A bit of background on the production of this video. Originally, we planned to visit the French Tank Museum this fall. Supremacy 1914 wanted to sponsor the tank episodes we wanted to film there which would have been three individual episodes about the tanks much like we filmed at the British and German Tank Museums. Unfortunately, we didn't get permission to film there in time and needed to revert to making a special episode about the French tanks. Hope you guys still like it. Cheers Flo
Shame it didn't work out with Saumur, but one has to admit: Civilian-military paperwork can be a tedious business at times. We're glad you didn't let the topic fall - French armoured warfare in WW1 is way too often unjustifiedly overlooked and ridiculed. The French contributions are essential to the history of the tank.
@@TheGreatWar I would still love to see you visiting Saumur in the future, seeing museum historians proudly showing off their exhibitions is always exciting to watch. :)
civilian paper work is one story, military paper work a complete different thing, but civilian military paper work is the kings class 3times the effort, cause talking with one of them might get done but negotiating with both of them and fullfilling all their requirements is nearly impossible - at least in german speaking countries with their pride and love for paper work. I think these mass produceable fast mini renault tanks - that we nowadays might smile about due to its size - were far more feared by germans cause they were fast and tiny and therefore harder to knock out by a gun. And a protected, advancing machine gun appearing in a mass had been a thread for every line of trenches.. Twice as fast means half the time for countermeasurements ! And from first appearance to first trench line might be 1 km or 5 minutes at full speed.
@Gary Daniel Well, it's a joke from Goldmember. But in case you are joking too, I'll relate my best Dutch/Hollandish/Netherregions anecdote. My ex-girlfriend and I were fond of speculaas, sold in the US under the name Lotus Biscoff. We went to the grocery store to get some, and as we were checking out, I decided to amuse her by telling the cashier that they were "hollandaise cookies, from the Dutchlands" in a deadpan tone. To his credit, he continued checking us out without missing a beat. I live in a college town, so he was probably used to dealing with drunk or stoned people.
Renault FT is the first modern tank by a series of revolutionary features: - A turret with 360º rotation, with two options of armament (Hotchkiss machine gun of 8mm or a Puteaux gun of 37mm); - Design with engine in the rear, turret in the center and direction ahead, creating the standard of the armored units until today; - Mass production system using a monobloc structure in place of stringers, creating the production pattern for military vehicles and civilian automobiles; - Prevision to be used en masse as part of a combined arms tactic; - Designed from the beginning contemplating a diverse family of models on the same chassis; - Consume much less fuel than the previous armor. The Renault FT (or FT17 as it is also known) was the first tank of many countries (like Brazil, Japan, Russia and the United States). It was the first tank to be used in the American hemisphere, when it was used by the Brazilian Army to blunt a military uprising in 1922 in Rio de Janeiro, and again in 1924 in São Paulo. Among its various distinctions, it is to be the first armored in an amphibious assault (Alhucemas, 1925). The Renault FT was still used in Afghanistan in the 1980s until the fall of the Afghan socialist governament in the eraly 90s, making the FT the longest serving tank ever.
@@Ricky_the_Georgian Yes, they also had rotating turrets in ironclads (armoured ships). The idea of a rotating turret on a tank was so sucessful that we can't think of a modern tank without one.
@@lapinmalin8626 Was never made. The grandfather of all tanks is the Austro-Daimler-Panzerwagen. A German armored vehicle built in 1906 with a 360 degree turret. This later evolved from wheels into tracks.
The turrets alone weren't really any sort of breakthrough on their own, ships had been using them for a while, the FT was just the first tank low enough to make them practical.
I'm fairly certain that the first British prototype, Little Willie was designed to mount a rotating turret, but it was decided the need to cross trenches and shelled ground was more of a priority... So they went with the rhomboidal shape, which made it basically impossible to mount a turret big enough to carry any significant firepower.
Thanks to a game called World War II Online that's been around since 2001. I'm an odd fan of the Renault R35. Which is the ultimate extension of the FT-17 design. Well I guess you could call the AMX-40 that but there weren't many of those. The R-35 was the most numerous tank fielded when the Germans attacked in 1940. It's a slow under gunned infantry tank. Right down to having a small four cylinder Renault motor. I got to see one in person here in the US in Aberdeen Maryland where they had a fully restored one.
French tank doctrine might have beaten the Germans to having separate tank units - wow! The more you tell us about the French, the more impressed I am with their armée during the Great War.
I think it's been said that if you wanted to make a WWI movie, the cost of a FT tank is so low, that you could easily afford to just build a new one from scratch, even with a very low budget.
Supremacy 1914 is actually a really simple and fun game. I have been playing it for years and I’m very glad to see them advertising it on your channel. I would love to have more players active in Supremacy!
Even though they had their downsides, you gotta admit, if you were a German soldier on the front and you suddenly had a steel behemoth jump over your trench, you'd soil yourself pretty bad.
The American National WWI museum in Kansas City, MO has one of the FT tanks that had been hit by a shell. I was really surprised at how small they are.
8:13 "Estienne wanted to keep the tank force seperate, like the airforce, but post-war they were incorporated into the infantry." Which was one of the main big disadvantages when Germany invaded France in World War 2; outdated tank-tactics, focused on infantry support and not on mobile tank warfare.
@@budmeister, regretfullt not. He died when I was 17, in 1983. He had, a o, Asbesthosis. I´m mentioning it because asbesthos was proved dangerous already in the 1910´s, but scientific results were withheld. Even today Canada, where it is mined, still export asbethos to were it´s not outlawed yet, places like India, etc.
Love the historical content. History includes things like the instruments of war and mans ingenuity to make and use the articles of war. Its too bad TH-cam frowns upon history. Their successor will realize this and not censor history.
That one at the beginning is great and shows how the Germans tried to shift blame for what they did. "Y'know, bombing civilians and poison gas are one thing, but ARMORED CARS?!? That's a bridge too far!"
@@moosemaimer The first one as in the one at 1:02? I'm sorry but why do you remotely think that propaganda poster is German and shifting blame from their war crimes (not saying they didn't do that though, cuz they totally did)? All the writing is in French, and it's far from portraying the Germans positively (they all have the classic brutish and ugly features of Entente propaganda), it's clearly a piece of French propaganda about the formidable nature of their new "armoured cars". Unless someone who knows French can translate it for us and it says otherwise.
@@LordVader1094 Behold, fortunate son ! For your long waiting is now over : It's an image, probably from some newpaper. His title is "La terreur des Boches / les Tanks, nouvelles auto blindées anglaises" -> The germ's Terror / Tanks, news english armoured car. Sadly, it's all that can be read.
Finally a Renault that looks beautiful and actually performs! Well done Louis Renault - you outperformed the rest of the world :) Also worth pointing out that FT, like the German A7V, was an arbitrary name and not an abbreviation. In total war you don't have time to devote to meetings for brainstorming names of new products!
The Schneider, with all its many flaws, was a far superior tank in comparison to the German A7V which was a lumbering, clumsy fortress with machine guns pointed in every direction including the rear.
Both designs were failures due to the nature of the combat. When used in the right circumstances the A7V was just as capable and more technologically advanced then the Schneider, I cant help but think you were thinking of the St Chamond. The Schneider was a hopeless tank, on flat hard ground the A7V could go the same speed and as a bonus the front armour on the A7V wasn't penetrated during the war. Not the sides or back lol, just the front.
I really dont understand this thinking that a7v was justa garbage toaster, as if the french heavies were any different. They were all very bad designs and suffered huge losses in the war. Under the right circumstances however, both could be effective
@@CT-5555-7 that isnt really a compliment to the design itself. After the nivelle offensive the french AS just learned so much. Germany used tanks only in the closing times of the war, they just didnt have time to learn. If i had to choose between schneider or st chamond, i would choose the latter just because i would actually have a chance to escape it when it catches fire
After playing the video game Battlefield I, I became a huge fan of the FT-17. My favorite tank of the war! I call it the French Bulldog of tanks...diminutive but tough.
I really cannot believe that those tanks were actually bought by the Yugoslavian King in the early 30`s, before he was assassinated in Marseille. (King Alexander the I)
The French kept using FTs up to 1940 as well, since so many were manufactured. The design, though outdated by then, held up surprisingly well as a reserve tank. It was exported very widely; numerous countries in Europe bought or copied it, as did the US.
@@Ignonym An FT was better than no tank, even in 1940, in terms of being proof against machine guns, if not anti-tank guns, but most tanks of 1940 were vulnerable to standard anti-tank guns apart from the French B1 and British Matilda I and II, and to a lesser extent the S35. The more modern French infantry tanks were better armoured than those of the Wehrmacht, but had poor guns (sometimes no better than the WW1 cannon armed FTs), mobility, but above all poor efficiency with one man turrets, although with FTs for a given number of crew you could have 2.5 times as many tanks in the field as Pz IIIs.
Great episode. Well done, again. I'm getting a bit emotional about the date, though. Anyway, thanks for all your amazing work over YEARS. I thought I knew about the subject, but have learned so much. Anyway, I'm off to protect the Thames Estuary from a massive assault from the German Navy. Wish me luck!
In 1937 Heinrich Guderian wrote his groundbreaking militairy book ''Achtung Panzer!''/''Beware Tanks!'' In this he envisioned tanks taking over the traditional role of the cavalry and stated that this kind of deployment would break any potential stalemate of trench warfare. They would be the vanguard of the offensive to break through and/or encircle the enemy. His theories were put into practise during spring/summer 1940 at ''Case Yellow'' (the offensive against France and the Low Countries) and proved to be so succesfull that initially German high command couldn't believe their luck. The French did have tanks as well in 1940. Numerically and technically level, or even superior. to the Germans. But they deployed them in the same way as in WW1; supporting units for the infantry. A certain colonel. later brigade general, De Gaulle had been a POW for 2,5 years during WW1. Hence he knew how to read German. He too had read Guderian's book and drew his conclusions, but his superiors didn't listen to him.
Large numbers of French tanks were deployed in the French cavalry divisions, and the design and deployment of tanks in the French cavalry to be used to create breakthroughs predated Guderian's book by several years (at least 5). And in fact Guderian also called for a specifc infantry-support tank too (which was the Pz. IV).
Credit the British Royal Navy for the first Tanks. Credit the French for the first modern Tank layout. Credit the Germans and the Russians for starting modern Tank battle doctrine.
I am interested in the Renault FT Tanks that where used during the Polish Soviet War of 1920. It is a long story, but upon looking through my family photos my Polish Great Grandma recieved news of a death of a Polish Soldier. We have two pictures of this man, whom we believe was a relative. His uniform indicates that he was a Private in a Tank Regiment. The 2nd seems to be a memorial of the mysterious soldier with his picture on top of a Renault FT. I am very anxious to find out his name; and any help will do?!
Yes there are, but in various stages of decay. Almost all of the ground in the Western Front was relatively level, so the trenches were dug in soil, clay and chalk and so time has gradually filled a lot of them in and grass has grown over them. The concrete bunkers quite frequently remain that were linked by the trenches. There are quite a few in the military memorials, such as Vimy Ridge, which is the Canadian National Memorial, which are the original trenches, but restored. The grassed over trenches look more like ditches now and time and the weather have made the sides more of a wide 'V' shape, rather than the more vertical cross sections you see in footage of the time. There are a lot where all that remains of their existence is a different colour in the ground, particularly after the harvest time. Then there are some that you simply won't be able to see because the areas are still cordoned off due to the danger from unexploded ordinance in the area and so are hidden in new woodland.
I do believe you can still see them. Of course almost all aren't trenches anymore, but I've heard that from a vantage point you can quite clearly see the impressions on the land where the trenches used to be.
7:26 I'm sorry, "Cast from two riveted steel plates" is some kind of mixup of at least two things (not to mention gibberish at face value). Production FTs had two turrets- the octagonal Berliet turret (the one people refer to when talking about 'omnibus', though to be fair, both were technically designated as such) which was constructed from riveted plates, and a round Giraud turret made from a rolled steel wall and a cast top. As a cherry on top, the image at the timestamp displays the prototype cast turret that got scrapped because it couldn't be fitted with a 37mm Puteaux gun.
Im just suprised tank crews didnt die from carbon monoxide poisoning or even heat exhaustion just trying to get in position to get in the fight. i couldnt imagine fighting a war like tht generation did its unbelievable, definitely some tough S.O.B's
at around 8:30 you see the heavy schnieders gonig past American troops. I know the americans like patton used the lighter renaults, did they also get the heavy tanks?
That might be (and is mostly likely to be) training with French forces rather than an actual engagement, or a propaganda movie, as there isn't a huge amount of front-line footage of WW1, and a lot of purported WW1 front-line footage is a recreation in rear areas for newsreels.
@@EdgyDabs47 what is then? Ft was arguably the best in its role and had enormous impact on tanks after ww1, unlike british heavy tanks for example. The british heavy tanks were really important too
@@taistelusammakko5088 The FT was not nearly as impactful to WW1 as the landship. Landships could attack trenches head-on where the FT typically couldn't. Without the Mark 4 and 5 tanks the deadlock wouldn't have been broken.
One of my favorite channels. The new guy is ok but I miss Indie! He had pizzazz and knowledge at the same time. And I had no idea people walked so fast back then. 5:10
A four cylinder? C’mon, throw a Hemi V8 in that bad boy... ugh, sorry For real though, how much power were the engines able to produce to lug machines like that around? Also, this was a nice demonstration of the oft-forgotten importance of logistics in the field.
A bit of background on the production of this video. Originally, we planned to visit the French Tank Museum this fall. Supremacy 1914 wanted to sponsor the tank episodes we wanted to film there which would have been three individual episodes about the tanks much like we filmed at the British and German Tank Museums. Unfortunately, we didn't get permission to film there in time and needed to revert to making a special episode about the French tanks. Hope you guys still like it. Cheers Flo
Tanks for the video guys!!! 😀
Do world war 2 once you have finished world war 1
Too bad. But personally I've been to the tank museum in Saumur, twice, in one weekend. So I know its collection.
Do the owners of the great war channel say what sponsorship to take or is it up to the great war channel or you Flo that makes the decision
Chieftain from world of tanks does great hands on reviews of tanks in museums for ref
Shame it didn't work out with Saumur, but one has to admit: Civilian-military paperwork can be a tedious business at times. We're glad you didn't let the topic fall - French armoured warfare in WW1 is way too often unjustifiedly overlooked and ridiculed. The French contributions are essential to the history of the tank.
thanks for doing the paperwork for us when we visited ;)
@@TheGreatWar I would still love to see you visiting Saumur in the future, seeing museum historians proudly showing off their exhibitions is always exciting to watch. :)
civilian paper work is one story, military paper work a complete different thing, but civilian military paper work is the kings class 3times the effort, cause talking with one of them might get done but negotiating with both of them and fullfilling all their requirements is nearly impossible - at least in german speaking countries with their pride and love for paper work.
I think these mass produceable fast mini renault tanks - that we nowadays might smile about due to its size - were far more feared by germans cause they were fast and tiny and therefore harder to knock out by a gun. And a protected, advancing machine gun appearing in a mass had been a thread for every line of trenches.. Twice as fast means half the time for countermeasurements ! And from first appearance to first trench line might be 1 km or 5 minutes at full speed.
MEIN GOTT, DasPanzermuseum is here !
@Gary Daniel Well, it's a joke from Goldmember. But in case you are joking too, I'll relate my best Dutch/Hollandish/Netherregions anecdote.
My ex-girlfriend and I were fond of speculaas, sold in the US under the name Lotus Biscoff. We went to the grocery store to get some, and as we were checking out, I decided to amuse her by telling the cashier that they were "hollandaise cookies, from the Dutchlands" in a deadpan tone.
To his credit, he continued checking us out without missing a beat. I live in a college town, so he was probably used to dealing with drunk or stoned people.
The Renault FT is by far one of the most influential tank designs ever imagined.
*cutest
@@balticpagan1495 Agreed 👍
Fact yes comment made 2 years ago but hey this tank was made.......
Wasn't there ironclad ships with rotating turrets?
@@badcornflakes6374 the monitor used in the American civil war had a rotating turret
Renault FT is the first modern tank by a series of revolutionary features:
- A turret with 360º rotation, with two options of armament (Hotchkiss machine gun of 8mm or a Puteaux gun of 37mm);
- Design with engine in the rear, turret in the center and direction ahead, creating the standard of the armored units until today;
- Mass production system using a monobloc structure in place of stringers, creating the production pattern for military vehicles and civilian automobiles;
- Prevision to be used en masse as part of a combined arms tactic;
- Designed from the beginning contemplating a diverse family of models on the same chassis;
- Consume much less fuel than the previous armor.
The Renault FT (or FT17 as it is also known) was the first tank of many countries (like Brazil, Japan, Russia and the United States). It was the first tank to be used in the American hemisphere, when it was used by the Brazilian Army to blunt a military uprising in 1922 in Rio de Janeiro, and again in 1924
in São Paulo. Among its various distinctions, it is to be the first armored in an amphibious assault (Alhucemas, 1925). The Renault FT was still used in Afghanistan in the 1980s until the fall of the Afghan socialist governament in the eraly 90s, making the FT the longest serving tank ever.
The rolls Royce armoured car also had a turret, but I don't think it had 360 degrees of rotation
@@Ricky_the_Georgian Yes, they also had rotating turrets in ironclads (armoured ships). The idea of a rotating turret on a tank was so sucessful that we can't think of a modern tank without one.
Renault FT, grandfather of all tanks.
More like the grandfather of Modern Tanks.
The TRUE grandfather is Little Willie.
@@Mr.Atari2600
don't forget leonard de vinci
@@lapinmalin8626
Was never made. The grandfather of all tanks is the Austro-Daimler-Panzerwagen. A German armored vehicle built in 1906 with a 360 degree turret. This later evolved from wheels into tracks.
@@bekluwe not relevant
The French really deserved the recognition for making history: rotating turrets that will continue on every tank until today.
The turrets alone weren't really any sort of breakthrough on their own, ships had been using them for a while, the FT was just the first tank low enough to make them practical.
Austro-Daimler-Panzerwagen (German tank/1906) already had a 360 degree turret. It was the first armored vehicle with a turret gun
it was a logical next step, the french just did it first. Someone else would have done it.
@@konanhuet623 give them credit when its due they were the first to do it
I'm fairly certain that the first British prototype, Little Willie was designed to mount a rotating turret, but it was decided the need to cross trenches and shelled ground was more of a priority... So they went with the rhomboidal shape, which made it basically impossible to mount a turret big enough to carry any significant firepower.
Would love to see a video on the development of the gas mask. There’s a lot of interesting history there.
There’s a small TH-cam channel named DukeNougat3D, guy has tons of documentation and information on early development.
I love the FT 17 tank it's so Petit.
Thanks to a game called World War II Online that's been around since 2001. I'm an odd fan of the Renault R35. Which is the ultimate extension of the FT-17 design. Well I guess you could call the AMX-40 that but there weren't many of those. The R-35 was the most numerous tank fielded when the Germans attacked in 1940. It's a slow under gunned infantry tank. Right down to having a small four cylinder Renault motor. I got to see one in person here in the US in Aberdeen Maryland where they had a fully restored one.
It's kinda kawaii.
It’s adorable
The grand daddy of all modern tanks
smol boi but strong
French tank doctrine might have beaten the Germans to having separate tank units - wow! The more you tell us about the French, the more impressed I am with their armée during the Great War.
The problems with the French army start after the great war ( or even right at the moment they choose to end the war ) .
Remember when Indy disabled a tank by putting a rock into the barrel?
Oh I member
XD
Wot when?
@@buster117 think outside of the box
@@pCadavez what it was a joke?
@@buster117 Its an Indiana Jones refernce
I really love using the Renault FT Tank
in Battlefield and hate seeing the Saint-Chamond when I'm against it as infantry lol
I want a ww1 French Renault FT Tank
I wonder how difficult it would be to make something similar?
I mean it’s just a tractor with a turret and a gun it can’t be that hard
Niko Clesceri I don’t think it would that Simple
I think it's been said that if you wanted to make a WWI movie, the cost of a FT tank is so low, that you could easily afford to just build a new one from scratch, even with a very low budget.
I want a Tzar tank
My great grand oncle fought in the French tank bataillons in the Balkans, thanks!
With Franchet d'esperay ?
I always wanted a couple of Renault Ft-17's as gate gardiens for my front garden !
You can't just settle for garden gnomes? 😁
That would be such a great set of gate guardians, Frank White!
@TheCimbrianBull - LOL, maybe he can garden gnomes excavating trenches AND the Renault FT-17's . . .
@@shawngilliland243
Sapper gnomes 😊
I'm seriously going to miss this channel when the war ends. The episodes have been a big part of my week.
Schneider CA-1 🇨🇵
Saint Chamond 🇨🇵
Renault FT-17 🇨🇵
Little Willie 🇬🇧
Mark I IV V 🇬🇧
Tzar Tank 🇷🇺
A7V 🇩🇪
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
End is coming. Congratulations for the effort and dedication, Indy & team. Channel is already a landmark work.
He's doing a channel even bigger now, World War II week-by-week and even day-by-day on Instagram.
The Renault was the only French tank design I was aware of from WWI. Glad to know it wasn't the only one. This video was very informative. Nice job.
Supremacy 1914 is actually a really simple and fun game. I have been playing it for years and I’m very glad to see them advertising it on your channel. I would love to have more players active in Supremacy!
S1914 is pay to win to the extreme. Terrible game.
FT-17 is one of my ww1 tank favourites!
Mine too. It's so cute lol it's like the Stuart's tough older brother
It's just the FT, not FT-17.
Always Great Content
Eight days to go till it's all over. Incredible series and channel for covering the war that was forgotten. 👏 👏
Even though they had their downsides, you gotta admit, if you were a German soldier on the front and you suddenly had a steel behemoth jump over your trench, you'd soil yourself pretty bad.
The American National WWI museum in Kansas City, MO has one of the FT tanks that had been hit by a shell. I was really surprised at how small they are.
It really is small!!
Flint Hills Job Corps is going there on the 11th for the 100 year anniversary thanks to a suggestion made by me ayy
Tol Hop means the Civil war but the south calls it "The war of Northern aggresion" even though the south fired the first shots and started the war.
uneusée de l'armée à Paris il y en a un sans éclat d'obus
in France in invalide there is the "musée de l'armée" and in this museum there is a Renault FT
It's almost over... 100 years people
The 61% it’s exactly 100 years, that is the premise of the channel
8:13
"Estienne wanted to keep the tank force seperate, like the airforce, but post-war they were incorporated into the infantry."
Which was one of the main big disadvantages when Germany invaded France in World War 2; outdated tank-tactics, focused on infantry support and not on mobile tank warfare.
Yes , De gaulle saw that too and Begged the high command to adopt his combined arm tactics ..they just didn't listen .
The FT tank was the best of all the war
Bin apres les autres tanks était des tracteurs avec un canons
Wasn't the Saint-Chamond eventually used as self-propelled artillery as opposed to a tank? I thought I read that some where.
James Bongiovanni yep
My dad was born 3 November 1918.
Is he still around?
@@budmeister, regretfullt not. He died when I was 17, in 1983. He had, a o, Asbesthosis. I´m mentioning it because asbesthos was proved dangerous already in the 1910´s, but scientific results were withheld. Even today Canada, where it is mined, still export asbethos to were it´s not outlawed yet, places like India, etc.
@@andershansson2245 Sorry to hear that, but happy birthday to him nonetheless. 1983 was the same year I was born, btw.
Thank you, @@budmeister. Time flies, does´nt it.. ;-)
Centennial Honors man :)
I'm more impressed with the French doctrine than the British TBH. Feels lot more innovative and modern by comparison.
Giving the cavalry a chance to attack is more modern? 😅😂
@@arostwocents That was earlier in the war, also the British also wanted a cavalry breakthrough
As a whole? Nah. The French were stuck in the Napoleonic era. If Britain didn't step in they would've been doomed.
@@EdgyDabs47 That’s just wrong
@@EdgyDabs47 Lol what a rubbish take. The French army had largely modernised by late 1915.
I can’t believe I stared in the middle of the war, and now it’s almost over. This is so sad.
Hudson Louie this is epic
Alexa play der wald, der grüner wald
There's World War II if you're interested, just type it in, and you'll find it.
That's what Italy said.
holt tractor is now Known as Caterpiller. the company started life making wagon wheels.
I am soo gonna miss this show.. It has been a great 4 years guys..
Been here since then..
*FRENCH CAVALRY OF OLDE SOUNDS IN THE MIDST OF BATTLE*
Love the historical content. History includes things like the instruments of war and mans ingenuity to make and use the articles of war. Its too bad TH-cam frowns upon history. Their successor will realize this and not censor history.
If nothing else, the heavy tanks were responsible for some awesome propaganda paintings. (4:12, 4:27)
That one at the beginning is great and shows how the Germans tried to shift blame for what they did. "Y'know, bombing civilians and poison gas are one thing, but ARMORED CARS?!? That's a bridge too far!"
@@moosemaimer The first one as in the one at 1:02? I'm sorry but why do you remotely think that propaganda poster is German and shifting blame from their war crimes (not saying they didn't do that though, cuz they totally did)? All the writing is in French, and it's far from portraying the Germans positively (they all have the classic brutish and ugly features of Entente propaganda), it's clearly a piece of French propaganda about the formidable nature of their new "armoured cars". Unless someone who knows French can translate it for us and it says otherwise.
@@LordVader1094 Behold, fortunate son ! For your long waiting is now over :
It's an image, probably from some newpaper. His title is "La terreur des Boches / les Tanks, nouvelles auto blindées anglaises" -> The germ's Terror / Tanks, news english armoured car.
Sadly, it's all that can be read.
Finally a Renault that looks beautiful and actually performs! Well done Louis Renault - you outperformed the rest of the world :)
Also worth pointing out that FT, like the German A7V, was an arbitrary name and not an abbreviation. In total war you don't have time to devote to meetings for brainstorming names of new products!
Renault ft
The grand daddy of every modern tank
Except the swedish s-tank
The Schneider, with all its many flaws, was a far superior tank in comparison to the German A7V which was a lumbering, clumsy fortress with machine guns pointed in every direction including the rear.
Both designs were failures due to the nature of the combat. When used in the right circumstances the A7V was just as capable and more technologically advanced then the Schneider, I cant help but think you were thinking of the St Chamond. The Schneider was a hopeless tank, on flat hard ground the A7V could go the same speed and as a bonus the front armour on the A7V wasn't penetrated during the war. Not the sides or back lol, just the front.
Don't come at my toaster of death like that
@@cookingonthecheapcheap6921the Schneider actually did pretty well during the Matz and towards the end of the war
I really dont understand this thinking that a7v was justa garbage toaster, as if the french heavies were any different. They were all very bad designs and suffered huge losses in the war. Under the right circumstances however, both could be effective
@@CT-5555-7 that isnt really a compliment to the design itself. After the nivelle offensive the french AS just learned so much. Germany used tanks only in the closing times of the war, they just didnt have time to learn. If i had to choose between schneider or st chamond, i would choose the latter just because i would actually have a chance to escape it when it catches fire
After playing the video game Battlefield I, I became a huge fan of the FT-17. My favorite tank of the war! I call it the French Bulldog of tanks...diminutive but tough.
Tanks ! Your welcome.
A couple of vintage Schneiders were used by Spanish militias in the last, failed assault on the ruins of the Alcazar of Toledo, 1936.
If you want to know more about the Renault ft there is a video of a French TH-cam channel with English sub called "metal lourd"
Excellent Episode Indeed !!!
After four years of watching the intro I realised I fell in love with Brusilov's magnificent stash. Am I the only one?
I always find myself focused on the Renault FT Because of just how quick the jump was to big tractor boxes to yep, thats a tank, like exactly a tank.
Found your channel just now because of my Western Civilizations college class lol, great content.
Thanks, going to have nightmares about being a crewman during a tank rupture tonight ~3:10
Happy Tanksgiving!
Supremacy brought me here :) Love this stuff! Thanks
I really cannot believe that those tanks were actually bought by the Yugoslavian King in the early 30`s, before he was assassinated in Marseille.
(King Alexander the I)
The russians used Mk V in 1941 and the germsns ft 17 in 1945
The French kept using FTs up to 1940 as well, since so many were manufactured. The design, though outdated by then, held up surprisingly well as a reserve tank. It was exported very widely; numerous countries in Europe bought or copied it, as did the US.
a cool things ot the big Wooden wheel the track is running on
During operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in 1942, the Allies used some Renault FT's captured from the Vichy French.
@@Ignonym An FT was better than no tank, even in 1940, in terms of being proof against machine guns, if not anti-tank guns, but most tanks of 1940 were vulnerable to standard anti-tank guns apart from the French B1 and British Matilda I and II, and to a lesser extent the S35. The more modern French infantry tanks were better armoured than those of the Wehrmacht, but had poor guns (sometimes no better than the WW1 cannon armed FTs), mobility, but above all poor efficiency with one man turrets, although with FTs for a given number of crew you could have 2.5 times as many tanks in the field as Pz IIIs.
Great episode. Well done, again. I'm getting a bit emotional about the date, though. Anyway, thanks for all your amazing work over YEARS. I thought I knew about the subject, but have learned so much. Anyway, I'm off to protect the Thames Estuary from a massive assault from the German Navy. Wish me luck!
Jean Estienne reminds me of Curly Howard of The Three Stooges.
Tanks for the video.
Here in Portugal we are already celebrating the armistice with a military parade. Can't believe it yet, how fast time flies...
The Renault FT tank is the clear winner. It was still in service with the Germans through 1944-45. No other WWI tank made it that far.
Oh Indy how I miss your bright imagination and eccentric personality that made the Great War show what it is!!
In 1937 Heinrich Guderian wrote his groundbreaking militairy book ''Achtung Panzer!''/''Beware Tanks!'' In this he envisioned tanks taking over the traditional role of the cavalry and stated that this kind of deployment would break any potential stalemate of trench warfare. They would be the vanguard of the offensive to break through and/or encircle the enemy. His theories were put into practise during spring/summer 1940 at ''Case Yellow'' (the offensive against France and the Low Countries) and proved to be so succesfull that initially German high command couldn't believe their luck. The French did have tanks as well in 1940. Numerically and technically level, or even superior. to the Germans. But they deployed them in the same way as in WW1; supporting units for the infantry.
A certain colonel. later brigade general, De Gaulle had been a POW for 2,5 years during WW1. Hence he knew how to read German. He too had read Guderian's book and drew his conclusions, but his superiors didn't listen to him.
Large numbers of French tanks were deployed in the French cavalry divisions, and the design and deployment of tanks in the French cavalry to be used to create breakthroughs predated Guderian's book by several years (at least 5). And in fact Guderian also called for a specifc infantry-support tank too (which was the Pz. IV).
in 1934 De Gaulle wrote a military book similar 'vers l'armée de mêtier" / " to military profession"
The Great War, still going strong.
Nice! I like the episodes on tanks!
St. Chamond of BF1
Is that a belt-fed hotchkiss at 6:45? Neat!
Credit the British Royal Navy for the first Tanks. Credit the French for the first modern Tank layout. Credit the Germans and the Russians for starting modern Tank battle doctrine.
Credit the British etc at Amiens for the first modern tank/combined arms doctrine.
Special episode!
French tanks were designed after baguettes 3:45
I have a special place for you yung Jewish boy
I'm offensive and I find this French!
Hon, hon! Baguette, baguette! 🥖 🥖 🇨🇵 🍷 🗼
Makes sense, British tanks were designed after Cornish pasties, and German tanks ... uh?
@@CAP198462 Sausages.
"A death trap.. so, not perfect". For WWI standards, well said.
I am interested in the Renault FT Tanks that where used during the Polish Soviet War of 1920. It is a long story, but upon looking through my family photos my Polish Great Grandma recieved news of a death of a Polish Soldier. We have two pictures of this man, whom we believe was a relative. His uniform indicates that he was a Private in a Tank Regiment. The 2nd seems to be a memorial of the mysterious soldier with his picture on top of a Renault FT. I am very anxious to find out his name; and any help will do?!
I will have to admit these machines are indeed impressive
Another great vid from the great war (ww1)
Will you do follow up after WW1 events? Such as Turkish War of Independence or Fall of Austuria-Hungary or civil wars?
I just wanted to let u know that ur show is now used to teach at the very least 8th grade-Junior year students in my school district
Are there any surviving ww1 trenches left on the western front?
I think there are some at the Hartmannsweilerkopf in the Vosges Mountain Range
Look up Hill 62 of Ypres, also known as Preserved trenches at Sanctuary Wood.
There are likely others but this is a place I've personally visited :-)
Yes there are, but in various stages of decay. Almost all of the ground in the Western Front was relatively level, so the trenches were dug in soil, clay and chalk and so time has gradually filled a lot of them in and grass has grown over them. The concrete bunkers quite frequently remain that were linked by the trenches. There are quite a few in the military memorials, such as Vimy Ridge, which is the Canadian National Memorial, which are the original trenches, but restored. The grassed over trenches look more like ditches now and time and the weather have made the sides more of a wide 'V' shape, rather than the more vertical cross sections you see in footage of the time. There are a lot where all that remains of their existence is a different colour in the ground, particularly after the harvest time. Then there are some that you simply won't be able to see because the areas are still cordoned off due to the danger from unexploded ordinance in the area and so are hidden in new woodland.
Go in the woods around Verdun.
The area is a giant graveyard, with the occasional bone sticking out of half filled over trenches.
I do believe you can still see them. Of course almost all aren't trenches anymore, but I've heard that from a vantage point you can quite clearly see the impressions on the land where the trenches used to be.
7:26 I'm sorry, "Cast from two riveted steel plates" is some kind of mixup of at least two things (not to mention gibberish at face value). Production FTs had two turrets- the octagonal Berliet turret (the one people refer to when talking about 'omnibus', though to be fair, both were technically designated as such) which was constructed from riveted plates, and a round Giraud turret made from a rolled steel wall and a cast top. As a cherry on top, the image at the timestamp displays the prototype cast turret that got scrapped because it couldn't be fitted with a 37mm Puteaux gun.
Im just suprised tank crews didnt die from carbon monoxide poisoning or even heat exhaustion just trying to get in position to get in the fight. i couldnt imagine fighting a war like tht generation did its unbelievable, definitely some tough S.O.B's
Morning and afternoon everyone
Oddly it looks surprisingly modern for an APV designed 100 years ago.
at around 8:30 you see the heavy schnieders gonig past American troops. I know the americans like patton used the lighter renaults, did they also get the heavy tanks?
That might be (and is mostly likely to be) training with French forces rather than an actual engagement, or a propaganda movie, as there isn't a huge amount of front-line footage of WW1, and a lot of purported WW1 front-line footage is a recreation in rear areas for newsreels.
Damn i'm going to miss this background setup.
How many tanks were there in battalion for the French Army in WW1? Both light tank battalion and heavy tank battalion?
During 9:30 what games did you sponsor by. What is the name for that games sir.
I'm gonna be honest, the Chamond tank is by far the sexiest tank of the war!
It even looks like a baguette!
The FT was the most important tank of WW1
Absolutely not.
@@EdgyDabs47 what is then? Ft was arguably the best in its role and had enormous impact on tanks after ww1, unlike british heavy tanks for example. The british heavy tanks were really important too
@@taistelusammakko5088 The FT was not nearly as impactful to WW1 as the landship. Landships could attack trenches head-on where the FT typically couldn't.
Without the Mark 4 and 5 tanks the deadlock wouldn't have been broken.
The Char Schneider CA1's reputation as a flaming deathtrap earned it the macabre nickname "rolling crematorium".
One of my favorite channels. The new guy is ok but I miss Indie! He had pizzazz and knowledge at the same time.
And I had no idea people walked so fast back then. 5:10
Although the regular episodes will be over, I would love to see more special episodes and On The Road episodes after this is all done.
I love WW1 tank designs. Such goofy looking things
ive been playing supremacy 1914 for 4.5 years now. how do players already signed up claim the special offer?
The Renault FT is my all time favourite tank
Nice video
The Schneider tank seems similar to the concept of the Sturmgeschuetz
Tanks are part of the unholy trinity . armor , artillery , and INFANTRY . Tanks for the episode .( 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂).
Air power, artillery, armor, and infantry. Now you have combined arms.
I love supremacy 1914 ❤
First love your content im a hiatory geek
Hej Nicolai Overballe, Hold kæft det hyggeligt at møde dig herinde ;)
Renault tanks look so cute
Should’ve mentioned the FCM 1A and General Mourret’s competing view of superheavy tanks
A four cylinder? C’mon, throw a Hemi V8 in that bad boy... ugh, sorry
For real though, how much power were the engines able to produce to lug machines like that around?
Also, this was a nice demonstration of the oft-forgotten importance of logistics in the field.
Four cylinder engines - no wonder the top speed on level ground was only 7 mph, right?