ROMFELL PANZERWAGEN - AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE - 1918

Description

In 1905, the very promising Daimler armored car was dismissed by the Austro-Hungarian general staff as “not fit for service”. It is said that the vehicle had scared the horse of at least one dignitary in an official demonstration. Emperor Franz Ferdinand himself declared these vehicles unfit for military operations. However, after 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Army soon realized its error. The trigger came from the Russians, who largely developed armored cars, and the Italians, who quickly followed in World War I. What is frequently forgotten is that the Eastern Front was largely mobile, contrary to the Western Front. Operational history for the model is rather foggy. The 1915 vehicle could have been used in both the Balkans and in Russia. There is a photo of one Romfell on the Italian front in 1918, as part of K.u.K. Panzerautozug No.1. This unit was equipped with two Junovicz P.A.1s, one Romfell P.A.2, one captured Lancia Ansaldo IZ, and one ex-Russian Austin Armored Car. It operated in the vicinity of Udine, on the central Italian Front. The second model, according to Jung, was possibly damaged and rebuilt using a captured 2-ton Fiat chassis. This led to the supposition that even more Romfells were built on these Fiat chassis just before the end of the war. The Romfell may have been impressive and groundbreaking on paper, but it was nevertheless a disappointment in practice. It was slow, too heavy for its chassis, and had poor if any off-road capabilities. According to Peter Jung, one Romfell also fell into the hands of Romanian troops at the end of 1919, under the name «Resita». The final fate of the vehicles is unknown. (Scale : 1/35e)