One of my favorite series in the Osprey catalogue is the New Vanguard line of books. They basically deal with equipment and do a superb job of covering whatever the subject might be. This particular one is on French Tanks of WWI. Though the British may get all the press about tanks at Cambrai, it is the French who settled on the basic design of the tank that has not changed in nearly 100 years.

The first operational tank designed by the French was pretty much of what I'd call the 'war wagon' variety that was large, had a big cannon and several machine guns, and had a rather hefty number of people crammed inside. It was designed by Schneider and was somewhat successful. This was followed by the larger and even less useful St.Chamond.

It was rather obvious that heavy tanks had a great deal of development before they'd be truly useful. At least so it seemed with French tanks.

What really got the ball rolling was the Renault FT 17. This looked like a real tank and was very much a light tank, armed with a single machine gun or a small 37mm cannon. It had a centrally mounted rotating turret that was either cast or made of plate armor. It had a small crew and while, like all tanks of the time, it had a rather unreliable engine and drive, it could be built in rather large numbers and was nimble enough to get over the broken ground of no-man's land. It was also able to withstand enemy machine guns and was a huge morale boost to the highly dispirited French troops.

So successful was the FT 17 design that it was still to be found in 1940, fighting the German invasion. It was used by a huge number of nations and was the main tank used by the US military until the 1930s.

Author Steven Zaloga covers the design, development and deployment of the various French designs and how these vehicles affected the various battles in which they were used. There is also a huge political background regarding these tanks as it wasn't a shoe-in for their use. Such were the machinations in the halls of the bureaucrats that it is truly surprising that the French military could operate at all.

All of this is fully covered and superbly illustrated by some fine period photographs as well as the excellent art work of Illustrator Tony Bryan. Together, this puts forth an excellent look at early tanks and tank warfare. It makes for a book that is an absolute must for any armor enthusiast. When you see it, buy it.

December 2010

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