ST CHAMOND (Late type) FRENCH HEAVY TANK 1918

Description

he Saint-Chamond was the second French heavy tank of the First World War, with 400 manufactured from April 1917 to July 1918. Born of the commercial rivalry existing with the makers of the Schneider CA1 tank, the Saint-Chamond was an underpowered and fundamentally inadequate design. Its principal weakness was the "caterpillar" tracks. They were much too short in relation to the vehicle’s length and heavy weight ( 23 tons ). Later models, however, attempted to rectify some of the tank’s original flaws by installing wider and stronger track shoes, thicker frontal armour and the more effective 75mm Mle 1897 field gun. The Saint-Chamond tanks remained engaged in various actions until the late summer of 1918, belatedly becoming more effective since combat had moved out of the trenches and onto open ground. Eventually, however, the Saint-Chamond tanks were scheduled to be entirely replaced by imported British heavy tanks. The last Saint-Chamond tank remaining in existence ( an improved mid-1918 model ), alongside other French tanks of World War I ( Schneider CA1 and Renault FT ), is preserved at the Musée des Blindés at Saumur, France. It had survived, together with a Schneider CA1 tank of the same vintage, at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Ordnance Museum in Maryland, USA, and was later donated by the U.S. to the French government. Although very well preserved at the Musee des Blindes, this unique Saint-Chamond tank could not be fully restored to self mobility due to the irreversibly degraded conditions of the two electric motors and of the electric generator. The recently spray painted camouflage colors have been questioned as unrealistic and too bright as well as unlike those that were applied by hand at the time during World War I. One French tanker figure is included in the kit. (Scale : 1/35e)