"الدروس العسكرية المستفادة من الثورة العربية في فلسطين في سنة ١٩٣٦" [ظ‎‎٥‎٧] (٢٩٤/١١٩)

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justify the concentration of so much fire power in one unit. They
were also very vulnerable to a well-placed mine and, since their derail
ment would have caused serious dislocation to traffic, it was usually
necessary to allot a pilot trolly to precede them. On the whole there
is little doubt that the armoured train in Palestine was entirely uneco
nomical as a means of railv/ay protection. Armoured Train No. 1 (stand
ard gauge) was commissioned at Haifa on the 10th July and consisted of a
locomotive, three open trucks and a decoy passenger truck: it carried a
10-inch naval searchlight and a generator and was armed with two 2-pr.
pom-poms from H.M.S. "Delhi" and two Vickers and eight Lewis guns from
H.M.S. "Arethusa . " The sides of the trucks were armoured with steel
plating backed with protective mattresses, and the crew consisted of an
officer, a gunner and 31 ratings drawn from "Arethusa" and " Durban 1 *.
The train was operated on two occasions between Haifa and Jerusalem but
was never in action against the rebels, and was dismantled a month or two
later. Armoured Train No.2 (narrow gauge) was commissioned by H.M.S.
"Sussex" on the 3rd August, and performed useful service in night patrol
ling of the narrow gauge Hedjaz railway between Haifa and Samakh. It
was armed with one pom-pom and searchlight, two Maxims and six Lewis guns.
Later this train was taken over by H.M.S. " Valiant " and its composition
altered as follows, trucks being shown in the order of running: one enpty
ballast truck (as protection against mines), one truck with 18-inch
searchlight and generator protected by Lewis guns, the locomotive, and a
pom-pom truck also carrying Lewis guns. The train was controlled from
the fore end of the searchlight truck where a system of bells passed orders
to the driver and alarms to the pom-pom crew.
SERVICE M.T. VEHICJESS
purposes were the 15-
The Morris had three main disadvantages:-
(3) The exhaust was far too noisy.
crossing road trenches been added to the
to the equipment of each truck.