It’s the lazy historian who answers questions about unfortunate decisions by people in the past with “well, it’s because they were stupid.” French planners were not stupid, but the conclusions they had drawn from the battles of the Great War did not lead to an effective doctrine or design for modern armor. Also unlike the Germans, the French produced infantry-support tanks rather than specially-designed assault guns, which somewhat re-dressed the balance of inefficiency. Unlike the Germans, the French produced different tanks for the different branches, introducing inefficiencies into the system. Like the Germans until the 1939 campaign in Poland, France had two types of armored divisions: one originating from the cavalry branch, and one from the infantry branch. That led to a number of obvious problems on the battlefield: the tank commander had to load and aim the main gun as well as direct his tank in the fighting, and if he were a platoon or company commander as well, he had to direct other tanks, too.
Would it have been enough to overcome deficiencies in doctrine and organization? That question is the core of our 1942: The Defense of France supplement for Panzer Grenadier.įrench armor did have some serious technical problems: a lack of radios in all tanks, and in most designs a small one-man turret forcing the tank commander to also operate the main gun. Had the German invasion occurred a year or two later, France’s technological superiority would have been even more profound.
And while French light tanks like the Renault R35 and Hotchkiss H39 were not up to fighting the German Panzer III in a tank battle, they were adequate in the infantry-support role even if not as capable as the German vehicle that performed the same task, the Sturmgeschütz III assault gun.ĭespite this advantage, France’s tank designers continued to work on better vehicles, and her arms makers toiled at producing better weapons for them. The Germans had nothing to match the splendid Somua S35 cavalry tank, nor the Char B1bis heavy tank. France went to war in the spring of 1940 with a decided technical edge in her armored forces.
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