"Renault D1: FT on Steroids " Topic

"Attempts to modernize the Renault FT, the most numerous tank in WWI, gave unexpected results. Initially, only the low speed was unsatisfactory for the French military, but its tastes grew by the mid-1920s. Now, the thin armour, which was insufficient to protect the tank from high caliber machineguns, was also unsatisfactory. The result was the NC-1 tank, which was 2 tons heavier and had thicker armour, while being twice as fast. The tank was a good replacement for the Renault FT, but the army's appetites grew once more, which led to the creation of a new tank, the Renault D1…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Very interesting article. Thanks, Armand.

Jim

Yeah, it's a good article. The D1's performance in 1940 was far better than expected, but they were mostly fighting infantry formations, not other tanks. Amazing that they were still useful, though.

The number of casualties from vision block damage shows why the French were obsessed with the problem of providing safe visibility for their tankers. It's why the French tanks were equipped with rotating armored cupolas and not hatches. The cupolas were much more sophisticated than most realize. (Hopefully, I'll write a piece about this in the future.)

Glad you like it my friends! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

It was indeed an interesting article. I am particularly interested in the details it provides about the D1s in French North Africa.

The article describes the last combat of the D1 being against the US 601st TD battalion at Tafaru (should be: Tafaraoui) airfield south of Oran on D + 1 of Operation Torch. That action was actually fought against CCB of the 2nd Armored Division -- 601st TDs didn't land in Algeria until weeks after the engagement. It is interesting that the account clearly identifies US M3 Tank Destroyers in this action -- I have seen in another French language source on the Torch landings a picture of a US T30 75mm SPH mis-identified as a tank destroyer. Wondering if this was the source for this story, or if this mis-identification has proliferated across multiple French language sources.

Not mentioned in the article is that the D1 was considered a failure by the French army mostly due to cost and complexity. It was too expensive to build and too hard to maintain, and so the R35 was developed to replace it as the army's primary infantry support tank. Always seemed a bit odd that the more capable, more expensive, more complex, harder to maintain tank wound up out in the colonial forces, and the cheaper easier tank wound up with the main continental forces.

I believe that D1s were also used in Tunisia after the engagement with the Americans around Oran. But I have never seen detail of unit and location, and my impression may be wrong.

I have read one French language account of the last combat action of S35s in Tunisia. It was a rather heart-rending account, describing how 4 S35s were nursed through the LOOOONNNG transit from Central to North Africa, how well the crews regarded their mounts (certainly the best tank France had produced to that time), and how they took them into action in Tunisia against their old nemesis, the Pz IV. Of course a Pz IVg in Tunisia in 1943 was a VERY different tank than a Pz IVd in France in 1940! But an S35 was not. And so the S35s were all destroyed before they even got within range to return fire.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Glad you enjoyed it too my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I read where a D1 took out a Pz IV in Tunisia with a hit to the turret ring.

I make this little beast in 15mm

ptdockyard.com/15mm-armor

Dave G