{{Infobox weapon | name = Minerva armoured car | image = File:Automitrailleuse blindée belge MINERVA.JPG | caption = Minerva armoured car, model 1913 | origin = {{BEL}} | type = Armoured car | is_vehicle = yes | length = 4.90 m | width = 1.75 m | height = 2.00 m | weight = 3 t | suspension = 4x2 wheel | speed = 40 km/h (25 mph) | vehicle_range = 150 km (90 mi) | primary_armament = 1 x Hotchkiss model 1909 machine-gun, or 1 x Maxim M1910 machine gun, or 1 x puteaux S18, 37 mm cannon | secondary_armament = | armour = up to 3 mm | engine = 4-cyl gas. Minerva 8L | engine_power = 40 bhp at 2500 rpm | pw_ratio = | crew = 3-5 }}
The '''Minerva armoured car''' ({{langx|nl|Minerva pantserwagen}}, {{langx|fr|Automitrailleuse Minerva}}) was a military armoured car expediently developed by Minerva civilian automobiles in Belgium at the start of the First World War.
== Background == {{Main|Armoured car (military)}} At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first military armoured vehicles were manufactured by adding armour and weapons to existing vehicles. The first armoured car was the Simms' Motor War Car, designed by F.R. Simms in response to the Second Boer War and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in Britain<ref name="Crow p. 3">{{harvnb|Crow|1970|p=3}}</ref>
Another early armoured car of the period was the French Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902, presented at the ''Salon de l'Automobile et du cycle'' in Brussels, on 8 March 1902.<ref name="Gougaud p. 11 ">{{harvnb|Gougaud|1987|p=11 }}</ref> The vehicle was equipped with a Hotchkiss machine gun, and with 7 mm armour for the gunner<ref name="Bartholomew p. 4">{{harvnb|Bartholomew|1988|p=4}}</ref><ref name="Gougaud p. 11-12">{{harvnb|Gougaud|1987|pp=11–12}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Arnaud|2014|p=268}}</ref> although it, too, was only a prototype and never used in warfare.<ref name="Bartholomew p. 4" />
== History == The Minerva's use in combat in August 1914 made Belgium the first Nation to employ armoured cars in World War I,<ref name="Tucker p. 205">{{harvnb|Tucker|2005|p=205}}</ref> though Italy had previously been the first to use armoured cars in a theatre of conflict, in the 1911–1912 Italo-Turkish War.<ref name="Tucker p. 5">{{harvnb|Tucker|2004|p=5}}</ref> Also the armoured Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade was formed on August 24, 1914, and close to being assembled by that September.<ref name="Pulsifer p. 46">{{harvnb|Pulsifer|2001|p=46}}</ref>
During the war those that could afford to rode into battle on their own horses, much like this (in 1914) Lieutenant Charles Henkart arranged for two of his civilian Minerva Motor Works tourers to be armoured at the Cockerill Works in Hoboken.<ref name="Bartholomew p. 11">{{harvnb|Bartholomew|1988|p=11}}</ref> The initial armoured cars were ad hoc but soon Minerva had created a standard design. American papers were reporting the use of the armoured car by September 1914.<ref name="The Evening Herald p. ">{{harvnb|The Evening Herald|1914|p=}}</ref> The crew was partially exposed to gunfire with the open top. This would prove fatal to Lieutenant Henkart when on September 6, 1914, he was killed by gunfire after the armoured car he was in was caught in a German ambush.<ref name="Tucker p. 65">{{harvnb|Tucker|2013|p=65}}</ref><ref name="Bartholomew p. 12">{{harvnb|Bartholomew|1988|p=12}}</ref> Before the Minerva factory was captured during the German invasion and occupation of Belgium about thirty Minerva armored cars were built. In 1916 the design of the original armoured car was completely revised. The open top was now fully enclosed and the machine gun under an armoured cupola. The Belgian Army used the cars as motorised cavalry units with three-car platoons. The armoured car units were mostly used for reconnaissance, infantry fire support and missions behind enemy lines.<ref name="Bocquelet p. ">{{harvnb|Bocquelet|2014|p=}}</ref> After the Western Front became bogged down in trench warfare some of the cars were sent to the Eastern Front with the Belgian Expeditionary Corps in Russia.<ref name="Bocquelet p. " />
== Gallery ==
<gallery> Image:A Belgian Minerva armoured car and crew November 1914.jpg|1914 Image:A Belgian Minerva armoured car and Belgian soldiers at a roadblock 1914.jpg|In action at a roadblock in 1914 Image: Group of Minerva armored cars, model 1914 WW1.jpg|Combat Group – Minerva model 1914 Image: Crew of a Belgian Minerva armoured car 1914.jpg|Crew of a Belgian Minerva armoured car 1914 Image: French mariners on a Belgian Minerva armoured motor-car, WWI, 1915 (22238873201).jpg|With the French Marines in 1915 Image:Belgian corps in Russia.jpg|Belgian corps in Russia (1915–1917) Image:Gw armouredcar 01.jpg|In action (1918) </gallery>
The Germans were able to capture three of the cars and modified them for use during the invasion of Romania with at least one being used during the 1919 troubles.
== References == {{reflist|20em}}
== Bibliography == *{{cite book|first=Françoise|last=Arnaud|title=1914 La première et la seule, la Belgique fait usage d'autos blindées |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kjY3BAAAQBAJ|volume=1|date=22 August 2014|publisher=Société des Ecrivains|language=fr|isbn=978-2-342-02701-3}} *{{cite book |last=Bartholomew|first=E. | title = Early Armoured Cars|edition=1988|year=1988| publisher = Osprey Publishing| isbn= 978-0-85263-908-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PknxxLTNhU8C&pg=PA11}} <small>- Total pages: 32 </small> *{{cite web |last=Bocquelet|first=David |date=2014|url = http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1/belgium/Belgian_Minerva_Armoured_car.php|title = Tanks Encyclopedia – Minerva|publisher = tanks-encyclopedia.com| access-date = December 5, 2014 }} *{{cite book |last=Crow|first=Duncan | title = Armoured fighting vehicles of the world|edition=1970|year=1970| publisher = Profile Publications}} <small>- Total pages: 176 </small> *{{cite book |last=Douglas-Scott-Montagu|first=Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu| author-link = Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu| title = Daimler Century: The Full History of Britain's Oldest Car Maker|edition=1995|year=1995| publisher = Patrick Stephens| isbn= 978-1-85260-494-3}} <small>- Total pages: 304 </small> *{{cite book |last=Gougaud|first=Alain | title = L'aube de la gloire: les autos mitrailleuses et les chars français pendant la Grande Guerre, histoire technique et militaire, arme blindée, cavalerie, chars, Musée des blindés|edition=1987|year=1987| publisher = Société OCEBUR| isbn= 9782904255021|language=fr}} <small>- Total pages: 248 </small> *{{cite book |last=Macksey|first=Kenneth & Contributor P.H. Hordern|author-link=Kenneth Macksey| title = The Guinness Book of Tank Facts and Feats: A Record of Armoured Fighting Vehicle Achievement, Volume 7|edition=1980|year=1980| publisher = Guinness Superlatives| isbn= 978-0-85112-204-5}} <small>- Total pages: 256 </small> *{{cite journal |last=Pulsifer|first= Cameron |year=2001|title=Canada's First Armoured Unit: Raymond Brutinel and the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades of the First World War|journal= Canadian Military History|volume= 10|issue= 1, Article 5 |pages=44–57 |url=http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol10/iss1/5|access-date= December 5, 2014 |issn=1195-8472}} *{{cite news |title= Belgians Sighting Machine Guns on an Automobile|last=The Evening Herald|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99063812/1914-09-22/ed-1/seq-1/|newspaper=The Evening Herald|location=Klamath Falls, Oregon |issn= 2158-4834 |oclc=41172977 |date=September 22, 1914|access-date= December 5, 2014 }} *{{cite book |last=Tucker|first=Spencer C. & Roberts, Priscilla Mary| author-link = Spencer C. Tucker| title = World War I: A Student Encyclopedia|edition=2005|year=2005| publisher = ABC-CLIO| isbn= 978-1-85109-879-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TogXVHTlxG4C&pg=PA205}} <small>- Total pages: 2454 </small> *{{cite book |last=Tucker|first=Spencer C. | author-link = Spencer C. Tucker| title = Tanks: An Illustrated History of Their Impact|edition=2004|year=2004| publisher = ABC-CLIO| isbn= 978-1-57607-995-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N481TmqiSiUC&pg=PA5}} <small>- Total pages: 379 </small> *{{cite book |last=Tucker|first=Spencer C. & Editors Laura Matysek Wood, Justin D. Murphy | author-link = Spencer C. Tucker| title = The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia|edition=1999|year=1999| publisher = Taylor & Francis| isbn= 978-0-8153-3351-7}} <small>- Total pages: 783 </small> *{{cite book |last=Tucker|first=Spencer C. Holder of the John Biggs Chair in Military History | author-link = Spencer C. Tucker| title = The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia|edition=2013|year=2013| publisher = Routledge| isbn= 978-1-135-50694-0 }} <small>- Total pages: 816 </small>
== External links == {{Commons category|Minerva armored car}} *[http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1/belgium/Belgian_Minerva_Armoured_car.php ''Minerva''] at Tanks-Encyclopedia.com *[http://minervamotor-car.50megs.com/ Minerva Armoured Motor Car]
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Category:World War I armoured cars Category:Armoured fighting vehicles of Belgium Category:Vehicles introduced in 1914 Category:Military history of Belgium during World War I Category:Cars of Belgium