From the early going, various versions of the Staghound armored car had a machine gun on the bow. That changed with the Mk.III, when the earlier rounded turret and its 37mm gun were replaced with surplus Crusader turrets mounting a 75mm gun with a coaxial .30-caliber machine gun. The bow machine was removed in favor of more storage space for the 75mm ammunition — and because there was less room inside with the bigger main armament.
According to Steven J. Zaloga in Staghound Armored Car 1942-62 (Osprey, ISBN 978-1-84603-392-6), only 32 Staghounds were converted to Mk.IIIs. A handful of these went into action with Canadian forces in Europe not long before Germany surrendered in 1945.
More than 67 years later, as I built Italeri’s 1/35 scale kit (No. 6478), I found myself mulling over the combat capabilities of the Mk.III and its possible role with the Allies if it had been in action for a longer time. If, for instance, if it had played a larger part for a longer time in mopping up the Wehrmacht across France and Germany, it might have seen more urban fighting and close-quarters combat. In that case, having only one machine gun — and, at that, one that could only be brought to bear as fast as the turret could be rotated and the main gun elevated — would be a drawback from earlier variants.
Seeing pictures of Staghounds with AEC turrets fighting in Beirut in 1982, I noticed the reappearance of an opening in an improvised field-fitted mantlet. Furthermore, I read that the II Canadian Corps’ 12th Manitoba Dragoons had a reputation for tinkering with and modifying their equipment in the field. And, I thought the Staghound looked cooler with the bow machine gun. That really was the main reason I wished I hadn’t capped off that mantlet.