page_title: Gun truck
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Gun truck / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographed at the Marshallmuseum - Liberty Park - Oorlogsmuseum Overloon, The Netherlands.
context_page_description: A gun truck is an armored vehicle with
  one or more crew-served weapons used by units of regular armies or other official government armed forces to escort military convoys in regions subject to ambush by guerrilla forces, defend airfields, provide perimeter defense, or serve as mobile pillboxes for Home Guard-type defensive units. Gun trucks typically have Improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags, which is added to a heavy truck.
context_section_description: When the prospect of a German invasion of the United Kingdom seemed likely, the British Army designed and built an improvised armored vehicle, the Bedford OXA. It was based on the one and a half-ton OXD truck and was upgraded with armor plate, and armed with a .55 in anti-tank rifle and a Bren gun. Slightly less than a thousand were built by 1941, and they were employed by the British Home Guard.
  Other British examples from the invasion-scare period were the Armadillo armoured fighting vehicle  and the Bison concrete armoured lorries. Both were conventional trucks fitted with improvised armour, in the case of the Bison, a concrete fighting-compartment was carried, essentially making a mobile pillbox. The Armadillo used two walls of wood, with the space between filled with gravel. Both vehicles had poor mobility and were employed for airfield defense by the Royal Air Force.
  In the event of a surprise, airborne attack, Bisons would deploy a short distance from the key points of the airfield and probably fight from static positions, positions where fixed defenses often could not be constructed as they would impede aircraft movement during day–to–day operations. The Armadillo's mobility, while poor, was better than the Bison's and it was intended they would take on a mobile role similar to a conventional armoured vehicle.
caption: US Army gun truck, with a Quadmount on the back of a CCKW. Note the loading ramps on both sides of the truck.
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