fitted. As a result a single .303 Bren Gun was suspended from the Gallows mount welded to the right side. The vehicle was fitted with a telephone cable retrieval set up in the rear and was fitted with rollers front and rear to assist in the laying and a pick up post was mounted on the front to assist the retrieval of the line. The wheels on that model on the photos shows that it is an early version as they are the 1942 Budd wheels without the larger cut outs of the later lots. The scout car was built in 7 lots and Australia received Scout Cars from Lot 2 to Lot 7. The Armoured Observation Post or AOP was used by the Artillery units.

Regards Rick.