Landships II

Tanker · Field Marshal

New book about G�n�ral Estienne

James H · Legend

Thank you kindly, Michel. That looks worth investigating. I see it can be bought as an e-book, which saves 15 euros postage to UK.

James H · Legend

Just arrived. No WWI photos of the General that we haven't seen before, which is a minor disappointment.

A quick read through seems to strengthen the view that E wanted what we would call Medium Tanks, about the size of the Schneider, to be used in combination with the British heavies, and that it was L Renault who convinced him to opt for a much lighter machine. Renault's argument was that the existing French and British Tanks were underpowered and that it would take too long to design a suitable engine from scratch. Estienne wanted a vehicle that would do� 12Km/h, and LR didn't think it possible without a brand new engine. I shall read this more carefully, but it appears that LR wanted to build the light Tank around his own aircraft engine. Knowing LR's eagerness to arrange things to his commercial advantage, that might be seen as highly convenient.

I shall study further and report back.

Ironsides · Legend

Hi James�theres some info�on Renault Aero Engines in this thread here...

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=63528&p=3&topicID=40504560

Cheers wink

James H · Legend

The story so far:

This is a highly informative book, detailing Est's life in its entirety and going far beyond what we know of his contribution in the Great War.

Some small but interesting details that emerge: He wasn't christened Jean-Baptiste, but Jean Baptiste Eug�ne. He didn't like the name Baptiste, so usually signed himself J. E. E., perhaps giving rise to the belief that his first name was hyphenated. One of his sons was a pilot lieutenant in the French air force during the War. In the 1920s J.E.E. led a motor convoy across the Sahara. And so on. I'm sure many more will come to light with further reading.

A pleasant benefit is that the story also makes generous mention of contemporaneous events in British Tank development and deployment, whereas most works tend to treat the two sides of the story rather in isolation.

On the matter of the FT, the author points out specifically that for some time Estienne talks of the need for a char l�ger - a light Tank - but after his discussions with Louis Renault suddenly begins referring to a char tr�s l�ger - a very light Tank. As I've said earlier, that would seem to indicate that E envisaged a vehicle of around 10-12 tons (as proposed in Renault's various avant-projets, which were mostly on the scale of the Schneider and Saint-Chamond) before being persuaded that one of about 4 tons was preferable. In the event, L Renault couldn't keep the weight of the FT to 4 tons but managed to restrict it to 7.

A word of caution; The editor-in-chief, Sophie de Lastours, has written a Foreword to the book that is rather shaky when it comes to the British side of things. For example, the first use of Tanks by the British was not as she says on September 16th, 1916, and the MkI did not have sponsons that could be retracted for transport by rail. There are other references to British proceedings that are slightly out of kilter. I wouldn't recommend that French readers rely on this source for their information.

Other than that, though, this book has been a terrific read so far. Thanks to Michel for bringing it to our attention.

As usual, it is instructive to compare this with the Wikipedia article on Estienne, which the reader will find a source of exasperation/amusement.