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It has come to my attention about "HMS Spurious Mk.II". A bus converted to look like the island of an aircraft carrier, it could be driven down a runway to simulate a moving vessel to help trainee carrier pilots learn to land on a moving deck.
The image was taken at HMS Peewit, the naval air station at Arbroath, during WW2. I is © IWM A24702
I think this landship might be your sort of thing @TheDreadShips
Here it is again, this time being used in the training of the deck control officers (they guys with the flags and yellow vests). The aircraft is a Fairey Barracuda, whose appearance is best not spoken about.
Fairey successfully designed a plane that looked more airworthy after an actual crash than when safely stowed on deck.
And here is HMS Spurious Mk. I at HMS Condor in Arbroath (I think I said Peewit was in Arbroath, it was in Carnoustie). This time a lorry and trailer. © IWM A 19574
Same energy.
And from the 1920s, a van converted into a minelayer to demonstrate to crowds at a tattoo how it all works. They were big into live action aerial bombing demonstrations at the time, so assume the Navy wanted a piece of that action too https://twitter.com/VernonMonument/status/1291788232313778176?s=20
Much more terrifying is the Edinburgh Local Defence Volunteers' "Little Navy" in October 1940, they have commandeered a small boat and armed it with a Lewis machine gun and 2 rifles. Taken on the Union Canal at Fountainbridge (probably more of a stunt than anything) © IWM H4938
They'd definitely win a naval shooting match with the men of 2nd Platoon "C" Company, 46th Riding (Doncaster) Battalion Home Guard though © IWM H 21579
This thread wouldn't be complete without mention of the
Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway's Home Guard armed and armoured narrow gauge train.
Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway's Home Guard armed and armoured narrow gauge train.
IT looks to be packing 4 Lewis machine guns and a pair of "Boys" 0.55" anti-tank rifles. (Almost useless against all but the oldest, lightest tanks but enough to deal with lorries or armoured cars with a lucky shot)
One more for the "neccessity is the mother of invention" category. The Bison Concrete Armoured Lorries! Developed by Concrete Ltd, effectively short life expectancy "mobile" pillboxes for airfield defence. A precast concrete body on any old lorry chassis. The stop-gaps stop-gap.
Airfields are big and flat with long perimeters, so hard to defend. The idea was if it was attacked, you drove your Bisons to the point of assault. At this point the tyres and running gear would likely be knocked out, but you left behind a concretey thorn in the attack.
