"Canon 25 mm S.A. Mle 1934: A "Baby" Gun for a Grown Up War" Topic

"An old military saying states that "every army prepares to fight the previous war". That is how the French generals acted when planning new anti-tank guns. Thinking about enemy tanks, they envisioned clumsy boxes, crawling across the battlefield at a pedestrian's pace, protected with several centimeters of armour. To fight them, a small gun was needed, one that could be easily hidden on a crater-pocked field and pushed around with just the strength of the crew. The result of this line of thinking was the 25 mm anti-tank gun model 1934, Canon 25 mm S.A. Mle 1934.

Its story begins before the end of WWI, when the well known Hotchkiss company began designing a new tank gun. Since the war ended, the project was mothballed, but suddenly came up again in the early 1930s, when the French army was looking for a new anti-tank gun. By putting the failed anti-tank gun on a wheeled mount with deployable trails and a small shield, the company ended up with a small and cheap anti-tank gun, and a decent one at that. The prototype, produced in 1933, successfully passed trials. The gun was accepted into service as the Canon 25 mm S.A. Mle 1934, or 25 mm semi-automatic gun, model 1934. Hotchkiss received their first order for 200 units in 1934…"

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Amicalement
Armand

I think the author's title is condescending. I am sure there were plenty of German AFV crews who didn't think there was anything 'baby' about it at all. Naturally, the Germans captured a fair number of them and used them as well.

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Agree!….

Amicalement
Armand