- Yes!
- No.
- As an event vehicle.
- As a researchable vehicle.
- As a squadron vehicle.
- As a premium vehicle.
- I voted No.
Hello everyone, I would like to suggest the heaviest tank ever made by France, the gigantic FCM F1!
History of Development
History
In 1929, French general Estienne demanded to develop a heavy tank for use by French army, however, due to the lack of funds, it had not reached even the development stage.
In 1936, the French army itself decided that they indeed need a heavily armored ground vehicle with powerful weaponry:
“A very protected and very weaponized heavy tank, particularly suitable for fighting in fortified regions”
Multiple manufacturers had presented their projects, but only FCM was successful for the first expression. However, even their tank could not comply with given conditions of being armored with 100 mm thick armor yet weighing just around or less than 45 tons. For multiple years, companies including FCM, AMX, ARL and SEAM had competed in developing the most suitable tank for the purpose of being an effective fortified regions unit, however, the latter 3 did not have such powerful production means unlike the naval manufacturer. Unsurprisingly, FCM would be the most successful, and it was not their first experience with making superheavy tanks (see Char FCM 2C, Char FCM 2C bis).
Fun Fact: SEAM had proposed their own 220 ton tank, which would be split in two for transportation due to immense length of 12 meters!
In November, 1939, FCM publishes the name of their new superheavy tank project, “F1”. By December of the same year, the development was complete, except for electrical transmission, which would be made by Alsthom by the end of January, 1940. Along with it, all the main parts of the tank would be bought, and by April, 1940, the secondary parts would also be ready for construction of the first prototype, planned for September, 1940. By January, 1941, two prototypes of the new tank would be fully operational and ready for tests. If successful, the production would immediately start, with serial models being ready by the end of the same year.
In March, 1940, the French defence minister had successfully approved the idea of slowing down Schneider’s production of French cavalry tank SOMUA S.35 to produce the hulls of both future FCM F1 prototypes. The superheavy child of FCM had a full green-light! During the spring of 1940, both turrets were being welded in Havre. On April, 6th, 1940, the full-scale mockup of FCM F1 was photographed, and 6 days later the Tank Studies Commission had inspected the vehicle. Just a week later the full order of 12 models of FCM F1 has been confirmed to be produced throughout 1941.
Unfortunately, by June, 1940, the infamous month, everything related to FCM F1 was made, such as the hull, turrets, specially adapted Renault engines and Alsthom transmission, but was not constructed into a single prototype. Thanks to the mockup, however, we know how it would look.
FCM F1 Specifications
Specifications
These specifications both provide real life features of the tank, and game-suitable ones like penetration statistics, crew perks, etc.
General Info
Full name: char de forteresse / char de franchissement F1 F.C.M.
Display name: FCM F1
Place of origin: France
Type: super heavy tank
Crew
Inside 90mm turret - commander, gunner, loader
Inside 47mm turret - gunner, loader
Inside hull - driver, radio operator, mechanic (firing from one side machine gun), charge preparator (helping 90mm turret loader; firing from other side machine gun)
Total: 9 crewmen
Protection
Armor, mm:
Hull - 100/95/60
Turret 47 - 100/100/90
Turret 90 - 100/100/90
Type of armour: rolled homogenous steel
Possible modification: add-on 20mm armor (reported in documents as possible upgrade)
Mobility
Engine power: 1100 (2x550 gasoline/petrol Renault 12 KGM)
Mass, t: 130-140 (+6t if 20mm add-on armour is added)
Specific power, hp/t: 8.5-7.9 (8.1-7.5 with add-on armour)
Max speed, kph: 24 (20 with add-on armour)
Reverse speed, kph: 24 (20 with add-on armour)
(electric transmission by Alsthom allows max speed to be reversed)
Neutral turn: yes
Firepower
Primary weapons:
1x47mm (SA 37)
KE pen, point blank, flat, mm: 105
KE projectile mass, kg: 1.73
KE projectile velocity, m/s: 855
Ammo capacity, pcs: 100
1x90mm (shortened DCA Mle.1926)
CE pen, flat, mm: 13
CE explosive mass, g: 905
CE projectile velocity, m/s: 820
(the only ammo we know is high-explosive; we do not have sources whether 90mm naval anti-air cannon had AP/SAP ammo to be effective against heavy armour)
Ammo capacity, pcs: 88
Secondary weapons:
6x7.5mm (MAC 31 “Reibel”)
KE pen, point blank, flat, mm: 13
KE projectile velocity, m/s: 853
Ammo capacity: 53 mags of 150 rounds, total 8’700 rounds
Locations: 2 in hull front, 2 in hull sides, 1 in each turret
Misc
Dimensions:
Length, m: 10.5-10.53
Width, m: 3.1
Height, m: 4.21
Passable obstacles:
Row, m: 4.25-4.5
Bump, m: 2.30
Gameplay Features
Gameplay
As you can see from specifications, it is quite unique in terms of armament. Despite having insane armour for Interwar design (angled front and the rest, flat 100mm armor, with possible 20mm add-ons), the main gun present in the rear, the shortened version of 90mm DCA Mle.1926, has only been supplied with incendiary, illumination and high-explosive ammunition, and only the latter is present in the game (you can e.g. see it on French tier IV cruisers such as Colbert, Emile Bertin and Dupleix. With just 905g of explosive material, it will not be effective against anything but shooting the roof weakspots of some light tanks. Though, eliminating open-roof vehicles such as self-propelled anti-air and anti-tank guns will be very effective with ammo like that… And maybe you could actually use it by its first-of-all purpose, shooting down some enemy aircrafts!
The only threat to your enemies would be 47mm SA37 gun. Having great projectile velocity, Sherman-like penetration and very decent damage, it is a nice choice for flanking or aiming for weakspots, thought direct fights should somehow be avoided, because instead of high mobility and sacrificed armour, this time you would be extremely slow, but practically invincible - only direct hit right into your ammo rack, or a big bomb could destroy you! Not much of a problem if you remove some of your shells and stay in urban areas, though…
Conclusion
FCM F1 will be a very unordinary vehicle. Awful mobility, amazing armor suitable for angling and weird weaponry choice will need you to develop an unique tactic to properly use this vehicle, as it would not be able to rumble with heavies of your own, due to weak gun, and hunting someone fast and agile will certainly be a challenge. Maybe at least protecting your own heavy forces from open-roof TDs will be your main objective?
Sources
Archives SHD Vincennes, GR 7 N 4228, "Chars de forteresse - chars de franchissement"
- Cover
- Pre-History
- History
- The Defence Minister Report
- Specifications
Francois Vauvillier, Jean-Gabriel Jeudy, Jean-Michel Touraine, "L'automobile sous l'uniforme, 1939-1940"
- Pages 232, 233
Special Thanks
- Elan Vital - providing the crucial first source
- @usernameforlife2 - motivating me to make the suggestion
- @SillyAhhMf - helping with my first suggestion
Updated 16.02
(Provided by aforementioned Elan Vital)
So I noticed a few things here, mentions and errors I believe.
- It has a lot of fuel all over it’s sides (but apparently not in the rear, which is however protected by double transmission), it means it probably could be protected with fuel tanks very well just like some early war Soviet tanks and they eat surprisingly many shots, especially HEAT and solid ones
- I cannot see any side machine guns installed in the hull sides, even though they are made on most digital drawings and in most documents. Nor there is any evidence of rear turret machine gun on the blueprints. At least we know the front hull machine guns will be on the right, and we can see a machine gun on mock up mantlet.
- 47mm gun has all the ammo (two ammo racks with 50 shots) stored in the hull, 100/100 just like mentioned in the documents. 90mm however only has one rack with 84 shots, thats 84/88. Maybe it had some kind of first stage rack in the turret with 4 shots in the turret. It’s a naval gun, so who knows…
If you know French and see anything else interesting on these blueprints, give everyone a note (I can’t really see it well and translation is painful due to that)
My attempt to measure the armor:
I added most of these values into specifications of armor, above
