In October 1929, the Char D1 medium tank was accepted to service in the French army. It was an advanced (further developed) version of the Renault NC light tank (which in turn was a development of the venerable Renault FT). In its time, there were many projects of self-propelled guns on Renault FT chassis and the D1 (factory designation Renault TY) was to share this fate of becoming a plaform for various other projects.
In 1930 a project was proposed to arm the Renault TY chassis with some sort of 82mm gun. What gun exactly that was is not known, but such caliber was not used by the French army normally.
The chassis itself was not changed much and the gun was mounted facing to the rear of the vehicle. This allowed the chassis to carry a much bigger gun than it usually could and it wasn't really that big a problem tactically - the vehicle was supposed to be firing from dug-in positions anyway with the driver not being present inside the hull at the same time.
Compared to the D1 itself, the vehicle was 2 tons lighter (the weight was reduced from 14 tons to 12 tons), which meant that the mobility didn't suffer. The crew consisted of 5 men with the driver not sitting inside when the vehicle was supposed to fire. It was proposed that this vehicle would be a part of the Maginot line defenses along with the Char BB project. Units of these vehicles would operatively move around the line to help repel the attackers wherever needed, supporting the line defenses with their fire.
This project was not as outlandish as the Char BB but its fate was sealed nevertheless during the same disarmament conference and it was cancelled in 1932. The design however is completely realistic and the "let's build a SPG on Char D chassis" idea returned two years later with Char D2, but that was a completely different vehicle.
Not many reasons not to put this in game as we already have 'backwards' facing vehicles. Main objection would be the confusion of new players, meeting this at perhaps T2...
ReplyDeleteFrench tank going faster backward than forward, why not ^^
DeleteBut t2 ... that would be insane, the gun is bigger than marder 1's
T4 fits a lot better, that's where we get all the vehicules with special combinations of strength and weakness
It's an arty concept, not a TD...
Deleteoh i see makes sense then, and I agree it's not a great idea to put such controls in the hands of new players
Deletegermen t2 arty has a 122mm gun lol
DeleteWhen did german 10,5cm guns turn into soviet 122mm guns?
Deleteit has "only" a 105, but its still ridicously overpowered for a tier 2 arty
DeleteFrenchie Crusader SP? Gib.
ReplyDeleteThe Maginot Line had 81mm breech-loading mortars installed; considering this vehicle was intended to be part of that defensive line, perhaps the spurious 82mm weapon was in fact one of these mortars?
ReplyDeleteFerrard's "France 1940, l'armement terrestre" give some details about the 82mm.
ReplyDeleteProposed by general Challéat in February 1928, it was intended as a dual purpose (AA/AT) intermediary solution between the 75mm and 90mm guns.
The project was stopped due to unsatisfactory results of tested carriage and due to the apparation of the 75mm Mle.1928.
The 82mm had an initial velocity of 870m/s.