In 1915 France imported bare White Motor Company trucks chassis from the United States for which the French firm Ségur & Lorfeuvre designed, manufactured and fitted armoured hulls locally, the designers were able to draw upon lesson learnt from the earlier
Renault and
Peugeot armoured cars, the White combining the two weapons from the two variants of the Peugeot into the one turret. An initial batch of 20 vehicles were built, known as the
White AM Mle 1915. In 1915 the
Western Front had bogged down in trench warfare and there was little use in French service for armoured cars, so production was suspended. In 1917 production was recommenced using locally manufactured White truck chassis, known as the
White AM Mle 1917/1918, unlike the Mle 1915 they had right hand drive, approximately 230 were built. 205 White AMs were still in service by the war's end in 1918. In the late 1920s the original White chassis were deemed to be completely worn out, but the armoured bodywork was seen to be in good condition so in 1927 and 1928 designs were drawn up to replace the chassis. The first prototype White-Laffly AMD 50 (AMD standing for Auto-Mitrailleuse de Découverte) was delivered in 1931 and 98 examples were upgraded, despite retaining none of the original White chassis the name White was retained to indicate the vehicle's origins. It was soon determined that a further upgrade was required and so in 1933 the first Laffly-Vincennes AMD 80 was delivered, in total 28 examples were produced before the French Army switched procurement to the completely new
Panhard 178. ==Design==