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The turret made the employment of it's armament much more flexible and effective, and the whole vehicle was considerably more agile and easy to drive than it's heavier partners, yet better protected. The whole track assembly with it's large front wheel gave the tank good ability to cross difficult terrain and trenches and to climb high obstacles. It also proved easily adapted to form numerous variations (besides the basic variants, equipped with either one MG or one 37mm cannon).
One of these was this, the Renault FT-75BS. It was introduced late in 1918 as a modification of the basic FT 17 tank. The proven chassis was used as per standard, but it sported a
completely new turret
with a short Howitzer. (The calibre of the gun was 75mm, it's name was
"Blockhaus" and it was produced by Schneider, thus the acronym "75BS".)
The idea was to add one FT-75BS to each tank section, in ordet to boost the fire
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shows is a conversion using the HäT kit, but detailed, both with bits and pieces made from plastic, thin sheet metal etc, and taken from RPM's gloriously detailed but extremely hard to build kit. (The main problem with the HäT kit is the very simplified exhaust.) It is made out to look like a FT-75BS in action on the Western Front in 1918 - it is doubtful how many of these tanks that actually saw action, if any. Click on the thumbnails below to see more photos of this model:
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Weight Maximum Armour Maximum Road Speed Armament Crew |
If it were the French who made the worst tanks of the
war, it should also be noted that they also made the very best one, the Renault FT-17, a quite revolutionary vehicle which set the shape and pattern for tanks of the
future, even up til today. It came out of a desire to give the standard tanks like the CA 1 a light partner, designed to be more more fitting than the heavies for the exploitation of
breakthroughs. It was a joint semi-private project between the maverick father of the french tank
weapon, Estienne, and the french firm of Renault. After some bureaucratic delays the first prototypes were tested in early 1917, and proved to be an immediate
success. It included a number of very innovative features, including an easily turned
turret, which was moved manually. 
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