Char B1 Bis | Thirsty and Strong | Part 1

Anyway now let’s get to out video at hand, the Char B1 Bis was outfitted with a 75mm Howitzer, a 47mm main armament and 3, 7.5mm Machine guns, and I think it is save to say it gave the Germans a good headache whenever they encountered it, the Char B1 Bis was produced about 300 times, which does not seem like a lot, it is even less then the Nashorn, Jagdpanther, Ferdinand and Tiger II have been produced. The Char B1 Bis was almost 6.4 meters long, almost 2.6 meters wide and almost 2.8 meters tall, this was slightly wider then the Char B1, the B1 bis also got a upgrade in track width going from 460mm to 500mm But, a common misconception seems to be that Germany used a lot of tanks during the Invasion of France which is just plain wrong. According to Panzertruppen Vol.1 page P.120-121 the amount of Armored Strength Germany used was almost 2.600 which is not a lot, especially considering 1/3rds were knocked out in action, and most of these were the Panzerkampfwagen 1 and panzerkampfwagen 2, these 2 made up 3/5th of the entire german armor, How did this compare to the Allies you may ask, well here is the answer, according to the book “The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 campaign in the west” the allied strength numbered to around 4.2 thousand. So in the fields the Germans were definitely outnumbered, and if we look at the tanks themselves they were also outgunned, for example the Panzer 1, the Panzer 1 only had 2 machine guns, and the panzer 2, the tank which was most commonly used, had a 20mm main armament. This was not gonna put a dent in the Char B1 Bis, because the Char B1 Bis had 60mm of frontal armor, 55mm on the sides and 50mm on the rear and the engine deck was 25mm thick, and the turret was from all sides 56mm thick, one of the biggest weaknesses was the grate along the lower side of the hull, Eventually the B1 Bis weighed about 31.5 Tonnes, The B1 Bis also Featured a build in Radio but this one was outdated so trough production this one was replaced by a far more modern ER 51 Radio which could transmit and receive morse code from 10km away and voice communication from 2-3km away, the radio operator was also tasked to give 47mm shells from the hull to the Commander, in October 1936 there was a order placed for 35 B1 Bis tanks the B1 Bis was to be manufactured by a large number of different entities.
In total the number or manufacturers were 5, but the first which got completed came from Renault in February 1937. However the production of this tank was slow and difficult. And another downside of the tank was that fuel consumption was extremely high and it required a lot of maintenance work,
in addition to that the weight and speed of the B1 Bis didn’t help either, the Engine it used produced 275 horse power and its top speed was 28 kilometres an hour. The B1 Bis retained the same Fuel capacity as the Normal Char B1, this amount is about 400 liters, this amount was usually expended in about 6 to 8 hours, because this was quite low they

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[LearningHistoryTogether]

Would like to say that, if there is a lot of information (like the Char B1 Bis) on the tank which is chosen, i might not be able to make the 2 day deadline since i want to make a proper video and not rush them out. But ofcourse i will do everything i can to make sure i will keep my promise👌

If i cannot keep the promise you guys will receive a longer video though

[retepeyahaled]

The Germans understood three things very well:
1. A tank crew needs to consist of a commander, a gunner, a loader, a radio operator and a driver. If you overload the commander, he will not be able te let the tank react swiftly during combat.Therefore their PZ III and IV tanks had 3 man turrets. All French tank models had one man turrets, who could only be manned by te commander alone. He had to command the tank, search for targets, shoot the gun, load the gun and keep communication with other tsnks and higher command - which is a total overload.
2. Good radio communication is key. Higher command needs to be able to command bigger tank units over a large distance. If needed, the tank must be able to call in infantry support, artillery support or air support. Most french tanks had no radio, the others had very short range radios with no possibility to communicate with infantry, artillery, air force...
3. Attacking tanks need logistics that follows them everywhere and keeps them running no matter how fast they move. The Germans were able to send their tanks all the way through france without running out of fuel. The french however were not at all prepared to send their tanks away from their prepared defensive positions. When the defensive lines broke and fast movement over any distsnce was needed, the whole french logistics fell apart.

[philo]

Hello, you're doing an awesome job creating these videos, enjoying them immensely, thank you! On my first trip to England in 2016 I went to The Tank Museum for a day, I was fortunate to see one of their former Canadian Leopard 1 tanks tearing up the arena track in their tanks on display, I will never forget that awesomely loud growl of its 800+ horsepower MTU diesel. This was the first time I'd ever had the opportunity to see a tank running, and since that day's visit, I've been hooked on anything, and everything armored. I bought a small book on the Leo 1, actually more of a booklet, only 80 pages, Dutch Leopard 1; Armoured Fist of the Royal Dutch Army. I also picked up a copy of the Haynes Manual for the Leopard 1, both are great books, however, there doesn't seem to be the plethora of books on the Leo's as there are with so many other iconic tanks. An in-depth video on the Leo 1, particularly on its success as an export, and how it came into Royal Dutch Army service would be an interesting topic for a future video. I think anything you put out will be very well received, once again, thanks very much!

[retepeyahaled]

It is hard to tell if French generals were incompetent. The british and russian commanders did no better in the beginning of the war. All countries had their doctrines and it takes years to turn this doctrine into a real army that can work with that doctrine. The French had lost so many men in WW1 that they needed to resort to defensive tactics to be able to win a future war. The Germans, however, always went for offensive tactics and completely reinvented the war game. They overran France because they broke through the Ardennes and were able to get behind the French lines. The French had no answer prepared and no French general could have averted that catastrophe from then on.

[paoloviti]

Only now I saw this, again, very interesting video. On this tank I already wrote my opinion on the 2nd part and hasn't changed much! It was among the most powerfully armed and armoured tank of its day, and was apparently was very effective in direct confrontations with German armour in 1940 during the Battle of France, but low speed and high fuel consumption made it ill-adapted to the war of movement. It suffered from a long development 1935–1937 and much bickering among tank factories as they all wanted their share of the big pie wasting a lot of time and resulting in a very low production. The big problem was that generally speaking many generals were veteran generals of the 1st WW were still commanding during the Blitzkrieg with old fashioned methods of the 1st WW and thier system was extremely bureaucratic. That said I would like to suggest to read the excellent book written by Len Deighton written years ago but I still regard it one of the best books on this subject as I find it very enlightening. Anyway again a good job 👍 👍👍

[tvgerbil]

The British built their own copy of Char B1 Bis and called it Churchill Mk 1.

[nickthenoodle]

Do a vid on the A10, including its real top speed (not 16mph) or range (not 100miles). Also its reliability (actually pretty good).

[idraven]

The commander had to be the gunner also? That could be quite a busy task.