CHAPTER XII
THE FRENCH TANK CORPS—AMERICAN TANKS AND BRITISH TANKS IN EGYPT
It is said that there is something in the Anglo-Saxon mind which has a special affinity for committees.
“Enough,” said the logical Asiatic when the doctrine of the Trinity was being explained to him by the English missionary, “I understand you perfectly. It is a Committee of three.”
At least, there is no doubt that the British Tank sprang from committees, and was matured and licked into shape entirely by a large assortment of these excellent bodies.
So with the American Tank Corps. Three or four names are equally illustrious in its early annals.
But with the French, one man, and one man only, stands out as the Father and Mother of Tanks. He was the General Swinton, the Sir Albert Stern, and the General Elles of the French Tanks. That is to say, he was first the principal independent inventor, deriving his inspiration (in early 1915) from Holt Tractors which he saw at work with the British. Then he was for long the principal “propellant” of the Tank idea in official quarters, and was the Commander-in-Chief’s delegate to the Ministry of Munitions in the matter of Tanks. Finally, on September 30, 1916, he was gazetted “Commandant de l’Artillerie d’Assaut[49] aux Armées.”
So much did the personality of this remarkable man permeate and vitalise the French Tank Corps that we offer no apology to the reader in setting forth the following delightful miniature biography of General Estienne by the hand of Major Robert Spencer, the British Liaison Officer to the French Tank Corps:
“Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne was born at Condé en Barrois (Lorraine) on November 7, 1860. Owing to the trend of events during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 his school, the Lycée of Bar le Duc, was forced to shut, and it was whilst enjoying an enforced holiday at the age of ten years at Condé with his parents that his idea of embracing a military career was born. He was one day an interested spectator of the passage of a column of Prussian artillery through the paved streets of his native town, and was lost in youthful admiration of this display of military power. He hastened back to tell his parents of his decision one day to enter as a conqueror into a town with his guns clattering behind him.
“From this hour he became wedded to an artillery-man’s life, and in due course passed in and out of the famous École Polytechnique, where his mathematical ability enjoyed full scope.
“In due course, too, he passed through the artillery school of Fontainebleau, and in 1884 entered the garrison town of Vannes as a Second Lieutenant.
“Promoted Captain in 1891, he completed his studies in the use of the collimateur[50] and became the apostle of the use of direct fire for field artillery, which he eventually succeeded in introducing in the French Army. In 1909 he was summoned to Vincennes with a view to determining if any use could be made of aeroplanes in conjunction with field artillery, and succeeded in establishing a part for F.A. aircraft service. This, however, was transferred to the R.E. and Lieut.-Colonel Estienne consequently asked to be returned to regimental duty.
“In 1913 he was again summoned to Vincennes to continue his research, and was here at the outbreak of war, when he obtained command of the 22nd Regiment of Artillery. This he commanded in Belgium and throughout the retreat from Charleroi to the Seine. He had with him his two experimental aeroplanes, which rendered invaluable service during the Battle of the Marne, where he served under General Pétain.
“It was during the retreat that Colonel Estienne first spoke to members of his Staff of the future which would attend a machine capable of crossing ploughed fields and trenches, transporting arms and men. With this thought in his mind he was wont to invite his casual visitors and members of his Staff to assume all manner of peculiar attitudes under tables, etc., with a view to determining how many human beings could conveniently be crammed in a certain cubic area.
“His last command before being selected to father the future Chars d’Assaut was at Verdun, when he did not hesitate to employ a barrage of his heavy guns to break up a threatening German attack.
“As a man he appears to enjoy perpetual youth. He is short of stature, with no neck and a large round head. His hair is white, plentiful and worn en brosse, and he appears to be clean-shaven, so short is his clipped white moustache.
“Two things strike one immediately, the charm of his perennial smile and the quick brilliance of his brown eyes.
“As a raconteur he is inimitable, whilst as a lecturer his marvellous power of expression, his command of vocabulary and his convincing use of simile make it possible for him to communicate to his less erudite audiences a certain measure of his vast knowledge. This is by no means confined to military subjects, and his power of quotation from the classics is marked, whilst he has at least once published a lengthy poem in a volume dealing with the mathematics of gunnery.
“As an ardent philologist, he bristles all over at the sound of the word ‘Tancque’ from French lips, and opens a violent crusade against the use of foreign words as a substitute for good French equivalents.
“His voice is loud and resonant and his speech accompanied by frequent gestures, his favourite being the placing of his left hand flat upon his chest as if he implies that his utterances emanate from his heart.
“He possesses many characteristic attitudes, and when in conversation is often to be seen tossing his képi from one side of his head to the other. In fact it is scarcely ever to be seen except jauntily tilted over one ear.
“His admiration for the cavalryman at the head of a triumphal entry into a town is reduced to nothingness by his conviction that he is useless in modern war. He would prefer to see a victorious General enter a town on foot, escorted by a section of Chars d’Assaut, as being more typical of the present-day battlefield.
“He is himself a great walker, and may frequently be seen alone, wearing, as is his wont, a pair of pale blue spats or gaiters, a relic of the Empire uniform, and in summer no socks.
“This latter habit was recommended to him by a friend, and its adoption by him is typical of the man in that he is always prepared to give careful thought and personal trial to any scheme laid before him.
“To this quality, added to his immense personal charm and vast experience, is due his undoubted right to rank amongst the big men of this war, a successful issue to which has ever been the dream of his life.”
On December 1, 1915, Colonel Estienne wrote an official letter to the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies in which he outlined the idea of a new engine of war exactly as Colonel Swinton had done earlier in the year to our own War Office. A few days later he was given an interview at French General Headquarters, when he was able to enlarge upon his theories as to the new arm. Here he must, one conjectures, have received some encouragement, for about a week afterwards he visited the Schneider Engineering Works in Paris and discussed mechanical details with the management.
But the good seed which Colonel Estienne had sown at Headquarters would, he knew, take some time to germinate. He returned to his command, now the artillery of the 3rd Corps, at that time before Verdun. All the while he kept unofficially in touch with the Schneider Works.
At last, about February 25, 1916, he learned that the Under-Secretary’s Department for Artillery had decided to place an order for 400 armoured vehicles with Schneider’s.
But about two months later, at the end of April, he heard a more surprising piece of news.
The Under-Secretary’s Department had, without the approval of the Commander-in-Chief or any notice to him, Estienne, placed an order for a further 400 vehicles of a different and heavier type, driven by a petrol-electric motor.
Curious as was their parentage, these 400 machines were actually made and were known as the St. Chamond Tanks. It is said to have been upon stolen drawings of this type that the Germans afterwards based their still heavier, “Hagens” and “Schultzes.”
In the course of the summer, the new French Ministry of Munitions formed an experimental and instructional area at Marly-le-Roi, and in the early autumn, Colonel Estienne was gazetted to the command of the French Tanks, and, as we have said, to be delegate, as far as this arm was concerned, from the Commander-in-Chief to the Ministry of Munitions.
Like the British, the French were beginning to need a name for their new engine of war.
But more logical than we, instead of an absurd, if pleasant, nickname, they chose “Artillerie d’Assaut,” which they contracted into the letters “A.S.,” as being more agreeable to the ear than “A.A.”
Apparently Colonel Estienne had no preliminary inkling of what our activities had been in the “Land Cruiser” direction.
It is interesting to conjecture how eagerly he must have read of what was happening on the Somme during the fortnight before he was finally gazetted to his new post. His “heart” must, indeed, have been “at our festival” when the British Tanks were everywhere acclaimed by the public, and when even the most conservative soldiers had to admit that the new weapon had at least earned a right to further trial.
In October 1916 a training centre for personnel was established at Champlieu, on the southern edge of the Forest of Compiègne, and here in December the first lot of sixteen Schneider Tanks were delivered, other batches both of Schneiders and St. Chamonds following them during the succeeding months, until, in April 1917, nine Schneider Companies and one St. Chamond Company and their crews were ready for action.
On April 16, 1917, French Tanks took part in their first battle, fighting with the 5th French Army in the attempted penetration of the Chemin des Dames.
Of the eight Schneider Companies employed, five succeeded in reaching their third and final objectives, but owing to lack of previous training with the infantry, the attack as a whole was not very successful, and the Tanks, though they played an exceedingly gallant part, suffered severely.
A week or two later, one St. Chamond and two Schneider Companies took part in a hurriedly prepared operation with the 6th Army.
The Schneiders did extremely well, but of sixteen St. Chamond machines, only one managed to cross the German trenches. All through the summer months, the 6th French Army was preparing another attack on the west of the Chemin des Dames, and for this battle, warned by their previous experiences, infantry and Tanks trained diligently together, special detachments known as troupes d’accompagnement being taught how to help the Tanks over trenches.
But the agile mind of Colonel Estienne was not content. He had had another idea. This time his mind had worked at the idea of the armoured attacking force from a slightly different standpoint.
He envisaged waves of armoured skirmishers attacking in open order, each man possessing besides his armour a quick-firing weapon with which he could shoot as he advanced.
Now, armour which will protect from machine-gun and rifle fire is too heavy for human legs. The armour must be independently propelled. More, if its occupant is to fire as he advances, it must carry him as well as itself. This postulates an engine, and if there is an engine, there must be a second man to look after it. This set of propositions he laid before the Rénault firm in July 1916, and the design of the famous Rénault Tank was evolved.
But the Ministry would have none of it.
However, the designs were worked out in greater detail, and at the end of November 1916 Colonel Estienne proposed to the Commander-in-Chief that a number of such machines should be constructed. A few, he explained, had already been ordered to act as “Command” Tanks for the heavy Battalions. The Commander-in-Chief consented to a trial.
This, however, was not held until March 1917, and when it had been held, the Ministry were still not convinced.
Therefore, still further demonstrations were arranged in May, when at last they ceased to doubt, and finally, in June 1917, ordered 3500 of the new machines.
In October the five Companies of heavy Tanks, which had been in training all summer, were launched when the 6th Army delivered its blow at Malmaison.
As before, the Schneider Companies were successful, and again the St. Chamond Tanks were nearly all unable so much as to get into action.
Still, at the end of October the general verdict was that the French heavies had justified themselves, though many soldiers of the old school still doubted their utility.
But in November the British Tanks fought the Battle of Cambrai, and all doubts were finally dispelled from the French mind.
It is to be imagined that Colonel Estienne did not fail to rub in the facts proved by that engagement.
They were facts which it was impossible to deny or to overlook. The Ministry removed its hold from the brakes, and from that moment life behind the scenes of the French Tank Corps became happy. It was decided to form thirty light Tank Battalions, each Battalion to consist of seventy-five machines, and the firms of Schneider, Rénault and Berliet were all set to work upon their manufacture, while over a thousand machines were ordered in America.
All the winter of 1917–18, the French Tank Corps, like the British, continued to train and to organise.
For the future of the French Tanks was to be a brilliant one.
Those matchless givers of “unsolicited testimonials,” the German General Staff, attributed the great victories which the late summer of 1918 brought to the French arms, chiefly to the employment of “masses of Tanks.”
Naturally the annals of the French Tank Corps are full of stories of individual deeds of gallantry.
Chevrel, R. C., Brigadier, 505th Regt., Chars Légers.
“In the course of an attack he refused to abandon his Tank, which remained isolated in the German lines. Protected by his turret, he ceaselessly opened machine-gun fire on the surrounding enemy, and shot down with his revolver those who succeeded in approaching the Tank and who called upon him to surrender. For thirty-six hours he never slackened. Finally rescued by our advancing troops, he immediately undertook the unditching of his Tank and volunteered to support the further advance of the infantry, and then brought his Tank to the rallying point.
Médaille militaire and Croix de Guerre with Palm.”—Official Gazette, dated October 26, 1918.
Cellier, Pierre, Brigadier in 35th Co., 11th Heavy Battery.
“This soldier, on July 18, when his Tank had been hit by a shell, placed himself at the head of fifteen American soldiers and stalked a position whence the Germans were using many machine-guns to resist the attack. These he engaged with an automatic rifle and forced the Germans to surrender after an hour’s struggle. This act resulted in the capture of fifteen officers, including one Colonel, guns and numerous machine-guns.
Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Croix de Guerre with Palm.”—Official Gazette.
Dr. Gilles, Raoul Jules Gustave, Cte. in the 506th Regt., Chars Légers.
“Although blinded by wounds, brought his Tank back into French lines guided (by signals tapped on his shoulders) by the Tank Commander Maréchal de logis Joseph, who was himself wounded in the stomach.
Médaille militaire and Croix de Guerre with Palm.”—Official Gazette, No. 2127 “D,” July 26, 1918.
Colonel Estienne was promoted to the rank of General of Division and received the Cravat de la Légion d’Honneur, and the Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies issued the following special Order of the Day to the French Tank Corps:
“Vous avez bien mérite (de) la Patrie.”