Landships II

JC Carbonel · Captain

Pre-Estienne French thoughts on tanks

James H · Legend

Excellent spot, JC. Any more details?

Sample here:

http://tank-zone.histoireetcollections.com/article-23909-l-aube-du-char-en-france-1914-1915.html

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

*grrrrr*

I only speak German, English, Spanish & Hindi.

Could anyone be so kind to translate, please?

-- Edited by elbavaro at 20:33, 2008-12-02

James H · Legend

I've had a skim through it, and the first page doesn't tell us much we don't know. "It was believed that the War would be won the day the wire could be crossed." Armour, mobility, firepower, etc. The usual.

There will obviously be more detail over the page, but I suspect there won't be much new historical stuff other than some photographs - unless they've found the Levavasseur machine.

Maybe JJC can help. I'm going to get a copy anyway, so I'll have a read and post any info that is new.

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Is this thread gone? Can't see anything.

James H · Legend

It was wonky for a while, but seems to be back now.

James H · Legend

JC Carbonel wrote:

A very interesting article on pre-Etienne tank prototypes in France in this month issue of Tank Zone (n�2) with more pix of Boirault , Breton etc... designs that I ever saw.

JCC

There's a copy of this on its way, but I've had a thought in the meantime:

JCC - is there anything in this article about General Mourret? All we have is a blurred picture of him at the early trials and then he disappears from the story, although he seems to have behaved very badly later on in the case of the FCM scandal.

JC Carbonel · Captain

Sorry nothing on Mourret ... only designers are refered to in this article. Not the military side (Estienne is barely mentionned) . maybe in part 2 ?

JCC

James H · Legend

Good heavens. It has just arrived. Twelve pages! Fantastic stuff. The Schneider Crocodile? This will take precedence over the Christmas Giant Crossword.

More in Part II? This is going to be expensive.

James H · Legend

This is fascinating stuff. The Breton-Pr�tot wire-cutters are fitted to a Bajac tractor that is laden with what look like compressed gas cylinders. These turn out to be 8 or 10 antique bronze cannons, added to give an impression of the machine's weapons-carrying potential.

Extremely unusual is the Schneider Crocodile. As the article says, this is the equivalent of the WWII Goliath. There was a Type A, that remains a mystery. The Type B appears to have been produced in some quantity; there is a pic of a line-up of 16 of them outside the Schneider plant at le Creusot.

It weighed 145kg, including a 40kg explosive charge. Height 60cm, length 1.66m, width 82cm. Powered by electric motor with 1,200 metres of cable.

According to Commandant Deygas, it was trialled unsuccessfully at the front, at the same time as the Aubriot-Gabet "Electric Torpedo".

Pic below. There's a clearer, retouched pic in the mag, but it's copyright.

-- Edited by James H at 16:47, 2008-12-25