"Char B1 bis" Topic

When given an advance or fire order can the hull mounted and turret mounted weapons both fire together?

In reality (I know …), firing the 75 on the move or from the short halt is essentially impossible, unless you're driving directly toward the target. The gun had no lateral range because the driver was the gunner! The ultra-precise and ultra-smooth steering of the Char B allowed the driver to pivot the tank to put the hill gun on target. If a separate gunner was keeping track of the target while the vehicle was moving, that would be one thing, but the driver has to concentrate on driving, so he has to reacquire the target every time he stops, and then lay the gun on target.

There's no reason that the hull gun and the turret gun can't fire at the same time, except that you have to lay the hull gun first and not change targets. If you do, pivoting the tank pulls the turret around and its gun off target. Annoying for the tank commander/loader/gunner. Oh, and if the turret gunnis firing, the commander is too busy to identify targets or command the driver/gunner.

correct me if I am wrong, but this may come from the idea that tanks were to be mainly in support of infantry, far from the more advanced notions of the blitzkrieg.

In that perspective, the "tank" would have been an armored mobile gun position moving at the pace of infantry operations.

Just a wild guess.

The Char B1 bis was designed as an infantry support tank.

S35 Somuas were the cavalry/mobile warfare design.

During the interwar years France prepared to fight 1918 all over again. Their tanks were design to operate with the infantry. So they were as fast as the infantry could walk. They didn't form armored divisions until after Poland. It was too late. The cavalry tanks were too lightly armored and they were spread out among the cavalry.

The tanks were undermanned and lacked effective communications. Believe it or not most of the tanks communicated by radio telegraph. A few of the very new tanks were getting voice radios and an intercom system that most of the tanks lacked. The Germans of course had planned for a war fought in 1940.