It's May the 16th, 1940.
Two hours before sunrise,
13 German tanks from the 8th Panzer Regiment
are taking their positions.
Partially obscuring the Panzers behind toppled walls and collapsed buildings
is central to the Nazi plan,
and now the trap is nearly set.
From their vantage points,
battle-hardened commanders will have clear views of the road
leading into the beleaguered northern French town of Stonne,
just a few kilometers south of the Belgian border.
Their main guns loaded with high-velocity armor-piercing shells,
for German crews it’s only a matter of time
before the French tanks lumber into view
and they can get on with the turkey shoot.
Crumbling under the Nazi juggernaut,
France’s future is bleak.
Hopelessly outnumbered,
armored units have done little to halt the Wehrmacht’s relentless advance.
But in Stonne, the roles are about to be reversed.
Hundreds of yards away a Char B1 bis heavy tank from the 1st Company, 41st Tank Battalion
appears around the bend,
In the commander’s seat is 34-year-old Captain Pierre Billotte,
son of French 1st Army General Gaston Billotte.
Nicknamed “Eure” after a river in Normandy,
the Char B1 bis is a massive 30-ton brute.
Featuring thick heavily sloped armor,
tank and crew are nearly impervious to most German guns
unless fired from close range.
And the French tank has another big advantage.
It has two guns to the Panzer’s one.
The first – a 75 mm tank killer in the hull.
The second – a 47 mm cannon in the small turret
operated by the commander himself,
also capable of punching holes in the lightly armored Panzers.
Spying the German tanks through his sight,
Billotte springs into action.
Barking commands, the 75’s loader slams a round into the bridge
as the gunner lines up the crosshairs at a Panzer downrange.
In the turret, Billotte follows suit.
Now, cannons loaded,
orders to “FIRE!” slice through the morning air in French and German.
Deafening cracks and blinding muzzle flashes erupt from both sides.
Anti-tank rounds traveling faster than the speed of sound
whistle past one another toward targets of steel.
Then, in the chaos, the tanks nearest to and farthest from the Char B1
take direct hits and burst into flames.
Taking out the first and last vehicles in a formation is a time-tested tactic,
and as a result, the 11 remaining Panzers are now hemmed in.
Shocked at their comrade’s fate,
German gunners fire ceaselessly,
but though the Panzer IV's 75 mm guns are powerful enough
to penetrate the Char’s armor at close range,
they’re too far away.
Closing the distance is an option,
but doing so will put them in even more danger,
and for the Panzer IIIs things are even worse.
With either 37 or 50 mm main guns,
they’re impotent from almost any distance
against the Char’s 60 mm frontal armor.
The Germans realize that they may as well be armed with slingshots.
Despite the dire situation,
dozens of rounds slam into the Char’s hull and turret,
but to the Germans’ consternation, they do little damage.
Some deform the armor plating,
others shear off bits of steel,
but the rounds are deflecting off the tank,
and not penetrating into it like they’re supposed to.
Inside the already hot and smoke-filled Char,
the impacting shells are making a deafening commotion
like the tank has been set upon by sledgehammer-wielding gorillas.
Thankfully, it’s nothing Billotte and crew can’t handle.
In fact, they’re just hitting their stride.
Load. Aim. Fire!
The Char’s twin cannons thunder away,
and the German tanks keep going up in flames.
Columns of fire and oily smoke pour from the stricken Panzer’s hatches
as the rounds inside cook-off.
Checking for more targets but finding none,
Billotte realizes with a start
that they’ve taken out every German tank.
All 13 of them.
Not one to bask in recent successes,
he orders the driver to turn the tank towards the town
to join the fighting there.
By the end of the day, Billotte and his crew
and their now-famous Char B1 bis
have taken out even more German tanks
and a number of artillery pieces.
Other Chars have arrived too,
and though German forces remain in the area
they lack anything powerful enough to dispatch the Gallic steel beasts,
and by nightfall, Stonne is back in French control.
In the following days, Stonne changed hands nearly 20 times
before eventually falling to the Nazis.
The Char’s legendary ability to take and dish out punishment
did serious damage to the confidence of the German tankers.
The 10th Panzer division war diary recorded that they had encountered
60 ton super heavy tanks,
an over-exaggeration but an indication of the fear
the Char B1 struck into the invaders.
Many Chars were captured and used by the Germans
when Germany still had nearly four dozen of them in service.
Billotte was taken prisoner after France fell,
but this French hero could not be contained and escaped the following year.
Awarded the Légion d'honneur he lived a long and active career
and died on June the 29th, 1992.
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