Hello Michel,
I have no picture of that number .... But the next time I will visit this museum I will certainly make that picture of the chassisnumber.
Willem
So the name is so common that even a museum uses it?
Afraid so. Bovington called theirs "FT 17" for quite a while, but when they had a bit of a makeover they changed the billboard next to it to read "FT".
Then when they did the big refurb in 2009 they changed it back again! Even David Fletcher calls it FT17 in his Tank Chat video.
Saumur call theirs FT17 - and it's an FT31!
The best sources still make mistakes. The IWM has loads of wrongly captioned photos - I've got them to correct a few - and incorrect facts, and so does the AWM. Until fairly recently the Dutch Legermuseum website said that FT stood for "Force Terrestre".
More people say "Me 109" than say "Bf 109", they say "Frankenstein" instead of "The Monster", and almost everyone says "Marie Celeste" instead of "Mary Celeste", but they're wrong. And all the evidence I've seen indicates that "FT 17" is wrong.
On a slightly related topic, I watched a documentary on some satellite channel the other night, about the Panther and Tiger tanks. Let me say at once that I don't normally watch such things. An interest in WW2 German tanks can seem a bit . . . well, you know.) Anyway, what struck me was that the (British) narrator failed to pronounce a single German word correctly. He might not be entirely to blame, because it's common practice for "voice artists" to read a script down a line from their home studio, without ever seeing the film that it goes with. So if he doesn't speak German, and there's no one to guide him, he'll end up having a guess. The (American) tank museum curator had no excuse, and he was just as bad.
Amongst the gruesome mispronunciations: Nashorn (Rhinoceros) should be Narz-horn, but we got Nash-orn; Sturmtiger should be Shtoorm-teeger, but we got Sterm-tyger; Jäger should be Yayger, but we got Yarger; and so on. But they saved the best till last: Bohvington!
Ah. Here we are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcMyVxoddA
PS: Why has this come out with a white background?
-- Edited by James H on Sunday 4th of June 2017 07:02:53 PM
-- Edited by James H on Sunday 4th of June 2017 07:26:40 PM
-- Edited by James H on Sunday 4th of June 2017 08:10:38 PM
"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.
It wasn't called FT in army use. As far as I can see, it was a 'char d'assault' or 'char de combat', often with 'Renault' added, but never a 'char Renault FT'.
FT was an internal production code of the Renault company that obviously didn't make it to the field.
After the wars, it was then called Renault FT17 in English literature; however, not in France, where people initially stuck to the above names, and also not in Germany (Heigl), until English stuff swamped the markets.
It has been the 'FT17' for more than seventy years now; I think there is not the ghost of a chance to get 'FT17' out of use. And it isn't that terribly wrong, as everybody knows exactly what vehicle is meant.
Reactionaries? I had no idea it was that serious. - However, it seems to be a mixed bag:
Heigl (pre-WW2, several editions) said "Renault M.17 F.T." (and he also knew about a "Renault M.18 F.T.).
Touzin and Gurtner (two Frenchmen) in Armour in Profile No. 13 (ca. 1967) use "Renault F.T." for title, but the text and the captions consistently talk about the Renault FT-17.
Gougaud (L'aube de la gloire, 1987) explains in detail how the designation FT came about, but then goes on and says that FT-17 isn't entirely wrong either.
My point is that during its active career the tank was called "char Renault", "char de combat Renault" or "char d'assault Renault". The factory designation FT may have been written in the manuals, but nobody used it. It's a little bit like insisting to call the Panzer IV a Zugführerwagen - or ZFWagen, which was its factory designation, although everybody knows it was the Panzer IV.
the wagon in the background is one of several Dutch wagons. They were used by the Dutch army in the years before the second world war. The one you see behind the FT is a car of the III division and contains tools for the blacksmith, woodworkers and other support services. If you still want pictures of this and the other wagons, let me know, I plan to visit the museum this week for extra pictures of the FT.
Hello Michel, it is number 3866 (the last digit is certainly a 6). My French is terrible so buying that magazine will not be a good idea for me The exact place where I found the four digit number is here:
---------> The second Public Warning for "Ft 17" 
