Morris Light Reconnaissance Car

Morris Light Reconnaissance Car
Morris LRC of the RAF Regiment, Tunisia, 30 March 1943.
Production history
Manufacturer	Morris
Number built	2,200
Specifications
Weight	3.7 t
Length	13 ft 4 inch (4.06 m)
Width	6 ft 8 inch (2.03 m)
Height	6 ft 2 inch (1.88 m)
Crew	3
Armor	8-14 mm
Main armament	Boys anti-tank rifle
Secondary armament	0.303 Bren machine gun
Engine	Morris 4-cylinder petrol 72 hp (54 kW)
Power/weight	24 hp/tonne
Suspension	Mk I: 4 x 2 wheel Mk II: 4 x 4 wheel
Operational range	240 miles (385 km)
Speed	50 mph (80 km/h)

Morris Light Reconnaissance Car was a British light armoured car for reconnaisance use produced by the Morris Motor Company and used by the British during the Second World War.

The vehicle had an unusual internal arrangement, with three-man crew sitting side by side by side with the driver in the middle, a crewman manning a small multi-sided turret mounting Bren light machine gun at the right side, and another with Boys .55 inch anti tank rifle (mounted in brackets in the hatches on the hull roof) and access to radio set at the left. From 1940 to 1944 over 2,200 were built.

The vehicle was used in Africa, Italy and in the Northern Europe. Some served with the RAF Regiment. Some were given to Polish units.

One of the surviving vehicles is on display at the Duxford Imperial War Museum, another at the Bovington Tank Museum.

RAF Morris LRC on an airfield in the Azores, January 1944.

Variants

• Mk I - original version.
  • Mk I OP - observation post version. No turret. Equipped with two rangefinders.
• Mk II - four-by-four chassis.
• Morris Experimental Tank - had two turrets. Never reached production.
• Firefly - an experiment by Morris to use 6 pounder guns from the period before the tanks became available to mount them. A QF 6 pounder anti-tank gun was mounted in the front of the hull. It was rejected.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Fletcher, The Great Tank Scandal 1989 HMSO

References

• George Forty - World War Two Armoured Fighting Vehicles and Self-Propelled Artillery, Osprey Publishing 1996, ISBN 1-85532-582-9.
• I. Moschanskiy - Armored vehicles of the Great Britain 1939-1945 part 2, Modelist-Konstruktor, Bronekollektsiya 1999-02 (И. Мощанский - Бронетанковая техника Великобритании 1939-1945 часть 2, Моделист-Конструктор, Бронеколлекция 1999-02).
• WWIIvehicles

External links

• Missing-lynx.com
• Morris LRC website

v · d · e	British Commonwealth armoured fighting vehicles of World War II

British armoured fighting vehicle production during World War II