Quick like a ferret, with a turret

The Ferret came into service in about 1952. There were two standard marks of the in-service Ferret with the British Army.TheMk1 had a crew of two and was turret-less, but get this, it is suggested that it actually had a crew of three – driver, commander and radio operator

The Mk2 also had a crew of two, but sported a one-man turret with a .30 M1919 Browning MG, the same type sported by the Saracen I. Infantry Battalions serving within the BAOR were issued with Mk2s.

Mark 2 

The Signal Platoon had one Ferret for the Regimental Signals Officer (RSO), and a Mk2 to act as the Battalion/Battlegroup Rebroadcast Vehicle. The Mk2 was still being used by the UNFICYP (Cyprus) Armoured Squadron during our UN Tour in 1987/88, not surprisingly, they were painted white.

Technical stuff

The Ferret was developed in 1949 by Daimler to replace its Dingo Scout Car of WW2 vintage. It was produced between 1952 and 1971 with 4409 of them built in 16 variants. It saw service the Malayan Emergency, the Suez Crisis, Aden and early NI. The basic vehicle weighed 3.7t, was 12ft 2 (3.7m) long, 6ft 3 (1.91m) wide and its height depended on the variant. The wheel base was 7ft 6 (2.29m). It was powered by a 4.26 litre 6-cylinder Rolls Royce B60 petrol engine developing 116bhp at 3300 rpm. It was protected by 6-16mm of armour except for overhead (Mk 1). It had an operational range of 190 miles (310k) at up to 58mph (93kph).

My Experience.

I have ave very limited experience of the Ferret. I commanded a Mk2 on one armoured exercise during the Regimental Signal Officers Course on Salisbury Plain. However, the Mk2 with its turret was always feared as it was considered to be top heavy, and therefore, prone to rolling. It is my understanding that soldiers were killed or seriously hurt commanding Mk2 over poor terrain.

David Allardice