The only armored vehicles incorporated into the Dutch Army were armored cars of various designs. The Dutch "Light" Division contained two squadrons of armored cars. The 1st and 2nd Armored Car Squadrons were each equipped with twelve Swedish Landsverk L181 armored cars, mounting a Bofors 37mm anti-tank gun and three 7.92mm Lewis machineguns.

Each squadron also contained a single "commander's variant" of the Landsvek L180, which mounted only four machineguns. A 3rd Armored Car Squadron was being formed at The Hague at the time of the invasion; it was being equipped with twelve domestically produced Van Doorne PT-3 armored cars and was intended to replace the armored car sections in the Corps' husar regiments. At the time of the invasion, however, several of these vehicles were still unarmed and they took no part in the fighting.

Each of the four Dutch army corps had a section of two armored cars attached to its husar regiment. Three of these vehicles were domestically designed and produced "Buffel" armored cars mounting three or four Lewis machineguns. The remaining five vehicles were British Vickers-CardenLoyd Mark IV tankettes (although the Dutch referred to them as tracked armored cars) mounting only two machine guns.

In addition to the above, there were about a half dozen armored cars of various designs and one or two light tanks around the country. These vehicles had not been incorporated in the Dutch Army as they were either police vehicles in storage or experimental vehicles being evaluated prior to the placing of production orders by the Army. For more detail upon the Dutch armored cars, see Mr. Fred Vos' article in AFVGZ volume 6, number 7.

More The Dutch Army 1940

Dutch Defense Plan
Infantry
Armor
Cavalry, AA, Artillery
Air Force
Order of Battle: May 10, 1940