THE FRENCH ARMORED WHEELED VEHICLES
Already in 1902, the company C. G. V. (Charron, Girardot
& Voigt) presented the first known French armored vehicle, the CGV 1902 at
the Motor Show of that year. Actually, it is the adaptation of an armored
cylinder in the rear seats of an ordinary automobile. The armament consisted of
a Hotchkiss 8mm ma- chine gun. The vehicle was evaluated in Chalons the
following year, but that eventually ended.
With the participation of Commandant Guye, the company CGV
submitted to the Ministere de la Guerre the CGV modele 1906, its first
entiérement Blindée Automobile de Guerre. This vehicle was evaluated in the
fall of that year. The main drawback of this vehicle was its unsatisfactory
power to weight ratio but did employ some successful innovations such as the
engine being located inside the vehicle as well as tires that could be used for
up to 10 minutes after being pierced by a bullet or something similar. It seems
that the French army used four Charron armored vehicles. Russia ordered twelve
vehicles and then two more to replace two that were requisitioned by the German
Government in the transit to Russia via Germany.
The French Army also acquired some Mitrailleuse Hotchkiss 18
HP automobiles (1903), Panhard-Genty 24 HP (1906), Clément-Bayard (1908),
Panhard 24 HP (1911) all in small quantities.
In the first weeks of the war, several Automitrailleuses
Improvisées and Voiturettes Automitailleuses were created on the ground using
commercial vehicles of various brands such as Delahaye, Delaunay-Belleville,
Mercedes, Panhard, Peugeot, Renault, Legrand, etc.
AUTOMITRAILLEUSES BLINDÉES AND AUTOCANONS PEUGEOT
The first armored cars were hastily produced by Peugeot and
modified in August 1914. They were based on a commercial vehicle, the Peugeot
4×2 153, built in series between 1913 and 1916. These early conversions used a
machine gun, usually a Saint-Étienne Modéle 1907 centrally mounted on a pivot
or on a tripod in the rear of the vehicle and was provided with a small shield.
The first side plates were 5.5 mm and eventually applied to the entire vehicle.
In late August 1914, the Lieutenant-Lesieure Desbriere
proposed to Général Gallieni, that in order to fight the Germans and their
wheeled armored vehicles, they would have to convert some of the Peugeot 146 18
HP into 37mm Marine Auto Canons, giving them a small 37mm gun Modéle 1885.
Things quickly got under way and the first modified vehicles fire tests were
conducted on September 13 in Vincennes. Gallieni gave the order to start production
of numerous vehicles armed this way. A few days later, Lesieure-Desbriere went
to the Parisian factory in Saint Chamond to address the issue of the shields.
These vehicles were assigned to the Marines, organized in
Groupes d’Autocanons de 37 mm de la Marine, with two sections of four vehicles,
three armed with cannons and a fourth as a supply vehicle which was unarmed.
Later, two Automitalleuses and a shuttle car were added to each section.
Général Gallieni had decided to form 24 Groupes d’Autocanons de 37 mm, with a
total of 192 Peugeot chassis although only 144 were armed. Général Joffre
estimated on October 22nd that twelve groups would be enough, one for each
Cavalry Division and two kept in reserve, so finally, production was reduced to
90 Auto canons de 37 mm and 31 supply cars.
As we have previously indicated, each section of the Groupes
d’Autocanons of 37 mm de la Marine was assigned with two Automitailleuses. The
first twelve sections were improvised vehicles equipped by five different factories.
Those five factories were Renault, Peugeot, Delaunay-bel, Delhaye, and Panhard.
From the seventh group on, they were standardized vehicles with Renault
Automitrailleuse ED type of 18-20 HP. A hundred units were built in Lyon, whose
deliveries began in late October 1914.
In December 1914, a specifically designed variant appeared.
Conceived by Capitaine Renaud, this vehicle barely resembled earlier versions.
It was now covered by armored plates. The radiator was protected by steel doors
despite the extra weight of the shield. This was in part compensated by the use
of double rear wheels. Although it was armed with a machine gun, Modéle
Saint-Étienne 1907, the most common weapon was the 37mm gun, now mounted on a
barbette mantlet. The replacement began in Vincennes at a rapid pace. They had
numerous Peugeot type 146 chassis so that the preparation of the shield and
mounting was performed in December 1914, without harming the setting up of the
groups equipped with the initial model, whose late unit, the number 12 was
completed on December 24. The last three groups organized were the 13éme, 14eme
and 15eme Groupes d’Autocanons de 37 mm de la Marine crews completed their
vehicles on January 13 1915. But, at that time, with a static front of trenches
and fields of barbed wire, the task of `free hunting of German cars’ was finished
so a few vehicles were used in patrols near the front, but their actions had
little influence on the development of events.
On March 5, 1916 these units stopped relying on the Marina
to be assigned to the 81éme Regiment d’Artillerie. Thus, the presence of
armored vehicles in the Marine closes and opens another episode, although short
and unfortunate, in that Auto canons and Automitailleuses were committed to the
Artillery, who poorly used them. Finally, headquarters issued an instruction in
which the Auto canons and Automitailleuses were to be assigned to the Cavalry
with a new organization. Each group would have a Voiture de Laison blindée from
an unspecified model for the group leader, and three sections each with two
more Auto canons and an Automitailleuse plus a motorcycle and a car shuttle.
Further armament was modified with the old 37mm modele 1885 cannon which was
replaced by another of the same caliber, the Puteaux SA Semi-automatic which
fired twice as fast. Ninety vehicles were requested on February 3, 1917
although it is possible some were intended for the new Ségur-Lorfeuvre. Sixty
of these guns were installed with Auto canons Modele Peugeot 146, but also in
some modified Renault ED Automitailleuses. Finally, Saint-Etienne 8mm Modele 1907
machine guns were replaced on vehicles that still kept them for other Hotchkiss
Modele 1914 of the same caliber.
At the same time, the number of groups was adjusted due to
the reduction of cavalry divisions. There were not more than seven in mid-1917
and six at end the year. In fact, 13 groups were held, two divisions and one
reserve.
In 1918, they took part in the combat against the German
offenses along the whole front. Afterwards, some of the armored cars from
Peugeot and Renault were used in the warfare that followed this stage, although
most of the fighting involved the Renault F. 17, which were more effective in
difficult terrain than Peugeot with its narrow wheels. At the end of the
conflict, at the time that the new White came to the units, the service unit
count was 39 Renault and 28 Peugeot.
AUTOMITRAILLEUSE LEGERE D’ INFANTERIE ARCHER
When the implementation of the new Peugeot Modele 146
chassis shields were about to start, an unexpected interruption came about
which com- promised the development of the planned program. This interruption
was the Automitailleuses Archer, a vehicle designed by a civil mining engineer,
mobilized with the rank of Sergeant J. Archer, who was also a businessman who
imported American Hupmobile cars, which he considered adequate to resist the
incorporation of light armor. Archer obtained from the Ministere de la Guerre,
in December 1914, the Constitution of the Groupes d’Autocanons de 37 mm de la
Marine with the intended material and his own ideas were submitted for evaluation.
When the evaluation was completed on December 19th, a report in which it was
emphasized that the Archer was but an invention that was not likely to render
any service was issued. However, a second model was presented in February 1915,
having very satisfactory shooting results, so four vehicles were commissioned
to provide the division of General Albert Gerard Leo d’ Amade, de l’Armée
d’Orient, for the Dardanelles expedition. Two other copies requested on May 27,
1915, were assigned to Détachenet d’Armée de Lorraine.
AUTOMITRAILLEUSE WHITE TBC
In November 1914, Sergeant Pierre Gasnier of Aéroanautique
Militaire, pro- posed to his superiors the project of an Automitrailleuse. The
project was approved on November 26, 1914 and evaluated in February 1915. The
vehicle was built on the chassis of a passenger car known as the Gobron 40 HP.
It was shielded with steel plates from the factory of Saint-Chamond, 5 to 7 mm
thicker. The model was proposed to equip Groupes d’Autocanons 37mm de la
Marine, but on June 21 they responded to this proposal that there were already
a sufficient number of such vehicles in service and there were no reason for
substituting the Renault ED.
But the idea of a complete shield returned on September 10,
1915, the date in which the Brigadier Marc Fabry presented to the
Sous-Secretary d `État de l’Artillerie et des Munitions his project: an
automobile with an armored observation tower intended to equip a long vehicle
with four wheels and two driving positions. The basic objectives proposed by
Fabry were to pro- vide infantry officers in the field a large observatory,
protected and with a high degree of mobility. Unknowingly, Fabry had invented
the artillery observation vehicle. Finally, it was thought that to support
infantry in the tower, a 37 or 45mm cannon or a machine gun or even both could
be mounted. So, with the approval of Général Joffre, seduced by the capacity of
the tower to shoot in every direction, on February 17, 1916, Delaunay-
Belleville signed a contract for the mounting of twenty double direction frames
and absolute Jeffery adhesion, with steel plates provided by Saint- Chamond and
the Fabry tower.
In late September 1916, the prototype was sent to the Centre
d’Instruction des Automitauilleuses at Versailles. There it was found that its
excessive weight of 6150 kg to the lean frame made it inappropriate for any war
service. The constructed units were dedicated exclusively to training.
While the factory of Delaunay-Belleville proceeded to make
the prototype, Jeffery-Fabry, one of the giants of the French automotive
industry, De Dion- Bouton and Puteaux, on November 15, 1915, announced to the
Minister of War their project of a Blockhaus Automobile, designed by Commandant
Guye. The vehicle was completed before the end of the year and presented on
February 14 1916. This vehicle was armed with a 37mm cannon firing back and a
Hotchkiss machine gun firing forward. In August, the cannon was replaced by
another 75mm gun. But this vehicle had certain problems, most importantly, it
was not equipped with two driving positions, which at the time was considered
essential, which combined with their excessive weight, nearly seven tons,
disqualified it for production.
Another attempt to achieve a complete armored
Automitrailleuse took place with a contract on September 28, 1915 for an
Automitrailleuse Segur & Lorfeuvre on a lighter chassis frame of a Panhard
K14 truck, which was delivered to the Centre d’Instruction des
Automitauilleuses on May 17, 1916.
It could be armed with a machine gun or 37mm gun and could
reach 50 km/h with a 16HP engine. In July 1916, an order for 50 copies, later
raised to 300 in January 1917 were manufactured, but the priority was for tanks
and artillery tractors so the request to Segur & Lorfeuvre was reduced to
ten units on February 5, and finally being canceled.
But the urgency to find a replacement among the vehicles in
service for the Groupes Automitailleuses Autocanons Cavalry, led Capitaine
Castelbajac, director of the Centre d’Instruction des Automitauilleuses, to
find a suit- able frame for a new Automitrailleuse and after ruling out many of
the existing, he decided to use the light truck, 2 ton White TBC of American
origin, of which the Army had a large number. Headquarters made available one
of these vehicles to Lorfeuvre at the Centre d’Instruction des
Automitauilleuses to conduct preliminary tests. On March 30, 1917 the
transformation began. This transformation, along with an armored body, involved
a rear driving position with a steering wheel and the installation of a tower,
designed by Castelbajac, armed with a Puteaux SA 37mm cannon and an 8mm
Hotchkiss machine gun. Despite the advantages of the vehicle, mass production
started only in the spring of 1918, to begin manufacturing 130 units, given the
impossibility of the Ministere de l’Armement to fix the number of vehicles
required on 6 April, the Cavalry required 170 units. On June 29, new requests
made a total of 230 required vehicles.
The First White TBC were delivered to 10eme Groupes Automitailleuses
Auto canons de Cavalerie, on October 3, 1918. In practice, the vehicle Segur
& Lorfeuvre had to wait almost two years to enter service, arriving just in
time to participate in the occupation of the Rhineland.
