ARMOURED CAR (Also called Combat Car). A motor ve hicle provided with protective armour and armament used for combat purposes in war and for the safe transport of cash and se curities in American cities in peace time. For some years after the World War, 1914-18, as well as during it the distinction between the armoured car and a tank was primarily based on the fact that armoured cars could only be used on roads whereas tanks could be used off roads across country. However, with the development which has taken place in recent years the distinction is now primarily based on the mission for which an armoured and armed motor vehicle is designed rather than upon its construction. This is all the more true because formerly armoured cars were not constructed with caterpillar treads; these were only found on tanks. Today some armoured cars are so built that they may operate either entirely on wheels or partially on wheels and par tially with a caterpillar tread.
The mission which is to be performed determines whether or not heavy armament and armour with low speed or higher speed at the cost of armament and armour is to be the basis of construc tion.
The armoured car is primarily a weapon for the use of mecha nized cavalry. It is above all a high speed road vehicle. It is intended primarily for reconnaissance work. It is provided with machine guns to give it a certain amount of holdingpower. It carries light armour. It is a four-wheel drive vehicle. It has a high speed reaching to sixty or seventy miles an hour.
The combat car is the result of mechanical developments, per mitting an armoured car to leave the road and to go across coun try. Like the armoured car, it is a weapon of the mechanized cavalry. Its mission is a cavalry mission, that is to say to make sudden surprise attacks and as suddenly break off and retire suc cessfully from action. It is designed to meet those cases where speed and strategic mobility are needed and where if confined to the roads as is an armoured car, it would not be prevented from carrying out the mission on which it is sent. It carries less armour than the armoured car, due to the greater weight of its pro pelling parts and the need for power to go across country with high speed. The missions of both the armoured and combat car are in contradistinction to that of the tank, which is pri marily an infantry weapon. The tank is designed to break the enemy's resistance and must carry as heavy armament and armour as is consistent with ability to move at a reasonable speed.
In late years the armoured car with armed guards has been in troduced in American cities to convey money or other valuables from place to place, especially from one bank to another or pay rolls from 'a bank to an office or factory.