World War 2 In Review No. 10: French Fighting Vehicles
()
About this ebook
eBook Edition 2022
This issue contains articles on these French military vehicles of World War II:
(1) AMC 34 Light Tank
(2) AMC 35 Medium Cavalry Tank
(3) Panhard 178 Armored Car
(4) AMC Schneider P 16 Half-track
(5) AMR Citroën P 28 Half-track
(6) AMR 33 Light Tank
(7) AMR 35 Light Tank
(8) AMR P103 Light Tank
(9) ARL V 39 Self-Propelled Assault Gun
(10) Canon de 194 mle GPF Self-Propelled Gun
(11) P107 Half-track
(12) SOMUA MCG Half-track
696 B&W and color photos and illustrations
Read more from Merriam Press
World War 2 In Review No. 33: German Airpower Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 25: Italian Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 42: Japanese Airpower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 30: Grumman's Wildcat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 37: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 23: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review Number 43 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 21: Messerschmitt Bf 109 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 28: German Fighting Vehicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 49: Fighting Vehicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 3: Warships Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review: A Primer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 62: Yugoslavia At War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 20: Consolidated B-24 Liberator Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 8: Warplanes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 27: Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 46 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 34: Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 70: Air Power Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5World War 2 In Review No. 22: American Half-tracks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 19: French Fighting Vehicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 14: American 2½-ton 6x6 Truck Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 7: Warplanes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 13: American Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 5: Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 71 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 1: Pearl Harbor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to World War 2 In Review No. 10
Related ebooks
World War 2 In Review No. 26: American Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 68: British ‘Landing Craft Assault’ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 34: Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 66: German Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 5: Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 19: French Fighting Vehicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War 2 In Review No. 28: German Fighting Vehicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Airwar over the Atlantic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5British Battle Tanks: World War I to 1939 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherman Tank Canadian, New Zealand and South African Armies: Italy, 1943–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Panzerartillerie: Firepower for the Panzer Divisions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 9: Warships Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Armored Fighting Vehicles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Panzer III—German Army Light Tank: Operation Barbarossa 1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 16: German Fighting Vehicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOther Axis & Allied Armored Fighting Vehicles: World War II AFV Plans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5British Tanks: The Second World War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Focke-Wulf Fw 200: The Luftwaffe's Long Range Maritime Bomber Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAxis Tanks of the Second World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTank Destroyer, Achilles and M10: British Army Anti-Tank Units, Western Europe, 1944–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5German Destroyers of World War II: Warships of the Kriegsmarine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Panzers Forward: A Photo History of German Armor in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKings of Battle US Self-Propelled Howitzers, 1981-2022 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 14: American 2½-ton 6x6 Truck Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTiger I & Tiger II Tanks: German Army and Waffen-SS Normandy Campaign 1944 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5T-34: Russia's Armoured Spearhead Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Panzer I and II: The Birth of Hitler's Panzerwaffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Tank Destroyers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsM7 Priest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanther Tanks: Germany Army and Waffen SS, Normandy Campaign 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of the Peloponnesian War: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for World War 2 In Review No. 10
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
World War 2 In Review No. 10 - Merriam Press
World War 2 In Review No. 10: French Fighting Vehicles
F:\Data\_Templates\logo.jpgHoosick Falls, New York
2022
•
eBook Edition 2022
ISBN 9781387138401
Copyright © 2022 by Merriam Press
All rights reserved.
Additional material copyright of named contributors.
The views expressed are solely those of the author(s).
This work was designed, produced, and published in
the United States of America by
Merriam Press, 489 South Street, Hoosick Falls NY 12090
•
For details on all the issues of World War 2 In Review, go to the Merriam Press website.
•
Merriam Press has published numerous titles on historical subjects, especially military history, with an emphasis on World War II, in print and eBook formats.
Also available are previously published works, including out-of-print and hard to find manuals, unit histories, journals, magazines, reports, campaign and battle histories and other materials on historical topics, some in printed form with many as PDF files.
For details on all the titles that are available visit:
Merriam Press
( https://www.merriam-press.com/ )
E-mail: merriampress@gmail.com
On the Cover
AMC 34 Light Tank
The AMC 34 was a French tank built originally for the French Army cavalry units. Its production was cut short, and the few vehicles produced were out of service by the time of the Battle of France in the Second World War.
Alarmed by the rapid build-up of the Red Army the French Army on 24 December 1931 conceived a preliminary plan for the mechanization of the Cavalry. This foresaw the development of several types of automitrailleuses — the official term for cavalry tanks because chars (tanks
) were by law part of the infantry arm — among which an Automitrailleuse de Combat or AMC, a lightly armored (weighing no more than nine tons) but swift (30 km/h cruise speed) and strongly armed (47 mm gun) combat tank, capable of fighting enemy armor. The plan was affirmed by the French Supreme Command on 23 January 1932 and approved by the ministry of defense on 9 December.
Even before Plan 1931 was put on paper Louis Renault was informed of its probable contents and in the autumn of 1931 he ordered his design team to build an AMC. The team proposed to use welded steel plates, but Renault refused as this entailed hiring expensive professional welders. The team nevertheless took the initiative to build the Renault VO, a fully welded prototype of a Char Rapide, that could also serve as an alternative for the AMR 33 developed at the same time. When the vehicle was finished in 1932 Renault was charmed by the proposal but after long consideration decided against it and ordered a riveted version to be built. This quickly proved to be much too heavy and this caused a complete redesign of the project into a much smaller vehicle, the Renault YR, only to be presented to the French materiel commission, the Commission de Vincennes, on 12 October 1933, still fitted with the welded turret of the Renault VO. After testing by the Section Technique de la Cavalerie the prototype was improved by installing larger fuel tanks and a stronger clutch and gearbox. On 9 March 1934 an order was made for a pre-series of twelve hulls of the AMC 34; later a choice would be made from the range of standard turrets. The first was delivered on 17 October 1935.
The AMC 34 is a small vehicle with a length of 3.98 m and a width of 2.07 m. The suspension of the prototype is identical to that of the AMR 33; the production vehicles use a type that was originally envisaged for the AMR 35: a central bogie with a vertical spring; two other wheels in front and behind with an oil-dampened horizontal spring. The engine, a 7.125 liter V-8 120 hp with a fuel tank of 220 liters rendering a top speed of 40 km/h and a range of 200 kilometers, is located on the right; the driver on the left with a hatch in front of him and an escape door behind him. The armor is 20 mm on the vertical plates; the weight — of the hull only — 9.7 metric tons.
Before the first vehicle was even delivered, it was decided on 26 June 1934, as part of the Plan 1934 to improve both quantity and quality of French tank production, to change the specifications for an AMC: its armor had to be immune to anti-tank guns. As the AMC 34 was not strong enough to carry the extra weight it was redesigned into the AMC 35. No more orders of the original type were made.
France, however, had such a dearth of modern tanks that it could not afford to forget the twelve pre-series vehicles. In January 1936 they were taken into use with the 4th Cuirasssiers, at first fitted with gun turrets removed from Renault FTs and then with the APX1 turret also used for the Char D2s, armed with an SA34 47 mm gun. By 1937 the growing production of more modern tanks allowed the AMC 34 hulls to be shipped from France to Morocco to be used by the 1e Régiment Chasseurs d'Afrique, which received them on 15 December 1937. They were at the time the most modern armored vehicles in the colonies, but were refitted with the two-man APX2 turret. It took many months before 25 mm guns could be fitted as well; until that time the tanks drove around with just the 7.5 mm machine guns. The tanks used the ER 28 short wave radio (all AMCs were supposed to have radio sets); also a better protected fuel tank at the back was installed together with a safer horizontal ventilation grille on the back engine deck. In November 1939 the AMC 34 was replaced by the H 39
; three vehicles were taken by 5 RCA and used for driver training. These and the other nine vehicles do not appear on the armistice control lists, so they were either already scrapped in the summer of 1940 or hidden.
In 1935 the Belgian cavalry started a mechanization program. It was planned to equip all six cavalry regiments with an organic squadron of twelve tanks: eight T-15s and four gun tanks. To fill the latter position on 13 September 1935, 25 AMC 34 hulls were ordered with Renault, at a unit price of 360,000 French francs, and 25 turrets with APX. The AMC 34 had been chosen over the competing Vickers Medium Tank Mark F after testing the prototype from 7 until 10 November 1934. It was stipulated that the production vehicles would be of an improved configuration and be delivered in a rate of three per month from October 1935 onwards. However, due to technical and financial problems, Renault was unable to deliver. Only after a delay of over three years the hulls were exported in the reduced number of ten; they were then almost identical to the AMC 35. The ordered APX2 turrets were refitted with Belgian 47 mm guns and 7.65 mm Hotchkiss machine guns; thirteen were used on coastal defense pillboxes. After the war many French armor historians assumed that the original order of 25, thought to be simply made of the AMC 35, was fully completed and adjusted the presumed production numbers of that tank accordingly, leading to an overestimate worsened by counting the Belgian vehicles twice.
Type: Light Tank
Place of origin: France
Weight (hull): 9.7 tons
Length: 3.98 m
Width: 2.07 m
Height: variable according to turret type; the hull had a height of 1.55 m
Crew: two with the APX1 turret; three with the APX2
Armor: 20 mm
Main armament: see text
Secondary armament: see text
Engine: 7.125 liter V-8, 120 hp
Suspension: vertically sprung bogie and two horizontally sprung road wheels per side
Operational range: 200 km
Speed: 40 km/h
Ý
Panhard 178 Armored Car
The Panhard 178 (officially designated as Automitrailleuse de Découverte Panhard modèle 1935, 178 being the internal project number at Panhard) or Pan-Pan
was an advanced French reconnaissance 4x4