Type: Light Tank
Nation: France
Period: World War 1
Location: Muzeum Broni Pancernej w Poznaniu, Poznań, Poland
The Renault FT was designed by the renowned car manufacturer Louis Renault and had its combat debut in May 1918. The idea was to swarm the battlefield with a large number of fast light tanks that were hard to hit instead of attacking with a few sluggish heavy tanks.
The 7-ton vehicle was the world’s first operational tank with the driver in the front, a fully traversable turret in the middle and the engine compartment in the back. This layout became the standard for most successful tank designs – even today.
After World War 1, Renault FTs were exported to numerous countries where they formed the starting equipment of many new tank forces. The now independent Polish Republic received about 120, making it the world’s fourth largest tank force at the time. They were used in the Polish-Russian War of 1920-21. Because of the FT’s historical importance for Poland, the Museum of Armored Weapons in Poznań (which I highly recommend visiting) is displaying this replica.
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6 responses to “Renault FT (Replica)”
[…] the 1920s the Empire of Japan had aquired a number of foreign tanks such as the French Renault FT and the British Vickers 6-tonner for trials and active service. However, General Sōsaku Suzuki was […]
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[…] However, its production had to be temporarily put on hold due to the Geneva World Disarmament Conference from 1932 to 1934, where a ban on tanks over 20 tons was being discussed. In the end, the ban was not put into action and the French Army adopted the new vehicle as the Char B1 in 1934. Like both French heavy tanks of World War 1 (the Schneider CA and the Saint-Chamond), it was armed with a hull-mounted 75 mm gun. But the B1 also carried a 47 mm gun in a fully traversable turret – a feature from the groundbreaking Renault FT. […]
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[…] traverse. Most early tanks were not much more than unrefined armoured boxes on tracks, until the Renault FT with its revolutionary layout would set the new standard for more practical tank […]
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[…] 501ᵉ régiment de chars de combat, a unit that was initially equipped with Schneider CA1s and Renault FTs when it was founded in 1918. This regiment was the first to receive the AMX-30 in 1966. These early […]
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[…] liberated the town twice. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in November 1918 he was commanding the Renault FTs and Schneiders of the 1st Tank Brigade and in August/September 1944 he returned with the Shermans […]
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[…] equipped with a 75 mm gun in a fixed casemate – like all early tanks before the revolutionary Renault FT introduced the rotating gun turret. And just like all early tanks (including the British rhomboids […]
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