page_title: Armoured Autocar
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Armoured Autocar / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Cleaning armoured cars, Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade. Photograph shows six armoured autocars of the First Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, being cleaned. The nearest vehicle is fitted with two Vickers machine guns. Presumably in France. April,
context_page_description: The Armoured Autocar was a Canadian armoured car used as a mobile machine gun nest during the First World War.
context_section_description: The Armoured Autocar was developed by Major Raymond Brutinel, who immigrated to Canada from France. Brutinel, a Captain in the French Army Reserve, became a self-made millionaire in Canada prior to the beginning of World War I. At the beginning of the war, he promoted an idea to combine machine guns and mechanical mobility. Brutinel assured the Minister of Militia that he could raise a mobile machine gun unit with private funds. Raising units with private funding was a standard practise of the time. As Vickers machine guns were unavailable at the time, Brutinel travelled to the Colt Company of Hartford, Connecticut and placed an order for 20 Colt machine guns. He then travelled to the Autocar Company of Ardmore, Pennsylvania to purchase truck chassis which had a reliable reputation, and which could support the weight of the armour. He then moved on to the Bethlehem Steel Company where he bought stocks of 9.5mm armour plate.
caption: Members of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade clean their Armoured Autocars
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