The Kings Regiment
The Humber Pig
The Humber ‘Pig’ was originally a
stop-gap vehicle produced to provide the British army with an armoured personnel
carrier.
With the end of the Second World War, the British army had a number of obsolete
Universal Carrier vehicles, which it either
sold or scrapped, without ordering a replacement vehicle. However, the Malaysian
emergency in the late 1940’s showed
that there was still a desperate need for an enclosed APC for the British Army.
One result was the Saracen APC.
The other, introduced to fill the gap in Saracen availability, was the Humber
Pig.
This was the vehicle I spent what seemed like a lifetime driving around
Londonderry in.
The basic design is an armoured
hull built on a standard truck chassis of the Humber 1 ton truck, the FV1601.
It was apparently nicknamed the Pig for it’s snout like front and it being a pig
to drive!
In this respect, the Pig is similar to the Armadillo (of Home Guard fame) and
the Soviet BTR 40, an armoured
adaptation of an existing chassis. Some 1700 were originally produced. By the
book, there are two crew and
six passengers carried. Practically, this would be eight to ten passengers or a
standard rifle section.
Two rectangular firing ports are mounted in the side and there is a firing port
in each of the rear doors.
Its 4.5 litre 6 cylinder Rolls Royce B60 engine developed 120 brake horsepower
and a speed of 64kph.
The original Pig had radio command
(FV1613) and Ambulance (FV1612) versions.
Another version, the FV 1620 Hornet, consisted of an armoured cab and a launcher
for the Malkara ATGW, a first generation Anti Tank Guided Missile.
The 'Pig' started out life as a 1 ton general purpose truck. This one is in Desert Livery. THe 1 ton Humber in general livery. Armour was added for active service in troubled spots such as Aden. Note the lack of armour over the rear roof area. This is the Pig that NI Vets will recognise. this one has side screens to help with crowd control. Londonderry around 1972. Looks like The Bogside? Of all the Humber variants the armoured version known as the Pig saw the longest service and is the most widely known variant. But the most ingenious variant must be the Hornet (FV1620) which became the launch vehicle for the Malkara Anti-Tank Guided Weapon (ATGW). The adoption of Malkara by the British Army spawned a range of other Humber variants to supply, test and repair the Malkara system.
The 'Pig' started out life as a 1 ton general purpose truck. This one is in Desert Livery.
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