Compagnie De Combat- loads of heavy French Armor!

I finished my first French army! The Char b1 bis has got to be one of the coolest looking vehicles in WWII. It had a number of major drawbacks of course: The tank commander was also the only man in the turret! Meaning he had to man the co-ax MG, the AT gun, and rotate the turret all while looking out of his cupola and guiding the tank! Secondly, the hull mounted gun had no traverse, and was controlled by the driver- the hull gun was aimed by rotating the tank.

Nevertheless, the tank had superb armor compared to the German panzers of the time. In fact, 10th Panzer Division was temporarily pulled off the line at Stonne when a lone char b took 140 (yes, that is one hundred and forty) direct hits and knocked out 2 PzIVs, 11 PzIIIs and 2 Pak 36 before withdrawing. The tank was nicknamed "The Butcher of Stonne".



Lots of pics after the break!