Название: French Tanks of World War I
Автор: Steven J. Zaloga
Издательство: Osprey Publishing
Год: 2010
Формат: pdf
Страниц: 52
Размер: 25 mb
Язык: английский
This title examines the emergence of the first modern tank, the Renault FT. The Renault FT pioneered the modern tank design, with armament in a revolutionary central turret and the engine in the rear. More importantly, the Renault was designed to be cheap and easy to manufacture. Discover the history of the early French armor developments and their triumphant new design, the Renault FT, that helped to turn the tide of war in the favor of the Allies.
France began developing primitive tanks about the same time as Britain, but introduced them into combat several months later. The two original French tank designs, the St-Chamond and Schneider CA, were seriously flawed and proved to be technical and tactical dead-ends. After a false start, Gen Jean-Baptiste Estienne promoted a more radical idea. Instead of the large and cumbersome tanks then in use with the British and French armies, he proposed building a “bee swarm” of small, inexpensive tanks that could overwhelm the Germans with mobility and mass. The resulting design, the Renault FT, pioneered the classic tank configuration typical of tank designs to this day. It was also the most widely used tank type of World War I, and was the seed for many tank forces after the war including those of the United States and the Soviet Union.