Csaba armored cars
39.M Csaba armored recon car
Hungarian designer Nicolas Straussler moved to England after WW1 and estabilished his own enterprise. He returned to Hungary in 1931 because of business intrest - development in Hungary cost five times less than in England and a contract was made with Manfred Weiss factory. The General Staff of the Hungarian Army decided to wait and looked for a development of Straussler which could be used by the Hungarian Army. In 1933 Straussler made the A.C. I chassis which was good but refused by England in the end, but caught the attention of the Hungarian General Staff. The A.C. II chassis came out in 1934 which was accepted by England too, however in 1938 she stoped the production of the A.C. series. Meanwhile in Hungary the General Staff tried to purchase the licence of a foreigner armored car but the Austrian ADKZ and the Swedish Lynx cost too much and the Germans refused to sell their own armored cars. In 1938 Manfred Weiss proposed the A.C. II armored car which was accepted by the General Staff. A series of modifications and tests were made to the A.C. II in 1938. The designers always found something to change when the final form of the Csaba armored car was born in 1939 at last. The vehicle was accepted and orders were made in the same year, the armored car was put in service as the 39.M Csaba. The first vehicles were given to the troops in April, 1940. The Csaba was originally planned to be used as a reconnaissance vehicle and was used as such throughout the war because of it's excellent off-road capabilities. The thin armor plates of the vehicle did not protected the crew from AT guns but proven to be enough against small arms. The armament of the Csaba - 20mm 36.M anti-material rifle and 8mm 34/37.M Gebauer machine gun - was enough against living targets and lightly armored vehicles and the Csaba even stood up against some light tanks too. A total number of 119 or 137 Csabas were made and production continued untill 1944 when the USSR occupied Hungary and captured all the factories.
The Csaba had a 20 mm Solothurn gun and an 8 mm Gauber machine gun fixed on a centrally mounted turret, with 9 mm armoured plating.
The vehicle was also equipped with a detachable 8 mm Solothurn Light machine gun fired through the rear hatch in the anti-aircraft role.
The crew could dismount and carry this MG when conducting reconnaissance on foot.
It also had two driving positions - one at the front as normal, and an additional one at the rear.
The 40M Csaba was a command version armed only with the turret-mounted 8 mm machine gun. This vehicle was fitted with a second R-4T radio, which had a large lattice radio mast.
max. 65km/h top speed
Armament
Single 20 mm Solothurn 36M cannon along with two 8 mm machine gun.
Magazine size: 5 shells
""effective range of the weapon was 1500 meters but could fire up to 5500 meters. It was relatively accurate with 25x25 cm spread at 500 meters, 100x100 cm at 1000 meters.""
""rate of fire of the weapon was 22-26 rounds/min depending on the experience of the operators, some of them were capable to shoot 30 rounds in a minute but slower ones shot only 10 or so""​
Coaxial mg: Gebauer Tank Machine Gun 1934/37
( used 100-round metal ammunition belts . This gun was also called 34.AM. It was chambered for the 8x56 mmR 31.M ammo.
This gun was utilized in the Fiat Ansaldo tankettes, Csaba armored cars and Toldi light tanks. After 1942 it was also used on gunboats and patrol boats. The 34/37.M's were also used for air defense on the boats, so these guns were equipped with large round anti-airplane sights.
Reportedly, the unique sound of these Gebauers brought fear to the Soviet soldiers on the Eastern Front.)
back mounted MG: a Solothurn LMG
Ammunition pool for the 39.M Csaba recon car is the following:
200 shells of 20mm in 40, 5 shell capacity magazines.
3000-rounds of 31.M AP 8mm cartdiges in 100-round metal belts for the coaxial Gauber machinegun
the ammunition pool of the Solothurn is not specified
40.M Csaba commander armored car
The engineers removed the 36.M anti-tank rifle - the only weapon the Commander Csaba had was one 8mm 34/37.AM Gebauer machine gun - and placed two R-4/a radios in the place of the 20mm ammunition. With this the armored car had 3 radios, 1 R-4 and 2 R-4/a.
Ammunition pool for the 40.M Csaba commander version:
4000-rounds of 31.M AP 8mm cartdiges