Landships II

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Question regarding Renault FT

Tanker · Field Marshal

Chris,

If you go to Paris,to visit SHD and to study French Military documents from Vincennes, "FT 17" is never used, to speak from the tank build by Renault.

The name used are : char Léger - char Renault - char mitrailleur Renault - char canon Renault - char Renault TSF - Renault FT or FT alone and also char or char d'assaut

FT 17 was used in amalgam with the american 6 ton model 17 and also in German military documents from WW2, for Beute panzer Renault,

used by German Army.

Some exemples :

Appellation Renault-min.jpg

CharlieC · Legend

Suggest your friend form an acquaintance with gallica.bnf.fr (French archive)

In the archive are some manuals on the French tanks - I've attached the title page and one

of the table of contents pages from one of the manuals.

Regards,

Charlie

Note - "tanker" got in first while I was composing this. The URL for the manual is:

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k96123325

-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 15th of May 2020 12:12:00 AM

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Thank you guys for all the Information (sorry I don't understand French), but I didn't make myself clear.

I know that there was NO FT-17. So taht was not my question.

What I want to know is: what was the correct name for the Char Renault from the beginning? Was it allways Renault FT or was it only Char Renault?

Thank you in advance!

Kind Regards
Chris

CharlieC · Legend

That's why I used the manual index since it has the official title for the tank that is:

"le Char Renault F.T"

Afaik this was the official title for the tank from the start in 1917 - I have a scan of a manual from 1918 which uses the same title.

"Tanker" has supplied a whole bunch of usages which do include the official title.

Charlie

Leander99 · Corporal

"FT" was the factory designation, Renault used a two-letter designation for each of their designs. Had it been one design later, we would be talking about the Renault FU, which is actually the truck design to transport the FT.
At the factory, the tank was mostly referred to as FT Char or just FT.
Therefore, talking about Renault FT, Renault, or just FT are most accurate on a general basis.

French soldiers mostly called it "Char Renault" or "Char Léger", these names are therefore also correct.
The Army itself gave it the official designation "Renault Char d’Assaut 18 Chevaux". Then, after the war, the name "Le Char Renault F.T." starts to pop up in army manuals.

Leander