now we're going to look at the char b1 bis
it's a French tank it's actually a pre-war design and so early pre-war that
really it shouldn't have been taken into any consideration the Second World War
but it was actually regarded when the Second World War broke out as one of the
most potent tanks of all time and it's actually difficult these days to
understand why it's fitted with a renault 6-cylinder 300 horsepower engine
and the steering system which is regenerative is very sophisticated
because it literally has to move the tank around a tiny bit left and right in
order to train the main gun which is in the hull the main gun has no lateral
movement at all built into it so it all has to be done by the tank itself now
the crew consists of a driver who is also family enough the front hull Gama
he's got the elevating wheel by his right hand and he can operate the
trigger at the same time he's there with a loader there's a radio operator right
in the back of the tank hidden away out of sight and at the top in the turret is
the tank commander now he has an an enviable job as the tank commander he's
in a one-man turret there's no room for anyone else helping him even if he
wanted it he's got to load and fire the gun the 47 millimeter gun load fire and
clear stoppages on the machine gun Co actually mounted with it plus map
reading directing his drive that sort of thing so he's really got his work cut
out and that's just one man up in the turret nobody else there at all it's
very first world war in its general appearance through the high run of the
tracks and so on but it was quite an effective tank 60
millimeters of frontal armor and the interesting thing from the
gallery point of view is the 75 millimeter gun it said sure how it sir
it slowed down in the front of the hull and it was seen as the tanks main
armament the real drawback was that the tank couldn't adopt a proper hull down
position to fire because it always needed to have that gun exposed but it
really is unusual and almost useless put down there
Buneary I mind it's quite a quite the impressive tank in many respects this
particular tank was actually captured by the Germans in fairly good condition and
was used on Guernsey it's actually got some added armor on the front which the
Germans put on it's mainly consists of concrete and covers the top of the front
of the tank and that's the only real German modification although the
wireless aerial the jack and that sort of thing they're all German on this tank
and that's how they were used during the Second World War in the Channel Islands
most of them are knocked out but a few survived and we use by the German army
DeVoe q patient during the Second World War
now otherwise the tanks mostly a bolted construction the arm was quite thick and
it covers the suspension completely it's got coil spring suspension but it's all
hidden under armor so you can't see any of it it just works like it did on a
British tank during the pre-war period it's got collective greasing points
under these rectangular and blocks on the side here so that it makes it a bit
easy on a British tank and to go around greasing every wheel station
you didn't on this one these clever C's are mainly for lifting the tank for
jacking it up and that kind of thing and generally it's got a mixture of First
World War and interwar appearance about it it's quite a high tank but with only
a crew of four it's actually quite remarkably handy but seeing these things
operating with the gun firing it's very difficult to imagine how they knocked
out any German tanks at all and with the forty seven millimeter Gannet looked in
the turret which has got 360 degrees reverse you've got great difficulty
firing it in the right direction at the right time if you're diverted by other
things as well so it's quite a difficult tank to work in that sense because
there's so few people actually doing the directing of the tank the wireless
operator has no part in it he's hidden away at the back the load are obviously
not he's got enough to do and the drivers got more than enough to do at
the front so really a lot falls on the tank commander
you