The beauty of creativity is that it can yield all things spectacular, which often goes for beauty. In the context of war, you have the license to push your creativity to its limits and come up with something useful.
On the darker side, “spectacular” can be subjective. It can be more of creepy than it is graceful. These ten WWII armored oddballs are proof of just how far south creativity can go for the sake of uniqueness, which often equals power in the context of war.
10. The Fox Armored Car
The Fox was a four-wheeled armored combat vehicle manufactured during WWII by Canada’s General Motors. It was designed based on the Mk III, a British Humber Armored Car. The Fox was however adapted to a design befitting the Canadian Military Pattern, CMP truck chassis.
The armored car could accommodate four men inside. These included its commander, a gunner, wireless operator and the driver. About 1,506 of the armored cars were manufactured.
The Fox Armored Car was used in operations in various countries including the Italy, the UK and India during World War II. The Polish 15th Pułk Ułanów Poznańskich unit relied extensively on this car while they fought in Italy.
The Netherlands also used it when they ran short of the Humber armored cars supply. The country had about 39 of the Fox Armored Cars. Out of these, 34 were hybrids called Humfox. These were fitted with Humber Mk. IV turrets and were very popular. The collection was eventually passed on to Indonesia after The Netherlands gained its independence.
The Fox did not end with the end of WWII. And as soon the 2nd World War was over, the fleet went to the Portuguese Army, who eventually used them in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea for their counterinsurgency measures between 1961 and 1975.
9. The Rhino
The Rhino, also referred to as The Rhino Heavy Armored Car, was developed by the Australian government in 1941 partly as a result of the UK’s failure to meet the Commonwealth demands set out to regulate the supply of armored combat vehicles.
It was fitted with an armored hull approximately 30 millimeters thick to the front, and 11 millimeters thick to the sides and the rear.
All sides had a thirty-millimeter cap and a turret finish. It was armed with a 40 mm two-pound gun and a 7.7-mm Vickers machine gun.
The Rhino project was scraped out in 1943 due to its excess weight and after it suffered from the actions of the enemies. It therefore never went past its prototype stage.