char 2c lorraine

The fighting compartments were connected by the engine room. The very heavy tank FCM Char 2C (FCM means "forges et chantiers de la Mediterranee") was developed as a heavy breakthrough vehicle in WW1. The French Army had no stated requirement for a heavy tank, and there was no official policy to procure one so the decision seems to have been taken solely on his personal authority. On his return an enraged Thomas caused Mourret to be fired, thus removing Estienne's greatest rival. 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. Even before knowing what the exact nature of the project would be, on 20 October Mourret ordered one prototype to be built by FCM. Alarmed, Estienne now wrote a letter to the Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre, dated 27 November 1916 and defending the light tank concept. No specimens survive, except perhaps one single 2C presumed to be in Russian… On 12 June 1940 the order was given to send the tanks south by rail transport. The Char 2C is the only super-heavy tank ever to attain operational status — a super-heavy tank is not simply a very heavy tank but one that is much heavier than regular tanks of its period. Meanwhile, Estienne and Pétain complicated the issue with further demands. Seven fuel tanks, containing 1,260 litres, gave it a range of 150 kilometres. ACG. By late 1937, the project had been renamed Char G1, and all prototypes then authorized received official designations: G1 L (Lorraine), G1 R (Renault), G1 B (BDR), G1 F (Fouga), G1 P (SEAM). FCM 2C "Lorraine" in summer 1940. Between 15 November and 15 December 1939 the Lorraine, as the company command tank, was experimentally up-armoured at the Société des Aciéries d'Homecourt to make it immune to standard German antitank guns. [1] The design was presented to the Consultative Committee of the Assault Artillery on 16 and 17 January 1917, after the basic concept had been approved on 30 December. There would surely be no harm in allowing some prototypes to be built. Exact specifications, if they ever existed, have been lost. On 15 June the railway was blocked by a burning fuel train, so it became incumbent to destroy the tanks by detonating charges. After the German invasion of France in 1940, the decision was made to … Guy François, 2011, "Le char lourd FCM 1A, ou le rêve immolé". It was more or less compartmentalised into four sections, that however were not separated by bulkheads: a relatively short driver compartment at the front, a fighting compartment with a turret at its top, a larger munitions room and finally a large engine compartment at the rear. Panhard. AMR 33 w/7.7mm MG. AMR 35 w/7.7mm MG. AMR 35 w/13.1mm MG. AMR 35 w/25mm. The Char 2C or FCM 2C was a super-heavy tank designed and produced in France since 1917. It was, in physical dimensions, the largest operational tank ever made. UE. The forward compartment was crowned by a three-man turret (the first such in history) mounting a long 75 mm gun, and the second, at the rear of the tank, was topped by a machine gun turret. At FCM Jammy and Savatier finished the Char 2C prototype, the other nine tanks being built almost simultaneously; all ten were delivered in 1921 and modified by the factory until 1923. Char 2C Char 2C Modifié FCM F1 Chasseur de Chars AMX Chasseur de Char Chasseur de Char Lorraine Renault FT AC (25mm) Renault FT AC (47mm) Canon Automoteur AMX Automoteurs Antichars ARL V 39 SOMUA SAu 40. Renault, always expecting his employees to provide new ideas instantly, had by this attitude encouraged the team to take a proactive stance – setting a pattern that would last until 1940 – and to have various kinds of contingency studies ready for the occasion, including a feasibility study for a heavy tank. During the French mobilisation of 1939, all ten Char 2C tanks were activated and put into their own unit, the 51st BCL. A rather large riveted turret with a stroboscopic cupola, adopted from the Char 2C, brought its height to 252 centimeters. The origins of this tank are mysterious. The machineguns had an ammunition load of 9504 rounds. FT-17 Berliet turret. A possible explanation of the delays might be a deliberate decision by Renault to give priority to other projects. Development The Char d'assaut de grand modèle. The armor was thick for the period, between 22mm at sides to 45mm in front. Meanwhile, there were unexplained delays in the delivery of the engines and the gearbox by Renault. By 1939, none of them presented any military value to put them into action and were mostly used for propaganda purposes and in film. The Only Operational Super Heavy Tank Of World War Two. The six remaining tanks hastily embarked on two trains at the station of Landres on 13 June. [10] The wrecks were subsequently discovered by the 8. The sprocket was at the rear, the idler at the front. The gasoline was lit and the tanks exploded around 19:00. It was also the first tank vehicle that offered a real protection against artillery HE rounds: the front hull was covered by thirty-five millimetre armour plate; the same was the all-around thickness of the turret. Thank you for helping build the largest language community on the internet. The commander pointed the gun by observing the target through a vane sight, fitted on the turret roof, from his rectangular "cupola". Lorraine. At that time all tank projects were highly secret, and thereby shielded from public scrutiny. Char 2C tank top view of the turret The Char was designed in 1917 but due to domestic problems in France, it was produced too late to see action in WW1. After the war, rumours circulated that this vehicle had been transported to the Soviet Union.[12]. In the late afternoon, an order arrived to send the tanks to Neufchâteau which was reached in the early morning of 15 June. There were two Hotchkiss 8 mm machine-guns in fixed ball-mount positions; reserve machine-guns or pistols could be fired through five vertical slits that could be plugged: one at the rear of the turret, two at the turret sides and two at the hull sides below the turret rear. It was the largest (in physical dimensions) operational tank ever. [1] In the summer of 1916, probably in July,[1] General Léon Augustin Jean Marie Mourret, the Subsecretary of Artillery, verbally granted Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM), a shipyard in the south of France near Toulon, the contract for the development of a heavy tank, a char d'assaut de grand modèle. The front of the hull followed the profile of the tall climbing faces of the tracks and therefore gradually curved upwards, ending in a high, vertical, nose plate. The armour was among the thickest of World War I-era tanks, though by modern standards this would be considered thin. A plan by Breton to immediately order fifty vehicles more or less identical to the mock-up was therefore rejected. Centre of gravity was in the early morning of 15 June the centre of was. Of gravity was in the middle of the delays might be a deliberate decision by Renault only take note the... 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