French Forces

Return of the Native ... Char B1 bis.

Unknown (website credit www.panzerserra.blogspot.ie)

This photo confused me a bit initially. Clearly a Char B1 bis in parade, with adoring civilians looking on. I first thought that this must be an early war parade - but there are features incongruous with this interpretation. There is, for example, the German helmet hanging on the glacis; then there the apparently US type armoured car next in column; and, of course, there is, faintly visible, an "American Star" air-to-ground identification mark just visible on the vehicle's left side, faint, probably, because someone had tried to erase it. Of course, this parade is not an early war demonstration, but a late-war victory parade. After D-Day, some French-built tanks, recaptured from the Germans, were used by French resistants, in Paris and elsewhere, and these included some examples of the B1 bis. However, these were not the only French tanks recovered by the Free French. Following the Normandy invasion and the subsequent breakout, the Free French Provisional Government set up a team to recover and bring back into action French tanks that had been abandoned in various places by the Germans in the course of their retreat. The result was a distinctly mixed bag of types, but it was sufficient to allow the creation of a number of new Free French units using the recovered tanks. One of these was the 13th Regiment of Dragoons (established 7 October, 1944), which was equipped mainly with Somua S35s; however, the 2nd company, under Captain Edouard Vollaume, which was equipped with 19 B1 Bis tanks, including a mixture of standard B1 bis and German-modified B2s. The 13th, after a period of inactivity (needed, no doubt, for orientation and training) was engaged in cleaning-up operations in the Biscay area, first against Royan on 15 April, 1945, then against Pontaillac on 17 May, 1945. The 13th went on to take part in the Allied attack on La Rochelle, 29 April to 8 May, 1945. The Char B bis proved, perhaps unsurprisingly, quite useful in these operations. In the fairly panzer-free environment of these operations, its 47mm gun was still useful, and its 75mm hull-mounted gun-howitzer at last came into its own as a bunker-buster. This image shows Char B1 bis "Vercors" of 2nd Company, 13th Regiment of Dragoon, parading through La Rochelle after the victory. The commander of 2nd Company, Captain Vollaume, was awarded the US Distinguished Service Cross from his appreciative American allies for his actions at La Rochelle. Best regards, JR.