Char 2C Alsace

The Char 2C was a super heavy French tank developed, although never deployed, during the First World War. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (801x394, 71 KB) painting made by me personally File links The following pages link to this file: Char 2C ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (801x394, 71 KB) painting made by me personally File links The following pages link to this file: Char 2C ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas. ...

Development

The exact origins of this tank are shrouded in mystery. When, in the spring of 1918, the French National Assembly tried to investigate the history of French tank development less than two years after the very beginning it was impossible to obtain the most basic documents. It became clear that someone had been busy systematically destroying evidence, to obscure his part in one of the first "tank scandals" in history, comparable to the British and American ones of 1944. The knowledge of today indicates this reconstruction of events as most likely: The Palais Bourbon, front The French National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale) is one of the two houses of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. ...

Phase one: In the summer of 1916 FCM, a shipyard in the south of France near Toulon, bribes General Mouret, head of motorization, to grant them the contract for the development of a heavy tank, even though no such vehicle is planned. They then largely neglect the project, apart from reaping the financial benefits. 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Location within France Coat of Arms of Toulon Toulon (Tolon in Provençal) is a city in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. ...

Phase two: On the 15th September 1916 the British deploy tanks for the first time. A veritable tank euphoria follows. The French people demands to know the state of its own tank projects. This greatly alarms Mouret, who doesn't know himself. He quickly investigates the progress made at FCM and is shocked to find none has been made at all. On 30 September he takes control of the project in person. On the 12th October he begs Louis Renault to assist FCM in the development. Renault obliges. Louis Renault (February 15, 1877, Paris, France – October 24, 1944) was a French industrialist and one of the foremost pioneers of the automobile industry. ...

Phase three: Renault consults his own team just in the process of designing the revolutionary Renault FT-17 light tank. He is delighted to find that his most talented designer Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier has, in private, finished a study on the possibility of a heavy tank. A wooden full-size mock-up is immediately constructed and presented to the Consultative Committee of the Assault Artillery on the 17th January 1917. The proposed tank is by far the most advanced design of its time. This however alarms Brigadier Estienne, commander of the new tank force, who now begins to fear the production of this heavy vehicle will use up all production facilities making the procurement of the much more practical light FT-17 impossible. He convinces the C-in-C, General Joffre, to demand the cancellation of the project. However, General Mouret who has a great need to show his unrelenting efforts in advancing the cause of the French tank, orders the simultaneous development of no less than three prototypes, of 30, 40 and 62 tons: the "A", "B" and "C" versions. General characteristics Length 5 m Width 1. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Joseph Joffre Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (January 12, 1852 - January 3, 1931) was a Catalan French general who became prominent in the battles of World War I. Joffre was born in Rivesaltes, Roussillon. ...

Phase four: In December 1917 the first prototype, the FCM 1A, is ready to be shown to an investigating commission. By that time Mouret has lost any position of influence. Indeed, the commission is headed by Estienne. His good friend General Philippe Pétain, High Commander of the French Army, asks him to use his position to finish off the dangerous project. Estienne informs Pétain that it would be most inopportune, when the public wants to know why these heavy tanks aren't there already. Besides, the allies will only consent to give France 700 Mark VIII's if it has at least made a token effort to produce heavy tanks by itself. They must cooperate to procrastinate the project while outwardly endorsing it. He himself has already set this course by choosing the heaviest version, the "C", for production. A completely new prototype will have to be manufactured first, causing a considerable delay. Now Pétain must do his part, by demanding unreasonably high production numbers, thus delaying planning and initiating a political row. 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French general and war hero, and Head of State of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944. ... General characteristics Length 34 ft 2 in / 10. ...

Phase five: Pétain asks for 300 heavy tanks to be ready in March 1919. Immediately a quarrel erupts between Clemenceau, Prime-Minister and Minister of War, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Armament, who is at his wits end to find the necessary labour force and steel quota. Meanwhile Estienne and Pétain exhaust themselves in finding the most idiotic demands. The C-in-C asks for tracked pontoons to follow the tanks so they can cross the rivers Meuse, Rhine and Elbe; Estienne wants a battering ram and an electronic mine detector fixed. When the war ends, not a single tank has been built. 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Phase six: All production orders are cancelled. For a moment it seems the history of the heavy tank is merely a comical episode. Then Estienne decides it is best to procure ten vehicles nevertheless, to nip future idiocies in the bud. At FCM Jammy and Savatier finish the prototype. The ten tanks are delivered in 1921. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Description

The Char 2C had a loaded weight of 69 tonnes, partly because of its armour - 45 mm at the front, 22 mm at the sides but much of it just because of its huge size. The armor was among the thickest of the WWI era tanks, though by modern standards this would be considered thin. It is still easily the largest tank ever taken into production. With the tail fitted, the hull was over twelve meters long. Within its ample frame there was room for two fighting compartments. The first at the front, crowned by a three-man turret (the first in history) with a long 75 mm gun and the second at the back, topped by a machine gun turret. Both turrets had stroboscopic cupolas. The three independent 7.92 mm machine gun positions at the front gave protection against infantry assault.

The Char 2C is the only super heavy tank ever to attain operational status. A super heavy tank is not simply a tank that is very heavy, it is a tank that is much heavier then regular tanks of the period. The next operational tank to weigh about the same would be the Tiger II heavy tank of WWII. The Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ...

The fighting compartments were connected by the engine room. Each track was powered by its own 200 or 250 HP engine, via an electrical transmission. Top speed was 15 km/h. Seven fuel tanks, containing 1260 liters, gave it a range of 150 kilometers.

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. Some sources report thirteen probably due to pictures of the crews that included the company commander.

Operational History

The ten tanks were part of several consecutive units, their organic strength at one time reduced to three. Their military value slowly decreased as more advanced tanks were developed throughout the 20's and 30's. By the end of the 1930's they were largely obsolete because their slow speed and high profile made them vulnerable to advances in anti-tank guns. Anti-tank, or simply AT, refers to any method of combating military armored fighting vehicles, notably tanks. ...

Nevertheless during the French mobilisation of 1939 all ten were activated and put into their own unit, the 51st Bataillon de Chars de Combat. For propaganda each tank had been named after one of the ancient regions of France, numbers 90-99 named Poitou; Provence; Picardie; Alsace; Bretagne; Touraine; Anjou; Normandie; Berry; Champagne respectively. In 1939, the Normandie was renamed Lorraine. As their main value was in propaganda, the giants were carefully kept from harm and did not participate in the September 1939 attack on the Siegfried Line. They were used for numerous morale boosting movies, climbing and crushing old French forts instead. To the public they obtained the reputation of invincible super tanks, the imagined dimensions of which far surpassing the real ones. // Events January-March January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. ... // Events January-March January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. ...

Of course the French commanders knew perfectly well this reputation was undeserved. When the German Panzerdivisionen in the execution of Fall Rot ripped apart the French lines after 10 June 1940, the decision was made to prevent the capture of the famous equipment. It was to be sent to the south by rail transport. On 15 June the rail was blocked by a burning fuel train, so it became inevitable to destroy the tanks by detonating charges. Later Goebbels and Goering claimed the tanks were hit by German dive bombers. This propaganda lie was to be repeated by many sources. One tank, the Champagne was nevertheless captured more or less intact and brought to Berlin to be exhibited as a war trophy. In 1948 this tank disappeared, causing many to speculate it still survives at the Russian Tank Museum at Kubinka. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Joseph Goebbels Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ... A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Versions

In 1926, the later Champagne was modified into the Char 2C bis, an experimental type with a 155 mm howitzer in a cast turret. New engines were fitted and the machine gun positions abolished. In this configuration the tank weighed perhaps 74 tons. The change was only temporary though, as the vehicle was brought back into its previous condition the very same year; the new turret was used in the Tunisian Mareth Line. 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1939 the Lorraine, as the company command tank, was up-armoured to make it immune to standard German antitank guns. The front armour was enhanced to 90 mm, the side to 65 mm. In this configuration weighing about 75 tons, the Lorraine had at that time the thickest armour of any operational tank and is probably still the heaviest operational tank ever.

External link

• analysis in French

See also

A Mark I tank (moving left to right). ... General characteristics Length 34 ft 2 in / 10. ... The Mark IX tank was a British armoured fighting vehicle from the First World War, the worlds first specialised Armoured Personnel Carrier. ... General characteristics Length 20ft/6. ... General characteristics Length 22 ft 9 in, 6. ... General characteristics Length: (25ft 10in) 7. ... General characteristics Length 5 m Width 1. ... French St Chamond tanks: Note the short tracks and large body, which gave so much trouble crossing obstacles. ... The Schneider CA1 was the first French tank. ... General characteristics Length 24 ft 1 in / 7. ... The Flying Elephant was a proposed super-heavy tank, planned but never built by the British during World War I. After the last order for the Mark I, an additional fifty vehicles in April 1916, it was far from certain that any more tanks were to be produced. ... The Tsar Tank The Tsar Tank (also known as the Netopyr (Нетопырь, Pipistrellus bat) or Lebedenko Tank) was an unusual Russian armored vehicle developed in 1914–1915. ... The Mark VI was a British heavy tank project from the First World War. ... A Mark I tank (moving left to right). ... The Grosskampfwagen or K-Wagen (short for ) was a German super-heavy tank, two examples of which were almost complete by the end of 1918. ... The Holt Gas-Electric Tank was an early U.S. produced tank built in a collaboration between the Holt Manufacturing Company (now Caterpillar Inc. ... The Steam Tank (Tracked) was an early U.S. tank design of 1918 imitating the design of the British Mark IV tank but powered by steam. ...