Hello, Bovington’s own David Fletcher is back with another one. This time the French Heavy tank, the Char B1
Enjoy!
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Hello, Bovington’s own David Fletcher is back with another one. This time the French Heavy tank, the Char B1
Enjoy!
And still that tank was better than anything the german could oppose to it. Some B1 tanks destroyed dozens of german vehicles in 30 mn (the mistral and the tunisie, two B1 tanks)
That tank often broke german lines and was knocked out by the 8.8 artillery at the back, the armor was really good vs the first panzers.
The most famous story of the B1 that I’ve read about is about “Eure” commanded by Pierre Billotte.
“The 1/41e BCC outflanks Stonne by the north-west but capitaine Billotte is hampered by several cliffs and important slopes. He has to move to the right, arriving in Stonne itself (from the north-west) before the battalion commander. The B1bis “Eure” arrives nose to nose with 13 German tanks of Pz.Rgt.8 (10.PzD) in column in the main street of the town. The first tank is only at 30m. Billotte orders the driver (sergent Durupt) to target the last tank with the 75mm SA35 hull gun while he destroys the first tank with the 47mm SA35 turret gun. The first shots destroyed simultaneously the first and the last German tank of the column, the others could hardly move. In several minutes, the B1bis “Eure” advances in the street and neutralize the 11 remaining tanks while numerous shells are hitting the armor of the B1bis without penetrating it. 2 Panzer IVs and 11 Panzer IIIs are reported as being destroyed (It is however not 100% sure that among them there were not several wrecks from the previous day). Billotte crosses the whole town and destroys also two 3.7cm AT guns next to the “Pain de Sucre”. The armor of the B1bis revealed later to be scattered with 140 impacts and gouges, none of the projectiles penetrated the armor according to the war diary of the 41e BCC. One can see here a kind of small reversed “Villers Bocage”. ”
http://www.ww2incolor.com/french/char.html
There’s a medal in World of Tanks referring to this. I think it’s the one where you basically kill two or more tanks with 80% of your HP gone, five modules or crew knocked out and survive the battle.
No-shave november? This guy has been doing it for years. XD
I honestly thought the 47mm in the turret was the main armnament because the 75 in the hull was so un weildly and had a very low penetration caliber that it was practically useless against enemy tanks unless at point blank. Not really that you needed high penetration in the first place to fight early german tanks since most of them had either tin foil or flat 30 mm on front but I suppose the use of the hull mounted howitzer would be semi useful for supressing infantry, destroying trucks or artillery, and fox hole shooting.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could fire secondaries and coaxials in world of tanks for guiding tracer and light self desfense like in world of warships?
The 75 was the main gun… the main target was fortifications, machinegun nests, pillboxes, etc… to fight another tanks you had the field artillery pieces. At that time these tanks were used for breaking through enemy fortifications so the infantry could enter and sweep the resistance.
Probably the 47mm was for ligth vehicles and/or infantry
If you were firing at infantry you’d probably use the 75mm howitzer.
The 75mm was the main gun because the main target was not tanks – it was infantry, machine gun nests, barricades, etc.
I’d love to see this given the S-tank treatment & get that howitzer in action though…
Probably the worst mass produced tank ever. The somua s35 with the same turret was a way better design even though it lacked a modern appearance.
Somua S35 was a cavalry tank, generally those were better than infantry/assault tanks, however the B1 did have very good armour, which helped negate some of its shortcomings.
It performed very well in many of the engagements it took part in, again mainly due to most German weapons not being able to hurt it.
And worst is a bit much, you may want to look at the Type 95 Ha-Go for that.
Apparently you haven’t heard of the Covenanter.
I consider the covenanter a better design since it lead to the crusader tank.
Apparently people here have not heard of Panzer IIIs and IVs with only 15-25mm of armor…
Nice, the Char B1 is one of my most favorite French tanks. If only the ingame B1 had its hull gun to use.
Now when they are introducing the s-tank they have the possibility to introduce the turret mode for the bis where it uses its hull gun instead of its turret. Could be an option for the lee too.