Char 2C
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The Char 2C was a superheavy French tank developed, although never deployed, during the First World War.
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Development
The exact origins of this tank are shrouded in mystery. When, in the spring of 1918, the French National Assembly tried to investigate the history of French tank development less than two years after the very beginning it was impossible to obtain the most basic documents. It became clear that someone had been busy systematically destroying evidence, to obscure his part in one of the first "tank scandals" in history, comparable to the British and American ones of 1944. The knowledge of today indicates this reconstruction of events as most likely:
Phase one: In the summer of 1916 FCM, a shipyard in the south of France near Toulon, bribes general Mouret, head of motorization, to grant them the contract for the development of a heavy tank, even though no such vehicle is planned. They then largely neglect the project, apart from reaping the financial benefits.
Phase two: On the 15th September 1916 the British deploy tanks for the first time. A veritable tank euphoria follows. The French people demands to know the state of its own tank projects. This greatly alarms Mouret, who doesn't know himself. He quickly investigates the progress made at FCM and is shocked to find none has been made at all. On 30 September he takes control of the project in person. On the 12th October he begs Louis Renault to assist FCM in the development. Renault obliges.
Phase three: Renault consults his own team just in the process of designing the revolutionary Renault FT-17 light tank. He is delighted to find that his most talented designer Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier has, in private, finished a study on the possibility of a heavy tank. A wooden full-size mock-up is immediately constructed and presented to the Consultative Committee of the Assault Artillery on the 17th January 1917. The proposed tank is by far the most advanced design of its time. This however alarms Brigadier Estienne, commander of the new tank force, who now begins to fear the production of this heavy vehicle will use up all production facilities making the procurement of the much more practical light FT-17 impossible. He convinces the C-in-C, General Joffre, to demand the cancellation of the project. However, General Mouret who has a great need to show his unrelenting efforts in advancing the cause of the French tank, orders the simultaneous development of no less than three prototypes, of 30, 40 and 62 tons: the "A", "B" and "C" versions.
Phase four: In December 1917 the first prototype, the FCM 1A, is ready to be shown to an investigating commission. By that time Mouret has lost any position of influence. Indeed, the commission is headed by Estienne. His good friend General Philippe Pétain, High Commander of the French army, asks him to use his position to finish off the dangerous project. Estienne informs Pétain that it would be most inopportune, when the public wants to know why these heavy tanks aren't there already. They must cooperate to procrastinate the project while outwardly endorsing it. He himself has already set this course by choosing the heaviest version, the "C", for production. A completely new prototype will have to be manufactured first, causing a considerable delay. Now Pétain must do his part, by demanding unreasonably high production numbers, thus delaying planning and initiating a political row.
Phase five: Pétain asks for 300 heavy tanks to be ready in March 1919. Immediately a quarrel erupts between Clemenceau, Prime-Minister and Minister of War, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Armament, who is at his wits end to find the necessary labour force and steel quota. Meanwhile Estienne and Pétain exhaust themselves in finding the most idiotic demands. The C-in-C asks for tracked pontoons to follow the tanks so they can cross the rivers Meuse, Rhine and Elbe; Estienne wants a battering ram and an electronic mine detector fixed. When the war ends, not a single tank has been built.
Phase six: All production orders are cancelled. For a moment it seems the history of the heavy tank is merely a comical episode. Then Estienne decides it is best to procure ten vehicles nevertheless, to nip future idiocies in the bud. At FCM Jammy and Savatier finish the prototype. The ten tanks are delivered in 1921.
Description
The Char 2C had a loaded weight of 69 tonnes, partly because of its armour - 45 mm at the front, 22 mm at the sides but much of it just because of its huge size. The armor was among the thickest of the WWI era tanks, though by modern standards this would be considered thin. It is still easily the largest tank ever taken into production. With the tail fitted, the hull was over twelve meters long. Within its ample frame there was room for two fighting compartments. The first at the front, crowned by a three-man turret (the first in history) with a long 75 mm gun and the second at the back, topped by a machine gun turret. Both turrets had stroboscopic cupolas. The three independent 7.92 mm machine gun positions at the front gave protection against infantry assault.
The Char 2C is the only superheavy tank ever to attain operational status. A superheavy tank is not simply a tank that is very heavy, it is a tank that is much heavier then regular tanks of the period. The next operational tank to weigh about the same would be the Tiger II heavy tank of WWII.
The fighting compartments were connected by the engine room. Each track was powered by its own 200 or 250 HP engine, via an electrical transmission. Top speed was 15 km/h. Seven fuel tanks, containing 1260 liters, gave it a range of 150 kilometers.
To man the tank required a crew of twelve: driver, commander, gunner, loader, four machine gunners, mechanic, electrician, assistant-electrician/mechanic and a radio operator. Some sources report thirteen probably due to pictures of the crews that included the company commander.
Operational History
The FCM 1A pilot model was ready by December of 1917, and by 1918 a planned production of 300 had been ordered. The order was reduced to 10 after the war ended, to be completed by 1921.
The ten tanks were part of several consecutive units, their organic strength at one time reduced to three. Their military value slowly decreased as more advanced tanks were developed throughout the 20's and 30's. By the end of the 1930's they were largely obsolete due to advances in anti-tank guns.
Nevertheless during the French mobilisation of 1939 all ten were activated and put into their own unit, the (51st) Battaillon de Chars de Combat. For propaganda each tank had been named after one of the ancient regions of France, numbers 90-99 named Poitou; Provence; Picardie; Alsace; Bretagne; Touraine; Anjou; Normandie; Berry; Champagne respectively. In 1939, the Normandie was renamed Lorraine. As their main value was in propaganda, the giants were carefully kept from harm and did not participate in the September 1939 attack on the Siegfried Line. They were used for numerous morale boosting movies, climbing and crushing old French forts instead. To the public they obtained the reputation of invincible supertanks, the imagined dimensions of which far surpassing the real ones.
Of course the French commanders knew perfectly well this reputation was undeserved. When the German Panzerdivisionen in the execution of Fall Rot ripped apart the French lines after 10 June 1940, the decision was made to prevent the capture of the famous equipment. It was to be sent to the south by rail transport. On 15 June the rail was blocked by a burning fuel train, so it became inevitable to destroy the tanks by detonating charges. Later Goebbels and Goering claimed the tanks were hit by German dive bombers. This propaganda lie was to be repeated by many sources. One tank, the Champagne was nevertheless captured more or less intact and brought to Berlin to be exhibited as a war trophy. In 1948 this tank disappeared, causing many to speculate it still survives at the Russian Tank Museum at Kubinka.
Versions
In 1926, the later Champagne was modified into the Char 2C bis, an experimental type with a 155 mm howitzer in a cast turret. New engines were fitted and the machine gun positions abolished. In this configuration the tank weighed perhaps 74 tons. The change was only temporary though, as the vehicle was brought back into its previous condition the very same year; the new turret was used in the Tunesian Mareth Line.
In 1939 the Lorraine, as the company command tank, was uparmoured to make it immune to standard German antitank guns. The front armour was enhanced to 90 mm, the side to 65 mm. In this configuration weighing about 75 tons, the Lorraine had at that time the thickest armour of any operational tank and is probably still the heaviest operational tank ever.
External link
- analysis in French (http://www.chars-francais.net/archives/fcm_2c.htm)