Char B1

The Char B1 was a French heavy tank built before the Second World War. It began as a self-propelled gun with a 75 mm howitzer fixed in the hull, and a 47 mm gun in a turret was added later so that it could also work as a battle tank against enemy armour in the armoured divisions of the Infantry Arm. The idea went back to General Estienne and his 1919 concept of a Char de Bataille able to break through fortified lines, and in 1921 four projects were begun, two of them by Renault and Schneider together. Development and production were repeatedly delayed, so the result was complex and expensive and already obsolescent when mass production of the improved Char B1 bis began in the late 1930s. The original type was built in only 34 vehicles from December 1935 until July 1937, and a still more heavily armoured B1 ter was made as two prototypes. In 1940 it did well against German tanks but was too slow and used too much fuel for the fast war then being fought; Germany later used captured examples.