At the time of the formation of the Polish Republic, the small armed forces of the young state did not have any armored combat vehicles. Realizing the importance of such technology, the military and specialists began to develop their own projects. In November 1918, the first armored car called "Pilsudski's Tank" was built and tested in battles. Soon after its appearance, the development of a new project of a vehicle with armor and small arms began.
Galicia became one of the main areas of hostilities during the Polish-Ukrainian War. The armed formations of the West Ukrainian People's Republic put up fierce resistance to the Polish troops, and the latter wanted to receive any means of increasing their combat potential. By the end of 1918, it became clear that the most convenient and affordable means of this kind are armored vehicles. With limited capabilities, Poland began developing a new combat vehicle.
Kresowiec armored car, front view
According to some reports, the initiative in creating a new armored car, which later received the name Kresowiec, did not come from the military. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to the redistribution of territories not only at the level of the newly formed states. In connection with the latest events, the peasantry became more frequent, threatening the large Polish landowners. The latter risked losing their lands, and therefore turned to the army for help. It was as a result of such events that the second Polish armored car appeared.
Regardless of the prerequisites for the emergence of the project, the process of its creation was as follows. At the end of 1918 - obviously not earlier than the last days of November - the commandant of the technical defense of the city of Lviv, Wilhelm Alexander Lyutzke-Birk, and the designer Witold Aulikh began to develop a promising armored car with bulletproof protection and machine-gun armament. The preparation of the design documentation did not take much time, but the limited production capabilities seriously affected the overall turnaround time.
A promising armored car was supposed to work in the border regions of the Polish Republic and, apparently, it was in this connection that it received its own name Kresowiec - "Border Guard". No other designations or names were used.
Poland did not have a developed industry, and therefore the "Border Guard" project immediately faced the most serious problems. In particular, its authors failed to find a suitable truck chassis that could be equipped with an armored body. The chassis problem was solved in the most interesting way. The Praga brand self-propelled plow-tractor was used as the basis for the new armored car. According to some reports, this agricultural vehicle, built in 1914, was handed over to the designers by one of the large landowners, who was directly interested in the speedy construction of an armored car.
The self-propelled plow was a three-wheeled machine of the simplest design, designed for work in the fields. The basis of such a chassis was a narrow frame of high elongation, in the front of which the power plant was located. Behind her was a pair of large driving wheels, behind which a control post with a driver's seat was mounted. The rear beam of the frame, protruding beyond the limits of such a "cabin", had a device for installing a small steerable wheel. In the initial configuration, such a machine was supposed to tow a plow with several working bodies.
The Praga plow was equipped with a 32 hp gasoline engine. With the help of a mechanical transmission with two forward gears, the torque was transmitted to the large drive wheels. The specifics of work in the field determined the main features of the chassis. So, large drive wheels, built on the basis of spokes, were adapted for work on the ground and therefore equipped with wide rims with small lugs. The rear steered wheel had a simple spoked structure and was not equipped with a tire. There were no elastic elements in the chassis.
The basic vehicle was distinguished by a fairly simple design, which made it possible to build an armored car without significant alteration of the chassis. According to some reports, during the construction of the Kresowiec car, the authors of the project had to rework the control systems in order to deploy the driver's post backwards, but this information is not confirmed by other sources.
An armored body of a fairly simple design was mounted on top of a specific chassis. It consisted of a plurality of armor plates 10 mm thick mounted on the frame with rivets. Booking differentiation or rational slope angles were not used. In addition, apparently, the internal volume of the hull was not divided into compartments, and the volume of the power plant was actually combined with the manned compartment.
The front part of the frame with the engine and gearbox was covered with the original frontal unit. The engine hood was made in the form of a horizontally mounted armored cylinder of sufficient size. There was a round frontal sheet, behind which was placed a cylindrical surface that served as a roof, sides and bottom. It is curious that such an armored hood protected the engine from all directions, including from below, which the hulls of other armored cars of that time could not boast of.
Self-propelled plow Praga, which became the basis for the armored car
Directly behind the cylindrical hood was a large rectangular unit that served as the front of the habitable compartment. It was distinguished by its greater height, while its width was limited by the size of the gap between the drive wheels. Behind the rectangular part of the armored hull was a pair of protruding sponsons, which had a triangular shape in plan. The rear hull sheet was positioned vertically and was made in the form of a curved part. From above, the car was protected by a horizontal roof.
In the central part of the building, a turret was placed, designed to monitor the surrounding area. The turret consisted of a cylindrical base of low height, on which a conical part and another cylinder of a smaller diameter were placed. A gap was provided between the two upper parts of the turret, which provided free all-round visibility.
The chassis received only partial protection. The spokes of the driving wheels were covered with shields in the form of truncated pyramids, assembled from several quadrangular sheets. The rear beam of the frame and the steering wheel were completely located outside the armored hull and did not have any protection. However, the metal rear wheel was not exposed to special risks even without protection.
The Kresowiez armored car was armed with three machine guns. The photographs available show that the installations were to be fitted with water-cooled machine guns. At the disposal of the Polish Republic at that time there were machine guns of various types with a similar design. Thus, the machine could be used by the Austro-Hungarian MG 08 or Schwarzlose machine guns. Also, some sources mention the use of Russian "Maxims". One way or another, the design of the armored body provided for the installation of three machine guns.
The first machine gun was located on the installation of the frontal sheet of the hull. The ball mount was placed directly above the cylindrical hood and made it possible to fire at targets in a small sector of the front hemisphere. Airborne sponsors received large, wide openings, behind which were the means of mounting weapons. Two aft machine guns controlled sectors of greater width and, possibly, could simultaneously fire on some areas of space. At the same time, significant sectors on the sides of the vehicle were not fired upon by any of the available machine guns.
The crew of an armored car could consist of three or four people. In front of the manned compartment, the control post and the workplace of one of the shooters were located. The other two shooters were supposed to work in the rear of the hull, in the airborne sponsons. Access to the car was provided by a door on the starboard side, placed behind the drive wheel. There was also a sunroof behind the tower. The view was provided by several hatches. So, the front shooter and the driver had their own hatches in the frontal sheet, and the view from the workplaces of the aft shooters was provided by large openings in the sides.
According to known data, the total length of the Kresowiez armored car was 7 m. A pair of onboard sponsons increased the width of the vehicle to 3.2 m. Height - 2. 9 m. Combat weight was at the level of 7-8 tons. Both in its original form and with a new one the armored body of the Praga plow chassis could not show high running characteristics. The maximum speed in the second gear of the two did not exceed 15-20 km / h. The increased load on the chassis severely limited mobility on soft terrain.
V. A. Lyutzke-Birk and V. Aulikh quickly completed the development of the project, but the construction of a new type of armored car was noticeably delayed. From one of the initiators of the project, the authors received a self-propelled plow of an available model. The construction of the armored corps was entrusted to one of the private Lviv workshops. In addition, railway workshops were involved in the work. Together, the two enterprises were able to build the only armored car of a new type in a few months. Assembly work was completed only in May 1919.
The Pogranichnik armored car was built in 1919, and this is where the information about it actually ends. This car is mentioned in the context of some events, but there is no exact data on this score. So, V. A. Lutzke-Birk later mentioned that the Kresowiez armored car was used during the battles in the Podrzeu Gardens, but did not give details of these battles. There is no information about other operations involving the armored car.
Ready armored car, view of the stern
The first armored car, built for the Polish army in 1918, was primarily used in the battles for Lviv. After the capture of the city, "Tank Pilsudski" was sent to other fronts of the Polish-Ukrainian war. Soon he became a member of the special platoon Zwiazek Aut Pancernych. It is quite possible that the "Border Guard" was also included in this unit, but accurate information on this matter has not been preserved.
According to reports, the Kresowiez armored car was created not only to strengthen the army, but also to protect land holdings from encroachments. In this case, he had to fight with armed detachments of peasants who did not have the most perfect weapons and, by definition, did not have modern technology. Thus, in such conditions, as a defender of land, an armored car could show good results. Bulletproof armor and three machine guns could be a serious argument in the confrontation with poorly trained and armed infantry.
The meeting with the subdivisions of a full-fledged army, having at least artillery, could end for the armored car "Border Guard" in the most sad way. The 10-mm armor only protected against bullets and shrapnel. In addition, some other design features, such as the presence of large openings in the sponsons and the lack of rear wheel protection, could negatively affect survivability in a combat situation.
Information about the combat path of the Kresowiec armored car, which became the second vehicle of its class in the Polish army, has not survived. It is only known that he began his service in the spring of 1919. It can be assumed that the vehicle remained in service for some time, but then it was destroyed in battle or decommissioned when the resource was used up. One way or another, the armored car had to end its service no later than the mid-twenties.
In connection with the outbreak of the war, the Polish army needed various types of weapons and equipment, but the available opportunities did not allow getting everything they wanted. As a result, it was necessary to independently develop and build new machines, using only the available opportunities. The situation was such that an agricultural vehicle became the basis for the next armored car. Unfortunately, most of the information about the operation of the Kresowiec armored car has not survived, but even without this data, such a machine is of great interest from the point of view of technology and history.
