French Forces

Fallen Gaul.

?Bundesarchiv

French Char B1bis heavy tank of the French Army, disabled by detracking in the course of the Battle of France, May 1940. Modern accounts tend to stress the faults of this tank, but the admittedly fragmentary German accounts of the Battle indicate that, where this vehicle was encountered, it caused the panzers great difficulties. Defensively, it was very heavily armoured for the time, to the extent of being immune to any gun carried by a German tank, and to ordinary German antitank guns (the infamous "door knockers") at the time. Offensively, most of the difficulties for the Germans seem to have been caused, not by the 75mm gun-howitzer mounted in the Char B's hull (which could only be brought to bear by turning the whole tank) but by the excellent French 47mm antitank gun mounted in the fully traversing turret. The 47mm was superior to any comparable German weapon at the time, and could knock out any German tank at reasonable battle range. The advice to Germans trying to deal with one of these was to aim at the vulnerable tracks, or to call up the 88mm Flak guns, which were quite capable of knocking out a Bbis at range. Best regards, JR.