Can someone explain what has been done to the turret of this FT? It looks like the cupola has been removed, some sort of bustle added along with either ventilation or some sort of wiring.
Unless this is too easy, it's a Renault FT 75 BS http://www.landships.info/landships/tank_articles/Renault_FT_75_BS.html
Is this the thing on top of the casemate?:
The 75 BS was thought of as a support vehicle and there were a number of studies to use the tank to tow sleds, trailers and as a bridging tank2. The FT tank was limited in its trench crossing capabilities due to its small size so equipping each section of tanks with a bridge carrier was seen as way to overcome this deficiency. Given the small size of the FT chassis the size of bridge which could be deployed was quite small. The concept was to tow a bridge behind a FT 75 BS and when required the bridge would be dropped off and attached to the front of the tank by linkages outboard of the idlers and suspended by wire ropes. Once in place across a trench the front of the bridge would be dropped by releasing the wire ropes and then reversing the tank so the bridge disengaged from the linkages. Exactly how this was justified as a viable procedure in combat is not known. The early production 75 BS had hitch points for a bridge behind the idlers and channels over the superstructure to guide the wire rope used to hold the bridge before deployment.
I think I've seen a simplified drawing of this, in Jeudy or Malmassari.
-- Edited by James H on Tuesday 16th of April 2019 04:32:49 PM
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