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Here is something I never knew of before. A Guinness 3-ton Daimler truck commandeered by the British during the 1916 rising. Apparently, it was armoured with steel plates and a locomotive cab roof added for overhead protection
I read about this "APC" many years ago, one interesting point was that the a number of the firing slits in the boiler were just painted on to confuse the "Rebels" who might try to put a shot through them.
A quote from page 183 of the book "The easter rebellion" by Max Caulfield.
"General Lowe and Col. Portal were trying out their own improvised armoured vehicles. They were Portal's idea. First he secured 2 big iron boilers from guinness's brewery and the inchicore railway works. He asked the railway men to mount these on 2 motor lorries and in the sides had holes and slits bored through which troops could fire. Dummy holes were painted bside the real ones to confuse the rebels. Each boiler accomodated 18 soldiers in some discomfort, but certainly comparative safety.
Volunteer Joseph Sweeney watched the first of these iron-clad nightmares lumber down Sackville Street untill it got as far as the Gresham hotel, were it halted momentarily. Beside him Volunteer Sammy Reilly and several other men were blazing away at it, despite a terrible feeling of helplessness. No one was sure whether it had advanced merely on reconnaissance or whether it was the spearhead for an attack.
Sweeney's weapon was a modern lee-enfield and he was a good shot; takin careful aim, he fired at the narrow slit in the front, hoping to hit the driver. His first 3 or 4 shots bounced off the armour, but 1 must have got through because, after a jerky attempt to restart, the iron-clad stopped dead. For the remainder of the afternoon it lay immobilized, a stuffed prehistoric monster that belonged in a museum.
Woo Hoo, finally moderated!!!!! In that select band of people who speak their mind instead of being sheep!
If you look a little closer you will see that the common belief that boilers from the Guinness Brewery were used is in fact a misconception. The trucks were from the brewery but the 'armoured' section on the trailer were in fact from railway engines at Inchicore. Note the opening on the door at the rear where coal was shovelled in!
In fact I must stand corrected on some detail here. On the Great War Forum website the situation is well explained. It seems there were three modified Daimler trucks, (Guinness trucks) modified in Inchicore. Two of the Daimler trucks as seen above, used smoke box components four sections per truck, welded together. The third truck had a rectangular box (eight smoke box sections had exhausted the stock of spares at the railway works at Inchicore and other materials were used).
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