This short article was published on this blog last year, but Joe asked me to publish it again. It’s slightly modified (small corrections) and maybe some new members will read it now for the first time. Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my native language 
MYTHS REGARDING BELGIAN ARMORED CARS OF 1914
The research regarding Belgian armored cars of WW1 is very poor outside Belgium. As I’m fascinated with them, I read many Belgian books and articles and came to the conclusion that:
1. Knowledge about Belgian armored cars used on the Western Front is very scattered (it’s better when it comes to the Belgian armored cars on the Eastern Front) – you need to read a lot and you still won’t have a full picture – there is no “Bible” on the subject, even in Belgium;
2. There’s not much info on Belgian armored cars of WW1 in English;
3. What’s even worse – almost everything written by non-Belgian authors in books, articles and the Internet in wrong (and even some Belgian authors make mistakes!).
So here are the myths I and was able to track down, thanks to some Belgian publications:
MYTH 1: “The Belgians haven’t produced armored cars before the Great War”.
COMMENT: There was at least one Belgian armored car before the war – Auto-Mixte produced in 1911 – but the Belgian army wasn’t interested in it and it wasn’t adopted.
MYTH 2: “Lieutenant Charles Henkart used his two private Minerva cars, which were armored after the outbreak of the war”.
COMMENT: These cars were not Minervas. In reality these were Opel 40/100 HP and Pipe 80 HP and it was established at least in the 1980s, or even sooner (but this myth can still be found in numerous publications). These were most probably not Henkart’s private cars – they were captured from the Germans on 13th August 1914 at Boneffe. After that the Belgians armed the Opel with a Lewis machine gun (it’s impossible Germans would use this weapon so early in the war).
MYTH 3: “During his last battle, Henkart and his men fought against 450 German cavalry, killing 25 of them”.
COMMENT: He indeed probably came across around 450 Germans, but it was on 20th August and then he survived. In reality, during his last battle he fought against around 70 German infantry.
MYTH 4: “During Henkart’s last battle all the Belgians were killed”.
COMMENT: There were 3 Belgian armored cars in this battle, with crews of 4 in each. Of 12 Belgians 3 were killed on the spot and 2 later died in hospitals. There was also one POW. The Belgians lost one armored car, two other escaped and all the dead and wounded were taken back.
MYTH 5: “Henkart’s last battle took place on 6t September 1914”.
COMMENT: There’s no doubt that this battle took place on 5th September 1914. Wrong date of 6th September can be found in Camille Buffin’s “La Belgique héroïque et vaillante” (English translation: “Brave Belgians”) and probably this is the reason that in can be found so often in other publications.
MYTH 6: “Henkart’s last battle was a result of Germans’ ambush on Henkart or Henkart’s ambush on Germans”.
COMMENT: While the former claim is somehow possible, the latter is surely not. My educated guess is that it was a meeting engagement, the presence of the enemy being a surprise to both sides. In my opinion the Germans were not purposely hunting Henkart on this day, they couldn’t have known that he would be in that place (Westerlo) at that time.
MYTH 7: “The Belgian Expeditionary Corps of Armoured Cars in Russia was equipped with Minerva armored cars”.
COMMENT: All Minervas stayed on the Western Front. The Corps used Mors and Peugeot armored cars (plus three Russian: two Armstrong-Whitworth-Fiats and one Renault-Mgebrov).
MYTH 8: “The thickness of Minerva armored cars’ armor was 4 mm”.
COMMENT: While you’ll find this info in almost all publications (sometimes it’s “5 mm”), according to research by the late Georges E. Mazy (in my opinion world’s leading authority on Belgian armor of WW1) in reality early Minervas’ armor was probably made of two layers of 3 mm steel, and between them there were 50 mm of wood. As it didn’t work well, later it was changed to simple 7 mm armor.
MYTH 9: “The Germans captured 3 or 4 Minerva armored cars”.
COMMENT: They captured and used 2 for sure, but there is absolutely no proof that they captured more.
MYTH 10: “The Belgians up-armored their Minerva armored cars in 1916, by adding armored roofs”.
COMMENT: No. Only the Germans up-armored their two Minervas, by adding some forms of partial roofs.
MYTH 11: “There was at least one Minerva armored car with a 37 mm cannon”.
COMMENT: I’ve seen dozens of Minerva armored cars’ photos and read good Belgian publications and I found no proof of its existence. Most probably all Minervas were armed with Hotchkiss machine gun, no exceptions are known!
MYTH 12: “There was more than one fully armored SAVA armored car”.
COMMENT: As above, no proof. According to G. E. Mazy’s research, although it looks different on some photos, it’s simply because some changes were made (the most important is that a turret was removed) to the only existing vehicle of this kind.
MYTH 13: “All armored Minervas had 38 HP engines”.
COMMENT: Half-truth. There were indeed Minervas with 38 HP engines (chassis of Minerva type MM), but some had 26 HP engines (chassis of Minerva type LL).
MYTH 14: “Minerva armored cars were built on truck chassis”
COMMENT: Luckily this wrong info is rarely seen, but to leave no doubt – Minervas were built on passenger car chassis.
