Berliet VUM

The Berliet VUM was a prototype armoured car designed between the wars by the French maker Berliet and tested in Syria by the French army, which did not adopt it. Berliet designed it in 1930 at Lyon as a light machine to meet a request from the senior command of the troops of the Levant. The Vincennes commission tested it in early 1932 and described it as too heavy and very thirsty for petrol, though good off road, and it was then sent to Syria with a Berliet team at the maker own expense. It was not selected, went back to Lyon and stayed in storage at the maker until it was scrapped in 1946. It had two axles with twin wheels at the rear, two idler wheels between the axles for cross country ability, and a second driving position at the back so that it could be driven in both directions. Its crew was four, its six cylinder engine of 95 by 140 mm gave 76 or 90 horsepower according to the source, and its empty weight of 6.8 tonnes was far from that of a light armoured car.