- Yes
- No
Introduction:
Hello, and welcome to my first suggestion, hopefully the first of a long journey of suggestions. This one is dedicated to Sweden’s Renault FT that was bought in 1921 and nicknamed Putte.
History:
It was long thought that the German LK-II’s bought by Sweden were the first tanks on Swedish soil, but by 2018, documents were found thanks to a news article, where it was found that the Renault FT that was thought to have been bought in 1923 was actually bought in 1921 and tested the same year.
The story for Putte begins on the 22nd January of 1921 when the chief of the Army Administration’s Artillery Department and the General Staff, Friherre Ulf Lars Carlsson Sparre, sends out a letter to the military attaches in Berlin, Paris, Rome, London, and Washington. The letter was about buying different types of guns with ammunition, both for anti-tank usage and anti-air, towing vehicles for artillery, and one light tank.
Shortly after Lieutenant Colonel Ljungberg from the military attaché in Paris got back to Carlsson Sparre with the message that soon they would get to know what material France would allow them to buy. One of the things Sweden would be allowed to buy was a Renault FT produced on the 23rd June of 1920 for 11500 francs / ≈37000 SEK. The FT would also be sent with 200 rounds of ammunition.
19th of July 1921, Aftonbladet reported that a French tank had arrived with the steamboat Vega as of her latest return voyage. A few days later (25th of July), the FT had been transferred to the A 9 – Royal Field Artillery Regiment, where a “trail troop” was created, tasked with the basis for caretaking of the FT.
By the 27th of August 1921, the FT was used in a training exercise at Malmslätt, outside of Linköping. This was the first time it saw real active service with the army, and the first trials could be done.
Throughout October, the tank would be participating in a large-scale training exercise. The tank was rather successful as it was able to cause both horror and confusion. Sadly, though, we do not know much about what the FT was up to or where it was under 1922. Documents start appearing for it dated 1923 again, so it is possible it sat in storage for a year, or what trials were conducted with it were just poorly documented for that year.
A tank company was created at Svea Livgarde, where Putte was put to use again. At this point, Pansarvagn fm/22, later renamed Stridsvagn m/21, had been bought and assembled, and trials could be conducted to compare them to each other. At some point, it was decided to remove the SA 18 cannon from Putte and mount it on Pansarvagn fm/22 (nr.5) to conduct firing trials. This was probably done as Major Burén pointed out that the turret of the FT needed to be reworked; it was not possible to lay the gun on target rapidly. Under the firing trials, it was found that the gun met the expectations, but 1/3 of the ammunition misfired.
In 1924, continued usage of Putte started to show some major technical faults that were not easy to fix, noted by Major Burén. He also notes that due to these technical problems, the trials were not satisfactory. Putte ended up becoming a radio tank as of 16th of August 1924; this was done as an effort to keep the tank in a somewhat usable state. It also had not gotten its canon back, as evident by this picture below.
Putte continued to serve as a radio tank into 1925, but later in that year, the radio it had was moved over to Stridsvagn m/21 (nr.10), and after that, Putte was not needed anymore, and as of 1926, it was decided that Putte would become a firing target. The tank lasted from August to October, when it was decided to scrap the remains of Putte and to end the story of Sweden’s first tank.
Armor
We all know the FT does not have any good armor when it comes to how it would perform in-game. As Putte had a riveted turret, it only has 16 mm of armor compared to the cast turret that has 22 mm all around.
Chassis
Front: 16 mm
Sides: 8 mm
Rear: 8 mm
Turret
Front: 16 mm
Sides: 16mm
Rear: 16mm
Crew
The Renault FT was a two-man tank, which in-game makes it devistating of just one shell penetrates the armor, as both crewmembers are located in the fighting compartment.
Crew:
Commander
Driver
Armament
The main armament of Putte was the short 37mm Puteaux SA 18 used on the male variants of the Renault FT. This gun is already in-game on some French tanks like the FCM.36. Though the French tanks get an APCR shell, that would not be the case for Putte. The APCR Mle1937, as the name suggests, came almost ten years after Putte was scrapped, so the shells available for Putte would be the AP (with a velocity of 410 m/s and HE (with a velocity of 410 m/s). Thus, the penetration would be even worse than the APCR Mle1937 found on the French tanks.
Mobility
We all know the mobility of the FT ain’t that good by today’s standards, but back then, tanks were just supposed to be able to travel at the same pace as the infantry.
Engine: Renault 4-cyl producing 39 hp (29 kW) at 1500 rpm
Speed: 7-9 km/h (depending on the source)
Mass: 6.5 tons
Power to weight: 5 hp/t