Char 2C

Char 2C
Drawing of a Char 2C
General properties
crew	12
length	12 m
width	3 m
height	4.09 m
Dimensions	68 t
Armor and armament
Armor	22-45 mm
Main armament	75mm cannon
Secondary armament	four 7.92 mm machine guns / 155 mm cannon
agility
drive	2 × 184 kW (2 × 250 PS)
Top speed	15 km / h (road) 8 km / h (terrain)
Power / weight	5.3 kW / t (7.4 PS / t)
Range	150 km

The Char 2C or Char de Rupture (German: breakthrough tank) was a French tank that was planned in 1917, but was only built after the First World War . It was delivered from 1922 and for a long time was the best armored combat vehicle in the world.

It was equipped with a 75-mm cannon and four machine guns, one of which had a 155-mm cannon instead of the MG. With a length of 12 meters and a weight of 68 tons, it was almost twice as long and more than twice as heavy as the German A7V . The high weight was due to the enormous size and armor. With the 1260 liters of fuel in seven fuel tanks, a range of 150 kilometers was achieved.

history

At the beginning of World War II , all ten tanks built by the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée company were ready for action. They were combined in a separate tank battalion, the 51st Bataillon de Chars de Combat . The tanks were already obsolete, slow and easily vulnerable by then, but were still used for propaganda purposes. To do this, they were named after historical provinces of France :

The ten Char 2C

number	Surname
90	Poitou
91	Provence
92	Picardy
93	Alsace
94	Brittany
95	Touraine
96	Anjou
97	Normandy
98	Berry
99	Champagne

Normandy was renamed Lorraine in 1939 .

"Champagne" as a booty tank, summer 1940

"Lorraine" after the capture by German troops in western France, summer 1940

The tanks were deliberately not used in combat, but were used by propaganda as invulnerable "super tanks". After the German Reich broke through the French lines during the western campaign , the decision was made on June 10, 1940 to bring the Char 2C south. The transport train was stopped by a burning train on June 15, 1940 and the tanks had to be blown up so as not to let them fall into the hands of the Germans. German propaganda spoke of a Stuka attack. Despite the explosions, a tank, Champagne , more or less functional, was captured and brought to Berlin.

variants

In 1926, Champagne was converted to the Char 2C bis , which received a 155 mm howitzer instead of the four MG . This conversion was only carried out on a test basis, the tank was returned to its original condition in the same year.

In 1939 Lorraine was upgraded to withstand German anti-tank weapons. For this, the front armor was increased to 90 mm and the side armor to 65 mm. This was the strongest armor at the time and, weighing 75 tons , made Lorraine the heaviest armored fighting vehicle that was ever used operationally.

See also

• French military vehicles of World War II

Web links

Commons : Char 2C  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Char 2C in WWII Vehicles (Engl.)
• Char 2C at chars-francais.net (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the ruins of the "Grande Nation" . In: Innsbrucker Nachrichten . August 27, 1940, p. 3 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed on May 18, 2020]).