Ehrhardt E - V / 4 The E - V / 4 Panzerkraftwagen Ehrhardt was one of the first examples of a type of high and flatsided armoured car design that the Germans used almost until the start of the Second World War for internal policing duties . It weighed nearly 9 tons , had a crew of eight or nine , and carried an armament of up to three machine - guns . History . Conception and design . The very first German armoured cars were special large car or truck chassis adapted to carry a skyward - looking artillery piece for use against observation balloons . These vehicles were collectively known as " Ballon Abwehr Kanonen " ( BAK ) , though none were taken into large - scale use . The Belgians were the first to demonstrate the potential of the armoured car in mobile warfare , with the Minerva Armoured Car . German infantry and cavalry were at times distinctly inconvenienced by the hit - and - run tactics employed by the Belgian armoured cars . Having suffered somewhat at the hands of these vehicles , the German Army decided to produce its own armoured car , but without any practical experience they approached the car manufacturing companies Ehrhardt , Daimler and Büssing , and ordered a prototype armoured car from each . During 1915 , the three companies produced the ordered prototypes . In all three cases , the companies chose to ignore the fact that the Belgian armoured cars were little more than converted touring cars , and developed what they perceived to be more suitable vehicles . As a result , all three prototypes were massive vehicles , the largest of which were the Büssing . This vehicle used a ' double - ended ' layout that could at least pose a tactically useful high ground clearance . The Ehrhardt and Daimler designs were very similar . Both placed the engine in the front , surrounded by armour , and had a large box - like body at the rear with a turret or cupolas on the top . Both sported a clumsy appearance , and was far too heavy for the effective fulfillment of the operational tasks the German Army demanded of them . The Daimler and Ehrhardt prototypes were both reliant on the use of double wheels on each side of the rear , and had flanges on the single wheels at the front of the vehicle , in an effort to reduce ground pressure and so enhance the cross - country mobility of the vehicle to a useful degree . All three cars had a crew of eight or nine men , carried an armament of at least three machine guns , and possessed a maximum armour thickness of 9 mm . Operational history . Along with some improvised conversions , the three prototypes were formed into one unit and sent to first the Baltic and then to the Western Front . Conditions on both fronts were so bad that armoured cars could achieve very little , and the vehicles were eventually deployed on the Russian part of the Eastern Front , where they could at least use their mobility to some effect . It was then that there emerged a need for more vehicles , and so Ehrhardt was contracted to build a further 20 vehicles . These vehicles were 1 . 72 tons lighter than the original Panzerkraftwagen Ehrhardt 1915 . Designated the Panzerkampfwagen Ehrhardt 1917 , these vehicles were completed with revised frontal armour . The vehicles were sent to the Eastern Front and served there until the end of the fighting there late in 1917 . Thereafter they were retained in Germany for internal policing duties . They were so successful in this role that an additional 20 vehicles were ordered and produced in 1919 . The E - V / 4 was in fact considered just what internal policing required , for its height gave it the capacity to tower over crowds and offer police units better control of riots . E - V / 4 ' s were in use almost until World War II . The requirement for armoured cars were so high that by 1918 , the Germans were forced to employ numbers of captured armoured cars of Rolls - Royce or other make , and the Ehrhardt vehicles were never around in sufficient numbers . On the Eastern Front the cars were never able to make much of a tactical impression , and so the design is now little known and few operational details have survived .