{{see also|Royal Naval Air Service#Armoured Car Division}} {{Infobox military unit | image = Pierce-Arrow heavy armoured car in Galatz.jpg | image_size = 300px | caption = Pierce-Arrow armoured lorry of the Russian Armoured Car Division in Galați, Romania | unit_name = British Armoured Car Expeditionary Forces | dates = 1916–1918 | country = British Empire }} The '''British Armoured Car Expeditionary Force (ACEF)''' was a British military unit sent to Russia during the First World War. It fought alongside the Russian Empire on the Eastern Front between June 1916 and 1918. The unit consisted of 566 men.<ref>{{Cite web|title=THE RNAS ARMOURED CAR DIVISION ON THE EASTERN FRONT 1915-1918|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205315724|access-date=2021-07-21|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en}}</ref>
== History == By the end of 1915, trench warfare on the Western Front meant that there was no scope for armoured cars to be stationed there. Three squadrons of armoured cars built by the Royal Naval Air Service were supposed to be sent by ship to Archangel in Russia to fight on the Eastern Front alongside Russia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bartholomew|first=E.|title=Early Armoured Cars|publisher=Shire Publications|pages=21}}</ref> However, sea ice prevented them from reaching Archangel, so the unit ended up at Alexandrovsk instead.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stibbons|first=B.|title=The Baker Brothers: Diaries from the East Front 1914-1919|publisher=Lowestoft: Poppyland Publishing|year=2018}}</ref> The ACEF fought alongside the Imperial Russian Army in Galicia, Romania and the Caucasus Mountains until the Bolshevik coup of 1917, when the ACEF was withdrawn from Russia.<ref name = "P&L">{{Cite book|last1=Perrett|first1=Bryan|last2=Lord|first2=Anthony|title=The Czar’s British Squadron|year=1981|publisher=William Kimber}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Fletcher|first=David|title=War Cars: British Armoured Cars in the First World War|publisher=HSMO}}</ref>
=== Notable personnel === * Oliver Locker-Lampson - commander of the unit * Walter Smiles
== References == <references />
Category:Military units and formations of the British Army in World War I Category:Expeditionary units and formations Category:Military units and formations established in 1916 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1918