- Yes
- No
i would like to suggest a potential easy-to-add premium for the French TT. the Panzer IV
the French Panzer IV was a rather side story of the French rebirth of 1944. the history of those tanks was related to the reserve cavalry lieutenant and resistant fighter, Guy Besnier who fought against the Germans as part of the newly reformed French army in 1944. having bravely led his squad to battle in 1944, he was soon promoted to captain. at the command of a reconnaissance squadron, he had grown his rank with French volunteer to the point that they just didn’t have enough material to carry on their mission. but from the volunteer joining the rank, Captain Besnier had heard that Normandy had still a large number of tanks left abandoned in the field in various conditions. this was a solution to his problem. sending a raid to Normandy at the end of August 1944, the Besnier Squadron had found a pretty large number of tanks. amounts of which was 11x Panzer IV, with a majority being Panzer IV Ausf H.
they were put into services and given a French serial. but the French army had little interest in those tanks. they did like the Panther that was captured at the same time (and we got it in-game) this formed the bulk of the 1st Mobile Reconnaissance Group. later in March 1945, the 1st Mobile Reconnaissance Group was converted to Besnier Autonomous Tank Squadron and stationed at Machecoul, in the Loire-Atlantique region for training the crew of the new tank.
after 1945, the Panzer IV was withdrawn from service and stored in the warehouse. after 1948. France had shown great support to Israel but was also trying to maintain good relations with Syria which was an enemy of Israel. to keep the relationship positive, France applied equity in the export of weapons to both countries. For any weapons sold to Israel, something equivalent was sold to Syria. having a fleet of Panzer IV stored and taking the dust in a warehouse. fleet that grew significantly after WW2; France had sent to Syria several Panzer IV that could reach 50 tanks before 1950. those tanks were in various conditions and the 11 Panzer IV from the 1st Mobile Reconnaissance Group was very likely amounts of them.
I believe the Panzer IV Ausf H could be a nice premium or event vehicle for France. It would be cheap to introduce, give France some mid-tier backup to the AMX-13, show the German main how to play this tank well, and allow it to have a pretty nice skin with the roundel already there (all indicating the tricolor NMH camouflage was used on those tanks.)
would it not be pretty?
Firepower
armed with the well-known 75mm Kwk40 , the tank firepower would be his best feature. capable of firing APCBC-HE with a penetration of 137mm at 100m , it would still penetrate most of the tanks it meets at over 1000m. The gun been very accurate, the long-range fire would not be out of the question. for heavier target, you also have APCR with 950m/sec of velocity which grow the penetration to 162mm at 100m . the fire rate of 12 rounds minutes would allow decent fighting capacity. the elevation of -10°/+20° is very decent and offer a great versatility.the turret rotation is however a bit slow with only 6°/sec of rotation . this is due to the absence of a turret engine.
the opposite of the German Panzer IV Ausf H, the French one didn’t have the roof LMG, and often the bow LMG was missing, this is likely because they were just missing when they recovered them. besides, but the Coaxial was surely still there.
Mobility
the mobility of this tank isn’t bad. been 25 tonnes , it was powered with a 300 hp engine which give a ratio of 12 hp/tonnes . that is not that bad but not that and provide it with a top speed of 39 km/h . that shall make the tank a very average tank in terms of mobility. which makes it a perfectly average medium tank for the main line. but due to the turret rotation, I would rather recommend keeping a distance and not getting too close to the enemy. the average mobility would allow you to turn the tank easily enough to help the turret turn toward the enemy, but keep in mind every tank can do it too.
Protection
the protection of this tank is not bad at all. the main flaw is the fact the armor is nearly vertical on all sides . but the very angular shape allows effective angling. been armored with thick steel of 80mm at the front hull and 30mm at the side hull , the tank front is capable of taking a shot. the turret is a bit weaker with 50mm at the turret front and 30mm at the turret side . there is also a curtain of armour of 5mm around the turret .
to make the protection a bit better, there is also 20mm of additional armor under the form of a spare track that can be welded on the front of the hull. where their armor was already the strongest. because they need to focus on their strength instead of their weaknesses.
The crew of 5 men is a pretty decent number for a medium tank which allows great survivability.
source
Char de France, by Jean-Gabriel Jeudy
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