British tanks in French use.

[Ascent]

Looking through a book on the Great war there is a picture of three British rhomboidal tanks with a couple of dozen crew in front. The caption says 'A French tank unit awaits orders'. The mens uniforms don't look like British ones I've seen, most have some kind of helmet on, a few look like they're wearing berets one has a kepi.

Two of the tanks are males, can't see what the third is armed with and there are no obvious markings I can make out.

Where many British tanks used by French forces? I thought they only used their own.

[centurion]

France acquired a significant number of Mk V and Mk V* tanks in late 1918 intending to use them in the planned 1919 offensives but the war ended before the crews had completed training.

[centurion]

More of a Mk V* in French service

[Sidearm]

To my knowledge, France only acquired Mark V*, not Mark V. They were used for training between the wars (including as hard targets) and many were captured by the Wehrmacht in 1940.

Gwyn

[centurion]

To my knowledge, France only acquired Mark V*, not Mark V. They were used for training between the wars (including as hard targets) and many were captured by the Wehrmacht in 1940.

Gwyn

Not quite right. There was an International disarmament conference between the wars at which it was put that heavy tanks were "weapons of aggression" and should be dropped by all concerned.Britain and the US readily agreed as by this stage they no longer had any in service anyway. Germany pointed out that she wasn't allowed any tanks anyway (and redoubled the secret grossetractor project to develop some) France said yes and retired/disposed of all the British heavy tanks (and redoubled its own heavy tank programme which was developing the Char Be. The Soviet Union also said yes (as new heavy tanks were already set to roll out of the factories) and all the British heavy tanks in their service were sent out to various towns and cities as memorials of a sort - some of these were taken back to Berlin by the Germans in WW2 AFAIK the only French heavy tanks captured by the Germans in 1940 were Char Bs and some old Char2cs

I'm pretty sure that the French did have some MkVs - but bear with me on this.

[Sidearm]

Not quite right. ... AFAIK the only French heavy tanks captured by the Germans in 1940 were Char Bs and some old Char2cs

I'm pretty sure that the French did have some MkVs - but bear with me on this.

I would be imagining these photos then.

Gwyn

[Sidearm]

The tanks pictured, by the way, are 9651, 9676, 9692 and 10008. All Mark V* Males recorded in documents held in the National Archives at Kew as being supplied to France.

Gwyn

[Old Tom]

At risk of going way of topic! My reading of the 1940 campaign did not include the French using WW1 tanks of British origin.

Old Tom

[Sidearm]

Agreed up to a point, Old Tom, well, two points actually. The fact is the French Army still had Mark V* tanks in 1940, and one was photographed with what looks like a sandbagged anti-aircraft position on its roof so was apparently part of the French defences. The second point is that it appears that someone managed to get the Mark IV presented to Soissons running and that was also captured by the German Army. Photo attached. It must have been running - no-one in their right mind would put a presentation tank there, would they?

Gwyn

[Old Tom]

Interesting, many thanks.

Old Tom