Vichy Automitrailleuse Dodge-White

French Automitrailleuse Dodge-White

When General Maxime Weygand was made Delegate-General of the colonies in North Africa in September 1940, he found the forces there in some disarray, so set about reoganising and instituting changes.

One of his first orders was to break up armoured and motorised units - Chasseurs d`Afrique, Foriegn Legion Cavalry and other Spahis and local units, to create independent mechanized columns with integrated artillery, armour and infantry (horsed cavalry too).

Weygand  found the quality of material left in Lebanon and Syria after the fall of France to be generally in a poor state of readiness. So began organising a program to cannibalize useful parts from the worst vehicles to rebuilt and recover others in better working condition.

Among the vehicles so built were the Automitrailleuse Dodge-White. By combining the chassis of the Dodge 3T trucks or T110 (purchased from Egypt) and the armored plates of outdated White and White-Laffly armoured cars, some dating back to WWI, the French engineer teams were able to create a few of these basic but functional armoured cars. They served along with refurbished White-Lafflys in the mixed mobile columns. Another variant without a turret called the automitrailleuse Dodge (having run out of spare White-Lafflys to cannibalize), was called the Tanake.

The Tanake and the Dodge-White soldiered on with the Free French in Egypt, and some ended up in the Syrian army, well past WWII.

From photos I`ve identified two different configurations one with a small hexagonal turrent - Which appears to have been taken off a Panhard 165/175 (similar in looks to the AM80), this turret was retrofitted with a 25mm SA 37L gun, whilst the other has a round turret from a White AM50.

I`ve found very little actual information on the vehicles, but I would assume they weighed around 4-5 tons with a maximum speed of 60-70 MPH in perfect conditions.

Photos and plans

Dodge T110 with D60 cab

You will note one this one the White turret still has the 37mm SA18 gun and the front is rounded, not just flat plates

This is the photo which first inspired my obsession to own one for my collection

Note the White turret seems to have only a machine gun

Two photos of the second type with the 25mm gun

                                                              

Photo off the internet of someones wonderful model

Photo taken by me of a 20mm model by Senor Francisco Sánchez Abril at the Museo Militar de Cartagena 

My model

Now as some of you will be aware I have two very clever and technical boys - Alex and Chris. Alex has had a 3D printer for quite a while and produces bits for his hobby with it. Chris is at the end of his four year Bio-Medical Engineering Degree and one of this years projects was to plan and create a 3D model. So he asked me if there was anything I really wanted and I said one of these Dodge-Whites

This is Chris` basic plan to create a Dodge-White, you can see from the drawing the super-imposed Dodge Tanake, so he could work out the scale. After a month or so of trial and error, he sent the STL file he`d created to his brother and Alex produced an 8-part kit.

After some sanding and messing about the model looked like this

Ages back Paul of EWM supplied me with a white metal AM50 turret

Being pedant I am I tinkered - swapped the gun for a nicer Hotchkiss barrel, added a bumper and scored doors into each side. 

Painted up she looks fine (note the added head-lights)

Alternate White turret