Tanks - France: Illustrated History Books & Guides

French Tanks of the Great War - Development, Tactics and Operations

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This history examines the development and combat use of the French tank corps during the First World War. Drawing on material from the French military archives at Vincennes, Tim Gale covers the design and development of French tanks, as well as the political and organisational issues involving the military and civilian authorities.

The book describes the major engagements involving French tanks and assesses their impact on French military tactics and the development of tank warfare. Accounts from individual tank commanders provide first-hand perspectives on their experiences in combat.

The study places French tank operations within the wider development of armoured warfare, examining how these early fighting vehicles were employed and how combat experience influenced French tactics. It provides a detailed account of an important but relatively underrepresented aspect of the French Army on the Western Front.

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French Tanks of World War I (Osprey)

This title examines the emergence of the first modern tank, the Renault FT. It is a little known fact that France fielded more tanks in World War I than any other army. However, France's early tanks suffered from poor mobility and armor compared to their contemporaries.
Indeed, their initial use on the Chemin des Dames in 1917 was a bloody fiasco. In spite of initial set-backs, the French army redeemed its reputation with the Renault FT.

The Renault FT pioneered the modern tank design, with armament in a revolutionary central turret and the engine in the rear. More importantly, the Renault was designed to be cheap and easy to manufacture. Discover the history of the early French armor developments and their triumphant new design, the Renault FT, that helped to turn the tide of war in the favor of the Allies.

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Renault FT & M1917 Light Tank

During its 25-year service, the Renault FT tank was used in many countries around the world: France, Italy, Poland, the United States, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, China, the Baltic countries, Soviet Russia, Japan, Romania, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia.
It was in service during both world wars.

The structural arrangement created by L. Renault with its transmission and drive wheels at the rear, combat compartment in the middle of the hull, and a movable turret, has become a classic construction solution for tanks and is still used nowadays. It was a base for new tanks manufactured in the United States, Italy, and the Soviet Union.

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Le char Schneider

The Schneider tank was the first tank of the French army. Its prototype, born from the impetus of Colonel Estienne and engineer Eugène Brillié, of the Schneider et Cie company, was ordered in 400 copies.
The first copies were delivered in September 1916. They were used in combat for the first time on April 16 1917, at Berry-au-Bac, during the offensive on the Chemin des Dames. More than half of the 82 tanks engaged were destroyed.

The Schneider, which moves well on all terrain, is handicapped by a space too restricted for a crew of six men as well as by its side armor too weak and its fuel tank placed at the front. All this will be improved and it will participate in many battles until the armistice.

This 32-page booklet, illustrated with excellent period photographs and color illustrations by Éric Schwartz, is part of a series of monographs published by Ysec Éditions on the weapons and vehicles of the Great War.

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Le grand album des automitrailleuses de la Victoire

The idea of placing a machine gun on a car chassis is as old as the automobile itself. At the very beginning, around 1900, the words used to designate this assembly were diverse: some spoke of "automotive machine gun", others used the expression "war automobile". Often these were simple torpedoes equipped with machine gun mounts like the famous Panhard-Genty sent to Morocco at the end of 1907. Others were already authentic armoured cars like the CGV presented to the French army in 1906.
It was the Great War, which began in August 1914, which would give its definitive name to this new combat vehicle, with the word "automitrailleuse" and its derived form "autocanon".

Indeed, as early as October 1914, various touring chassis proved capable of withstanding the fire of small 37 mm cannons supplied by the navy, including crews. Thus a new and very unusual subdivision of arms was born in France, with sailors with red pompoms crisscrossing the roads of the front.
More logically transferred to the cavalry in 1916, this new equipment, mainly on Peugeot and Renault chassis, would await its moment of glory with each attempt to break through the front.

In this highly illustrated work, no model designed up to 1918, series or prototype, is forgotten, each is treated by giving first place to the illustration, following a sequence structured by the author's customary rigor of analysis and synthesis.

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A bord du Renault FT - de la genèse à la mémoire du premier char moderne

NEW

"On Board the Renault FT" takes the reader through the history of this pioneering tank, from its design to its current place in museums and collective memory.
The book is richly illustrated with photographs and technical drawings, offering a detailed view of this important vehicle. It provides a complete study, both historical and technical, and covers its many combat uses and its presence around the world.

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Le Char Saint-Chamond

The Saint-Chamond tank, a failed machine and almost incapable of moving off-road, which is a shame for an assault tank, was only produced because of a war of influence within the French general staff.
Despite its flaws, 400 were ordered, which made it possible to form twelve groups of Saint-Chamond tanks (AS 31 to AS 42). They were engaged only four times during the conflict: at the Laffaux farm in May 1917, at Malmaison in October 1917, at the Battle of Matz in June 1918 and finally, on 18 and 19 July 1918. It was later replaced by British Infantry Tank Mk V tanks, which were very superior off-road.

This 32-page booklet, illustrated with excellent period photographs and color illustrations by Éric Schwartz, is part of a series of monographs published by Ysec Éditions, the Mark I, IV, V infantry tank, the 75 cannon and the Argonnenbahn.

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Renault FT - Le char de la Victoire

The "Victory Tank". This is the term that history uses to describe the Renault FT, a light tank whose eminently modern formula would set a precedent. Produced in large quantities and thrown into battle in large numbers in 1918, this armoured vehicle, both manoeuvrable and high-performance, thus played a leading role in the operations carried out by the Allies in this decisive year of the Great War.
However, its career did not end with the First World War and continued for many more years, both in combat and in schools.

This book, written by Jean-Baptiste Petrequin and Paul Villatoux, two recognized specialists in the field of military history, looks back at the genesis of this armored combat vehicle, its various developments, its operational engagements as well as its different versions both in France and abroad.
Around fifteen diagrams, some of them unpublished, and a hundred photos complete a dense and precise story.

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Tous les blindés de l'armée française des origines à 1940

When France entered the war in September 1939, its rearmament effort since the adoption of the first new 1935 model equipment had been considerable: more than 2 700 modern combat vehicles - tanks and armored cars - had been delivered in four years by French factories.
And 1 800 others would come out at an accelerated rate after industrial mobilization, from September 1939 until the armistice of June 1940.

This effort, both little known and totally obscured by the disaster, was not a spontaneous generation. Its roots were in the previous war - in particular with the impressive production program of the Renault FT light tank - without forgetting that it was also in France that the first armed and armored combat vehicles were born, at the dawn of the 20th century.

Pages from the book "Tous les blindés de l'armée française des origines à 1940"

Presented one by one in an encyclopedic form, all this equipment is gathered here in an absolutely complete panorama: 100 main vehicles (battle tanks and armored cars) and 284 variants and derived equipment (troop transports, bridge layers, mine-jumping tanks, etc.).
A concise and absolutely synthetic text, extremely precise genealogical tables, all the technical sheets of the main vehicles, a profusion of illustrations, made up of rare period photographs and sumptuous color profiles, all at constant scale, make this work the essential bible of the subject.

A completed reissue of the best-selling work of 2014, which had quickly become unobtainable.

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