By The Marmon Herrington Mk4 SARC (South African Reconnaissance Car) was introduced to Allied forces in 1943 after wheeled vehicles had proved very useful in the first engagements with the Afrika Korps. The SARC was a speedy (85 km/h, 53 mph) reconnaissance vehicle, lightly armoured (12mm – 30mm) and armed with a 2-pounder (40mm) canon plus coaxial Browning 7.62mm machine gun) in an open-topped turret.
It was used by South African, British, Indian, New Zealand, Greek, Free French, Polish, Dutch and Belgian forces, but came too late for the Desert War and was mostly used in Sicily and mainland Europe.
5,746 SARCs were built during the war, and afterwards many of them found a home with Syrian, Israeli and Greek forces. They saw action with the Greek Cypriot army during the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus, and were still in the Greek Army inventory in the early 1990s.
As David Fletcher at the Bovington Tank Museum explains, it’s an odd name to have…
This Mk4 SARC, in Free French colours, can be seen at the French National Tank Museum in Saumur. And if you can’t get there, as you can see from the video, there’s another at Bovington.
