This next title in Osprey's New Vanguard series covers French cavalry and AFVs of WWII. I somehow missed volume 1 which covered the larger tanks. Anyway, when WWII started, the French had a rather good tank force. However, French tank production suffered from the same sort of issues that held back its aviation industry; an inability to get all the bits needed to make the equipment operational. It seems that French tank turrets were made by the government rather than the maker of the tank and dozens of new production tanks sat in depots awaiting turrets, while the Germans overran the French Army.

The French were probably some of the more forward thinking of nations when it came to tanks of any type. In the US, it wasn't until the war in Europe was underway that any serious effort was put into tanks. This was due as much to the reticence of cavalry generals to go mechanized. This does not seem to have been an issue with the French. What was an issue was finding the right vehicle.

The French military went through a considerable number of light tanks and armored cars and half tracks in search of the perfect cavalry or reconnaissance vehicle. Most armored cars had poor off road performance while most tracked vehicles were too slow.

Another difficulty was that French tanks had one man turrets. This meant that the tank commander had to load the gun, aim the gun, fire the gun, talk on the radio and keep track of where other tanks were in his unit as well as where the enemy might be all at the same time. The word 'overload' seems to be appropriate. Not that the Germans were not in the same position when it came to the Panzer I, but that was only one vehicle when the situation with the French designs was endemic.

Fortunately, some of their armored cars had two man turrets and later designed French tanks were getting around to multiple people in the turret, but few of those actually made it into combat. By and large, the French had pretty good tanks, much better than most think. What they did not have was good tactical commanders. French armored unit commanders were stuck into a playbook mentality that did not allow for initiative, something that was taught to German commanders. When something did not go according to plan, the French were at a major disadvantage and that showed in their battle performance.

This book covers the early initiatives into mechanized cavalry as well as the various tanks used. This includes various Renault tanks, the Souma S 35, the Hotchkiss H 35 and H39 as well as the Panhard AMD 35. A goodly portion of the book covers the performance of French units during the 1940 invasion and is followed by French use of armored tanks after the 1940 Armistice that includes use in the Levant and Indo-China. It also covers use during the Allied invasion in November 1942. All of this is accompanied by superb period photos and the excellent art work of Ian Palmer. In all, it makes for a great primer on French cavalry tanks and AFVs. A book that I very much enjoyed reading and from which I learned a lot. Highly recommended.

July 2014

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