8 IS ENOUGH

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, was created in 1949, the Netherlands was one of the first European signatory nations to join the Alliance, along with Belgium. In those early days the Dutch army was equipped with a mixture of post-war British and American equipment, including armored vehicles. Whilst these were perfectly serviceable in their day, by the 1950s many of the designs were becoming obsolete and required replacement designs.

In 1956 the Dutch army requested a new armored personnel carrier and approached the Eindhoven-based vehicle manufacturer Van Doorne’s Automobielfabrieken, DAF, to come up with a modern design. The following year the company