France

Schneider CA 1

The Schneider CA.1 was the first French tank, and quite possibly the worst AFV of the whole war. Never mind that it was painfully slow, badly ventilated, cramped and noisy and that it's armour was thin - the same can be said of allmost all tanks of the Great War. No, in addition to this, it used a standard Holt Tractor track system, which was way too short for this kind of vehicle, and made all trench-crossing and parapet-climbing very difficult. (By the way: the rod on the bow of the vehicle is a wire-cutter with a serrated edge.) And its main gun was located in a small embrasure on the right hand side, with a very narrow field of fire as a result - the two MG:s were also mounted in a akward way, that limited their usefulness. However, the tanks largest drawback was it's two petrol tanks, that were placed high up - like the British Mk 1, the engine had no fuel pump, but depended on gravity feed - on each side, next to the Machine Gunners. When the side armour was penetrated - which was quite easy: it was so thin that it did'nt even stop splinter from shells - it often punctured these tanks, spraying the crew with petrol. It was often enough with a single, misplaced bullet to put the whole tank on fire. No wonder it was nicknamed "The Mobile Crematorium". For more info on this tank, click here!

In Action

The Schneider CA 1 - Schneider being the manufacturing firm, and CA meaning Char d'Assaut - was first used in combat in an attack outside Barry au Bac, on the Aisne River, on the 16th of April 1917, as a part of Nivelles infamous and futile offensive against Chemin des Dames. The approach to the jumping-off positions was done in broad day-light, in full view of the Forward Observers of the German Artillery, who greeted the slow moving column with showers of shells, inflicting heavy casualties on the AFV:s even before they crossed their own lines. However, the french tankers pressed on, reaching the first german trenches after a harrowing 45 minutes drive across No-mans-Land, and actually penetrating it, and pushing on towards the second line, which was also breached. By then, the commander of the attack, Commendant Louis-Marie Bossut, had been killed. (After leading much of the attack on foot - as tank commanders often did during WW1 -, walking in great danger from tank to tank; ironically enough after he had remounted his own Schneider, Tromp-la-Mort, which was then hit by a shell, throwing him lifeless out of the vehicle.) And as the supporting infantry had been stranded way behind, unable to follow the tanks through the dense German Artillery Barrage, the attack petered out. Of the 121 tanks used, 81 were immobilized, 56 of which were destroyed beyond repair. These bitter experiences led to some attempts of redesign: some extra armour (5.5mm, spaced) was added to portions of the sides, and eventually the internal petrol tanks were replaced by external, armoured ones, placed at the back of the vehicle. But the tank still proved both unsuccessful and quite unpopular with the crews. Production was slowed down to a trickle, and many surviving CA 1:s were converted to unarmed Supply Tanks - Char de Ravitaillement. Click on the thumbnails, to see more pictures of this model:

The Model

shows the initial variant, and is built from scratch. The tracks are from the Matchbox FT-17, the front idler from the Airfix PzKpfw IVF, the drive sprocket from the Airfix JS III, the front engine grille from the wrapping of headache pill. And a headache is what you get when it comes to the rivets, the nemesis of all small scale AFV modellers. I did it the hard way, which, unfortunately, is also the best, by slicing rivets from existing kits, and slowly gluing them on, one by one. The stowage are from different sources, among others Skytrex. The decals are home-made.

Technical Data

Weight	14,6 tons
Maximum Armour	11,5 mm
Maximum Road Speed	7,5 km/h
Armament	1 x 75mm Pack Howitzer 2 x 8mm MG
Crew	6 men

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