Post by ukron on Apr 22, 2022 15:06:19 GMT
The B1bis will suffer from certain problems, in particular at the level of the shielding (the shielding of the B1Ter will thus be increased to 75mm, against 60 for the B1bis which entered production in 1935) requiring the army to review its copy as to a heavy battle tank, which did not go without chagrining the industrialists linked to the "Estienne agreements" (roughly speaking, each industrialist involved in the development can have his own specifications) and enraged the supporters of the D2 tank (great rival of the B1bis).
The project for a B2 tank was canceled (the machine would have taken up the B1 formula and its 40mm shielding) in 1935 in favor of this B1Ter developed by Arsenal de Rueil (ARL) and the engineer Lavirotte. The latter obviously seeking to develop an alternative to the (too) complex hydrostatic Naëder system (castor oil) allowing the rotation of the main 75mm gun of the B1bis.
Developed in 1937 on the basis of a first-series B1 (the one developed by Renault in 1929, number 101!) the B1Ter has everything from a hybrid to a Frankenstein's monster! the prototype suffers from the combination of new technologies with those older deployed on the original B1! (armor increased to 60mm, weight increased to 33 tonnes, new ARL differential gearbox for the 6-cylinder Renault 16.625 cm3, new suspensions and addition of 75mm folded armor plates at the turret, upward displacement engine cooling grids (one of the weak points of the B1bis) drawbridge evacuation flap, etc.)
Truth be told, ARL's B1ter was promising; the redesigns of the hull would certainly have required a change to a construction requiring welding (rather than the "casting" favored on the construction of the B1bis) but would have meant greater resistance to mines.
Tested with an APX-4 turret, a new 75mm gun is planned; instead of having recourse to the naëder system, the addition of two lateral trunnions (the cylindrical part of a transmission shaft thus making it possible to ensure and support a rotating mechanical system) would have allowed the barrel clearance on the sides (estimated at 9 degrees).
Not free from problems, the first prototype of the B1Ter was presented to Daladier in 1937 before making a catastrophic road trip from Rueil to the Bourges test center in December 37: the machine broke down three times!.
This made a rather bad impression which led in 1938 the B1Ter to an almost complete cancellation! yet the machine was far from being mature and was still based on a machine produced 10 years earlier.
On the other hand the competition led by Five Liles and FCM and finally the adoption within the French army of the anti-tank gun SA-37 of 47mm capable of piercing the B1Bis.
From 1938 the B1Ter project went back to ARL and from the beginning of 1940 became mature enough to envisage industrial production (the two projects from FCM and Fives Liles not being yet sufficiently advanced, the FL prototype was sent to ARL in June 1940) and even to consider a new engine: The B1 ter was thus capable of reaching a speed close to 27km/h.
With the German advance, three prototypes are evacuated (that of ARL, that of FL and finally the original prototype, number 101) on Saint Nazaire before being embarked on board the Principal Carvin for an evacuation towards the AFN: Bad luck: the ship is sunk and with it the ARL B1Ter project.
Remains that of FCM, preserved in La-Seyne-Sur-Mer, its originality rests on a slightly different turret still presenting the construction in "moulding". Kept in the free zone, the FCM B1Ter was probably captured by the Italian armed forces in 1942 and could have been shipped to the Ansaldo factory in Genoa.
B1Ter, probably the N101 during the 1939 test campaign, note the folding (in diamond shape) of the armor plates supposed to be more resistant to side artillery fire.
Source: tanks-encyclopedia.com/b1-ter/
The project for a B2 tank was canceled (the machine would have taken up the B1 formula and its 40mm shielding) in 1935 in favor of this B1Ter developed by Arsenal de Rueil (ARL) and the engineer Lavirotte. The latter obviously seeking to develop an alternative to the (too) complex hydrostatic Naëder system (castor oil) allowing the rotation of the main 75mm gun of the B1bis.
Developed in 1937 on the basis of a first-series B1 (the one developed by Renault in 1929, number 101!) the B1Ter has everything from a hybrid to a Frankenstein's monster! the prototype suffers from the combination of new technologies with those older deployed on the original B1! (armor increased to 60mm, weight increased to 33 tonnes, new ARL differential gearbox for the 6-cylinder Renault 16.625 cm3, new suspensions and addition of 75mm folded armor plates at the turret, upward displacement engine cooling grids (one of the weak points of the B1bis) drawbridge evacuation flap, etc.)
Truth be told, ARL's B1ter was promising; the redesigns of the hull would certainly have required a change to a construction requiring welding (rather than the "casting" favored on the construction of the B1bis) but would have meant greater resistance to mines.
Tested with an APX-4 turret, a new 75mm gun is planned; instead of having recourse to the naëder system, the addition of two lateral trunnions (the cylindrical part of a transmission shaft thus making it possible to ensure and support a rotating mechanical system) would have allowed the barrel clearance on the sides (estimated at 9 degrees).
Not free from problems, the first prototype of the B1Ter was presented to Daladier in 1937 before making a catastrophic road trip from Rueil to the Bourges test center in December 37: the machine broke down three times!.
This made a rather bad impression which led in 1938 the B1Ter to an almost complete cancellation! yet the machine was far from being mature and was still based on a machine produced 10 years earlier.
On the other hand the competition led by Five Liles and FCM and finally the adoption within the French army of the anti-tank gun SA-37 of 47mm capable of piercing the B1Bis.
From 1938 the B1Ter project went back to ARL and from the beginning of 1940 became mature enough to envisage industrial production (the two projects from FCM and Fives Liles not being yet sufficiently advanced, the FL prototype was sent to ARL in June 1940) and even to consider a new engine: The B1 ter was thus capable of reaching a speed close to 27km/h.
With the German advance, three prototypes are evacuated (that of ARL, that of FL and finally the original prototype, number 101) on Saint Nazaire before being embarked on board the Principal Carvin for an evacuation towards the AFN: Bad luck: the ship is sunk and with it the ARL B1Ter project.
Remains that of FCM, preserved in La-Seyne-Sur-Mer, its originality rests on a slightly different turret still presenting the construction in "moulding". Kept in the free zone, the FCM B1Ter was probably captured by the Italian armed forces in 1942 and could have been shipped to the Ansaldo factory in Genoa.
B1Ter, probably the N101 during the 1939 test campaign, note the folding (in diamond shape) of the armor plates supposed to be more resistant to side artillery fire.
Source: tanks-encyclopedia.com/b1-ter/
