Tanks Monster French 1917-1945
Light, medium, heavy tanks and armored vehicles Approximately 9,000 armored military vehicles in May 1940.
France emerged from World War I with the laurels of a win and the promise of interesting developments with the little Renault FT tank the first modern mass-produced, but the vagaries of the Fourth Republic and the choices facing an aging workforce would turn to the creation of a force largely marked by strong defensive view, based mainly on the French Maginot line tanks were classified as their counterparts in Britain, in infantry and cavalry models, and few tanks of breaking out of production and test tanks was relentless in the twenties and thirties, leading to a new generation of armored vehicles in 1935-1936, which formed the bulk of the armored forces France and numerically one of the largest in the world in September 1939 4436 June 1940 6126 tanks had been delivered to the army.
Regarding the design of the tank was concerned, the French engineers came up with several innovative models of their own Army -partly because of political problems and spending focused on the Maginot was never line- with a substantial budget before 1932-1934 This forced the use of existing types, obsolete fleet of Renault and some FTs, but impressive, Renault attempted to modernize its bestselling very popular in the market export FMC-2C and Panhard courted the cavalry with armored cars.
Both have tried to implement the rail system Kégresse innovative design which turned to be more useful on half-tracks Models US M2 M3 mass product used such a system, the French, he adopted for P16 AMC and off-highway trucks and gun tractors delivered to the army.
Casting has been incorporated into the manufacturing French tanks earlier, in 1934-1935, first for the turrets and hulls H35 Hotchkiss for example, was the first to be built entirely by melting sections of the hull needs three sections, the driver's compartment, fighting compartment and was less manpower engine compartment, allowing standardization of mass production of castings welded together lowered the weight, and prevent the risk of chipping the SOMUA S35 also makes great use of a shell completely cast and the turret, as with many large prefabricated parts Its design remained influential when the United States decided to build the M4A1 Sherman.
Other innovative features are more specific, such as steering leo o pneumatic system designed to guide the massive hull of the heavy tank B1 In this case, the driver is also the main 75 mm 2 95 in the gun Many other tanks allowed limited crossing to their hull weapon, which compensates for the lack of precision of the standard braking system steering the french engineers, however, have designed a system theoretically giving the greatest possible precision to the driver, allowing however precise crossing this system was too fragile and complex operations.
French tanks were generally better protected than their German opponents of the reasons was their doctrine of use, they are not considered as independent units but distributed among the infantry units for support near the battlefield why strong armor was of paramount importance, the speed was rhythm infantry and low speed guns were designed to treat concrete fortifications and bunkers were all related to trench warfare and the experience of the First World war all these models, until 1937 at least, have been designed to the same kind of operations performed in 1918. They were divided accordingly on the line of battle, as the goodwill of saloon generals flags movement on the cards within a rigid pyramid chain, therefore command, the french tanks were généraleme nt slow except cavalry tanks SOMUA S35 as scout and caterpillars and relatively low power, even if it was not considered a problem, as the pace of the infantry was required Range was also limited by greater consum ption, but the tactical needs were limited in scope to the typical battlefield of the First World War, a 50-100 km area 30-60 mid radio communication operations between tanks was sorely lacking with flags and letters used in place common practice in 1935 was that only control tanks had a long-range radio.
On the German side, excellent training and communication between the tanks and even between armored units and air force reflects the emphasis on the command of delegation at the lowest levels and promote personal initiative and tank design flexibility reflects mobility was preferred to the protection and advanced intercom systems and communication between the tanks were common in 1938.
Demography was, surprisingly, a critical factor with the design of French tanks After the Great War, the population pyramid is inverted in France and Germany, resulting in a gap natality largely favorable to Germany, which was crucial twenty years later After 1935, the French were keenly aware of this, which also reflects in the specifications of the army to deal with the normal supply tanks in units, with limited manpower, the only option was to limit three crew and design of the tank accordingly the earlier model was the Renault FT who was armed with a single machine gun or weapon barrel Its simplicity has enabled a crew of two, but when more complex requirements came the new tank models have seen a proliferation of tasks was not against-balanced by an increase in the number of crew, nor of new esign of the turret commander remained isolated in its unique human turret, the commander of task loading and main gun Manning and coax, and sometimes radio r player and co-gunner stoker finished this team So busy, commanders of French tanks were overloaded and simply could not deal with other tanks maneuver around or face several threats simultaneously This helps to explain why the French tank units were decimated, despite having improved armor another issue is the lack of power of penetration of French guns, the most common being 37 mm short APX 1 Puteaux 46 designed to support the infantry.
In 1939, the French armored force was the largest Allied, as the USSR was officially a German ally when a total force of nearly 5,800 tanks, many of them based abroad, operational or second reserve line obsolete FT the fact that these tanks were designed to put in place effective defensive tactics made them slow, poorly armed against other tanks, but very well protected B1 bis became legendary for a short time, a terror to the crews of German tanks in Stonne, one of those tanks destroyed up to 15 Panzer III IVS the Germans cope with these losses until they encountered Soviet KV-1 and T-34S for operation Barbarossa the failure of french tanks were due to outdated tactical concepts, compromises that led to the undermanned tanks and occupied commanders lack of support Aérie n and very miscommunication exacerbated by a rigid chain of command dispersed in short armor, the French might have had prevailed if better and with better controlled COORDINATI on and provides the resulting losses were an incredible waste of military, reproduced almost literally by the USSR in the summer of 1941, once again, the largest armored force in the world was endangered by similar tactics to those used in the French countryside, applied more large scale, but with limited staff forces.
The first use doctrine was still linked to a methodical set of rules based on the war of the trenches 1916-1918, favored by the old French personnel Former French general has averaged 70-80 years compared to their German counterparts, Mid 45-60 Only the young Colonel de Gaulle stood out, writing memos, reports and a book on armored warfare that he knew the works of Liddell Hart and Fuller He saw the potential medium and heavy tanks projected by a force of lighter, faster but tanks, in independent mobile armored divisions, all his ideas were ignored by senior officers, while in Germany, Heinz Guderian carefully watched all these theories.
Trench vision of war, not surprisingly, said the slow pace of infantry, but armored vehicles, close support Armed, mainly against bunkers and trenches fortifications The short barrel old Puteaux SA-18 37 mm 1 46 in the gun was not capable of anything other than engaging fortifications and light armored targets at relatively short range weapon-mounted models that were the Hotchkiss H35 and FCM Renault R35 36 which partially replaced the old tanks FT cavalry as SOMUA S35 and AMR-33 35 tankettes inherited the standard cavalry doctrine, having to exploit the breakthroughs and drilling well in the rear enemy lines, disrupting communications, stop reinforcements and destruction deposits and other high-value targets for the strongly defended lines as the Siegfried line, massive breakthrough tanks and Spgs were needed in 1935, these requirements have been embodied in the B1 and the former FCM-2C SPG Not true, the exception FTs little changed before 1939 were desig ned Armored vehicles were designed to provide screening, screening missions and regular patrols border roads.
The rest is history The French fought desperately, completely disorganized by the speed of the German combined attacks This was compounded by the lack of training, low overhead and uncoordinated support, inadequate reservoirs, lack of modern equipment and, especially, outmoded tactical armored group Guderian, the falx from the Ardennes, was one tense line, the french mounted several attacks against all tanks available with two of them, in Montcornet and Laon, were led by de Gaulle all failed, in part because of incessant air attacks entire units were immobilized and many tanks abandoned due to lack of fuel supplies most of the transmission lines were slowed by refugees or destroyed by air attacks in late May, when the best French units had been deci mé in the north, the remnants of tanks brigades were collected locally to build the so-called Weygand hedgehogs, used as mobile pillboxes simply bypassed Germans them with their mobile units in south spearhead and all pockets of resistance were left to the infantry, artillery and Stukas were subdued with minimal losses for the Germans the Maginot line was a complete mess that has retained considerable French forces to no effect.
After the armistice, and until 1943, France was cut in half, on a line stretched almost to the very southern end of the French Atlantic coast in Switzerland, making a bow on the Loire, south of Tours Bourges This half was placed under the authority of a legitimate at least recognized by most countries French government in Vichy Its neutral position, but the collaboration nation was radicalized over time in terms of collaboration with the forces German occupation and the resistance movement rose accordingly the fact is that the french empire still possessed territories and powerful military means in his hands, particularly the fleet, which threatened the Allies or interested in their reconquest Plans French colonies in North Africa still had armored vehicles, mostly obsolete models like Renault Renault FTs few D1S some Hotchkiss H3 5 39s and Renault R35s alongside armored cars These vehicles have been committed in various battles against al lied forces, as against the Australians in Syria-Lebanon and the US and British troops during Operation Torch in French Indochina, in 1941, the few operational FTs were still used against a Thai invasion supported by Japan FAV some saw action with the free french in Kufra raid Gen Leclerc.
From November 1943, in response to the Allied landings in North Africa, the Germans took over unoccupied France that remained of the Mediterranean fleet was scuttled Admiral Darlan, the authority of Vichy in Africa North, decided to another with the Allies the first operations to free French came in Tunisia, Africa Korps against retreating Alamein, now reinforced by Kesselring of Panzerdivisions Ill-equipped for this, the french fought bravely, but without effect, that the Allies took the weight of the attack that triggered the construction of a french army any free under American control, with equipment provided by US Lend-Lease and organization despite protests from de Gaulle When the 1st French army of General de Lattre landed in Italy, its strength mainly composed of infantry -the robust Goumiers and other colonial troops African art who had 50 of 130,000 original men, with the support of artillery, jeeps trucks, half-tracks M5 M3 few armored M3 Stuart and me and M4 Shermans When the 1st Free French army landed in southern France in August 1944 operation Anvil Dragoon, there were three armored divisions fledged 1st, 2nd and 5th They were equipped with M4 Shermans M3s and receiving M10 Wolverines in the fall of 1944 took part in the fighting in the Vosges, Colmar, the Rhine, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Stuttgart captured and cleaned most parts of southwestern Germany and the black Forest After the war, these vehicles built in the United States were used during the war in Indochina and Algeria 1945-1954 war independence 1954-1962.
Like many other nations of the time, France was based on armored vehicles to patrol one of the best road networks in Western Europe, because of their availability and ease of production.
50 built for service in the North African colonies.
French WW2 tanks, French shells, tanks, heavy version.