France's King Tiger, the ARL-44 | Cursed by Design

Today we look at the story of the ARL-44, a tank originally designed during the second world war by the French under German occupation. Using design elements from pre-war vehicles this tank helped France emerge from years of occupation with their tank industry still somewhat intact.

Sources:
Documents from Châtellerault AA 503 1H1 26 via Colasix
Work-in-progress article for Tanks Encyclopedia by Marisa Belhote

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Timestamps:
0:00 - 1:05 Intro
1:05 - 2:10 Call of War
2:10 - 6:05 Development in secret
6:05 - 7:40 ARL-44 ACL-1
7:40 - 11:40 ARL-44 design and production
11:40 - 13:20 Fate of the ARL-44
13:20 - 14:29 Outro

#history #france #tanks

[ChaosPootato]

My dude trying his hardest to pronounce the company names, I appreciate the effort

[thefez-cat]

There is an aspect of its design process that goes beyond the battlefield itself: designing and testing this tank was itself an act of resistance. It gave French tank designers a feeling of being able to contribute to the liberation, something they must have desperately needed from a morale standpoint.

[KingAlpha]

Mom can we have king tiger?
We have king tiger at home
King tiger at home:

[SleepySkull]

Fun fact not mentioned in the video, Both variants had an mechanical assisting loader. With the 90mm having a shell pusher.
When reading documents back years ago, the 90mm variant demanded a fire rate equal or superior to the king tiger and succeeded.

[wallachia]

This is genuinely probably the coolest looking and most heavy-metal designed tanks of all time.
With a gun so big it needs to be retracted, armor made out of a battleship and the engine of its sworn enemy, tracks ripped straight out of a landship from warhammer 40k, the ARL-44 has no equal in terms of sheer coolness.
I absolutely adore it.

[kira]

interesting fact, the armor of the turret of the second ARL-44 prototype was made with armored plates scavenged from the battleship Dunkerque that has been scutteled in 1942 in Toulon

the spirit of a battleship was living in this tank, but to my knowledged there is no certitude concerning what has happened to that prototype

[Lukusprime]

I really don’t know what it is, but I absolutely love the general design layout of the ARL, M60, and the King Tiger, it just screams “tank” to me. It’s tall, the hull is basically a brick with enough sloping for sufficient protection, the massive cannon and the large, lengthened turret to make room for the recoil and the bustle ammo rack; it all comes together to make just a really mean looking machine.

[pavelslama]

The French really did a great job, kickstarting a production of HEAVY tanks while under nazi occupation. It took nazis over 8 years to start their production of their first real heavy tank (Tiger 1), and they weren´t even occupied at that time.

[Kord]

If not the best, but one of the most beautiful tank designs is the ARL 44.

[flowking]

The ARL-44 is not just a transitional tank. it is a tank designed under occupation that helped France catapult itself into one of the world's primary arms and armour suppliers. It wasn't the best tank but the lessons learned would help shape future developments. It is an exercise into the French resistance mentality and overall helped them in the long run. It also looks bloody awesome.

[anonbefallen]

I'd really like to see a comprehensive history of French tank development, which includes all of the stuff they did in secret.

[FancyPirate]

Absolute beast in War Thunder. Shame it didn't turn out very well in real life.

[REDWOLF_RC_ARMORY]

Were you at the American Heritage Museum for the tank demo last weekend if so I was the person who had the giant RC tanks displayed there.

[glennpettersson]

I agree with your assertion that this was more than just an AFV but a project to develop an industry capability and the complex technical and logistical skills needed.

[craniusdominus]

Look, it may not be pretty, it may not be reliable and it may not be fast, but it at least had one thing going for it...

it allowed French workers to gain practical experience on the metallurgy, engineering and ergonomics needed for the development of (reasonably) modern armored vehicles in a time where that wouldn't have otherwise been possible

[gold-uzkon-user]

I love seeing how far these videos have come.

[csanadpaksa]

13:08 Girls und panzer ARL-44 LESSGOOO!!!

[rvail]

The ARL44 was the French tank design attempting to continue forward while they were under German occupation. It was a dead end design because they were attempting evolve the Char B2...which was obsolete in 1940...in 1944 when they were liberated, proceeding forward with an obsolete design.

[Straswa]

Great video ConeofArc, the ARL-44 is my favorite French tank. I highly enjoyed playing it in World of Tanks.

[trig]

A good dissertation, thank you and also thanks to those resources you mentioned in the video who went such a long way to creating the quality product you provided.