Thanks to Simmers for inspiring me to plough through the second half of Treat 'Em Rough.
A bit unsettling that Captain Wilson refers throughout to the "St. Chaumond", calls the 37mm gun a "Poteaux", and describes a crib but calls it a fascine.
Anyhoo, he does state that in the Meuse-Argonne offensive a total of 22 Renaults were "abandoned by the French tankers behind German lines" by October 10th.
I assume from that that they fell into German hands. If that was the case, it's a sizeable force and surprising that no use appears to have been made of them. Perhaps the Germans had so many other matters to cope with that they weren't able to refurb them, assuming that all were damaged to one degree or another.
Anyone any more info on this?
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Given that refurbishing the tanks captured at Cambrai had about a 25% recovery rate and it took approx three monthes to refurbish them and then train crews I would suspect that there simply weren enough Renaults captured to make it worth while, nor sufficient time to do it in any case.
Would depend on the state the tanks were in. If undamaged and in running condition, the Germans certainly would have driven them away. If they were damaged and non-running, salvage was a rather complicated business near the front line. Unarmoured A7V Überlandwagen or Lanz tracked tractors could do the job, but not many of these were available. Additionally, FT17s had been captured in May - and discarted for use as combat tanks. So, motor transport commanders would possibly refuse to give away their scarce assets in order to salvage more.
Well, that answers the question in every particular. I'd forgotten about the low evaluation in May. And I suppose that, since by October the Germans were fighting mostly defensive actions, they would have concurred with the Allied view that Tanks were of very limited use in such situations.
Thank you, gents.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
Well, 17th Army - hard pressed by the British - constantly cried for tanks to use in counter attacks. Almost all German tank actions August - November 1918 took place in 17th Army's sector. They found them very useful in defense. Although the tanks didn't achieve much, they were good for the infantry's morale.
