The Secret British Modification That Turned Tiny Daimler Armoured Cars Into Panzer Killers
British Trick Files
90,224 views
How did a tiny British Daimler armoured car with a "too small" 2-pounder gun become a Panzer killer? This WW2 documentary follows the Littlejohn adaptor, the secret squeeze-bore tube that let the Daimler's 2-pounder punch through 88 mm of armour at 450 metres, more than the front of a Panzer IV, in Normandy, Holland and Germany, 1944-45.
On 17 September 1944 a British censor painted that tube out of a photograph of Household Cavalry cars. The film shows why: Hermann Gerlich's German squeeze-bore idea, František Janeček's work in Czechoslovakia, and the tungsten Germany ran out of. Then the crews who carried it: the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment at the Souleuvre bridge in Operation Bluecoat, in Brussels and through the fog to the Poles at Driel, the 11th Hussars, the Tetrarch and Locust light tanks that landed by glider in Normandy and in Operation Varsity, and a King Tiger trial report. One Daimler still stands in the Tank Museum at Bovington.
British military history, told from the record, and honest about where the record runs thin.
Chapters:
00:00 The censor's brush
01:17 A car built to run away
03:00 The gun that was too small
04:39 Gerlich, Janeček and the squeeze-bore
06:22 The Littlejohn adaptor: 88 mm at 450 m
07:42 Normandy: the Tetrarchs
09:17 Bluecoat: five men on a bridge
11:43 The German idea Germany couldn't feed
13:24 Fitted or stowed? Brussels and the censored photo
15:47 Driel: through the fog to the Poles
17:20 The real shape of it, and Varsity
19:14 The word "killer"
20:25 To the end, and back to the brush
Sources:
Steven J. Zaloga and Brian Delf, US Anti-tank Artillery 1941-45 (Osprey, 2005)
Keith Flint, Airborne Armour: Tetrarch, Locust, Hamilcar and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment 1938-50 (Helion)
Roden Orde, The Household Cavalry at War: Second Household Cavalry Regiment (1953)
Daimler Fighting Vehicles Project: http://www.daimler-fighting-vehicles....
Imperial War Museum and The Tank Museum, Bovington: Daimler Armoured Car Mk I collections
⚠️ No documented case (unit, date, crew) of a Littlejohn-armed Daimler knocking out a German tank was found; "Panzer killer" here means what the gun could do.
⚠️ Sources differ on whether František Janeček or his son brought the squeeze-bore to Britain, and on whether the Littlejohn was usually fitted or carried stowed.
⚠️ The 2nd Household Cavalry's own history puts A Squadron in Brussels at about 17:30 on 3 September 1944; other accounts credit the Welsh Guards as first. The officer at Le Bény-Bocage is spelled Powle (also Powell).
#WW2 #MilitaryHistory #DaimlerArmouredCar #LittlejohnAdaptor #BritishArmy
15 Comments
If you have the opportunity, and are calm enough to try for turret, in most tanks up until about the 70’s, that is a solid hit.
The tank might survive, but is unlikely to be combat effective.
All you need.
Also; please pronounce the letter "t" as in British, rather than Bri-ish,.
The Secret British Modification That Turned Tiny Daimler Armoured Cars Into Panzer Killers
British Trick Files
90,224 views
How did a tiny British Daimler armoured car with a "too small" 2-pounder gun become a Panzer killer? This WW2 documentary follows the Littlejohn adaptor, the secret squeeze-bore tube that let the Daimler's 2-pounder punch through 88 mm of armour at 450 metres, more than the front of a Panzer IV, in Normandy, Holland and Germany, 1944-45.
On 17 September 1944 a British censor painted that tube out of a photograph of Household Cavalry cars. The film shows why: Hermann Gerlich's German squeeze-bore idea, František Janeček's work in Czechoslovakia, and the tungsten Germany ran out of. Then the crews who carried it: the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment at the Souleuvre bridge in Operation Bluecoat, in Brussels and through the fog to the Poles at Driel, the 11th Hussars, the Tetrarch and Locust light tanks that landed by glider in Normandy and in Operation Varsity, and a King Tiger trial report. One Daimler still stands in the Tank Museum at Bovington.
British military history, told from the record, and honest about where the record runs thin.
Chapters:
00:00 The censor's brush
01:17 A car built to run away
03:00 The gun that was too small
04:39 Gerlich, Janeček and the squeeze-bore
06:22 The Littlejohn adaptor: 88 mm at 450 m
07:42 Normandy: the Tetrarchs
09:17 Bluecoat: five men on a bridge
11:43 The German idea Germany couldn't feed
13:24 Fitted or stowed? Brussels and the censored photo
15:47 Driel: through the fog to the Poles
17:20 The real shape of it, and Varsity
19:14 The word "killer"
20:25 To the end, and back to the brush
Sources:
Steven J. Zaloga and Brian Delf, US Anti-tank Artillery 1941-45 (Osprey, 2005)
Keith Flint, Airborne Armour: Tetrarch, Locust, Hamilcar and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment 1938-50 (Helion)
Roden Orde, The Household Cavalry at War: Second Household Cavalry Regiment (1953)
Daimler Fighting Vehicles Project: http://www.daimler-fighting-vehicles....
Imperial War Museum and The Tank Museum, Bovington: Daimler Armoured Car Mk I collections
⚠️ No documented case (unit, date, crew) of a Littlejohn-armed Daimler knocking out a German tank was found; "Panzer killer" here means what the gun could do.
⚠️ Sources differ on whether František Janeček or his son brought the squeeze-bore to Britain, and on whether the Littlejohn was usually fitted or carried stowed.
⚠️ The 2nd Household Cavalry's own history puts A Squadron in Brussels at about 17:30 on 3 September 1944; other accounts credit the Welsh Guards as first. The officer at Le Bény-Bocage is spelled Powle (also Powell).
#WW2 #MilitaryHistory #DaimlerArmouredCar #LittlejohnAdaptor #BritishArmy