The Unexpected Weapon that Crushed Hitler's Panzers

In the early days of May 1940, the air in the French town of Stonne was thick with tension. In the heart of this quiet, a lone figure stood resolute. The French Char B1 – a behemoth weighing 28 tons – was not the pinnacle of tank design. It was underpowered, often unreliable, and in the face of the German blitzkrieg, it seemed almost archaic. But as the sun rose on that May morning, Captain Billotte knew this was all they had. It had to be enough.

Unbeknownst to him, a company of German Panzers, the pride of the Wehrmacht, was advancing towards Stonne. The Char B1, with its formidable armor, stood as the town's unlikely guardian. The Germans, confident in their swift and decisive campaign, were about to encounter a surprise that would shake their convictions.

As the two forces converged, a palpable unease unsettled the German ranks at the sight of the French tank. Myths of an easy victory in France were about to be shattered. A single tank, led by a man of unyielding courage, was about to challenge an entire German Panzer company.

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As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -

[beornthebear.]

Talk about heavy armor... Also, the trust in that armor gave the crews boldness.

[LuciFeric]

France was defeated largely because of old, ineffective, utterly incompetent general staff. They were expecting a WWI style war of attrition. Blitzkrieg tactics completely overwhelmed them.

[owenlinton]

At 8:25, a king tiger drives by and the commander looks to the camera, "Am I in the right video?"

[keithcaldwell]

Sometimes exceptional people make not so exceptional weapons create havoc.

[gjfwang]

Panzers were so scared of the B1s, they ran hundreds of miles away from the front lines to hide in Paris

[IamNasman]

I see Shermans, Comets, Cromwell, Churchills, Grant/ Lee’s, lots of different Panzers, but very few B1’s.

[triplus]

i like how in the first 10 seconds he says "in the early days may 1940" and then shows a clip of a panther made in 1944

[hugueslecorre]

De Gaule was a colonel. When he was assigned as sub secretary of state for defence by his friend Paul Reynaut, he got the title of temporary general of brigade for 3 months.

[Retrohertz]

Why were clips of M1 Stuarts and Shermans used when describing the Char B1? I assume it's because there are no equivalent clips but it's misleading.

[janmale]

Never underestimate the French flare for design, it was stopped when they were knocked out of the war, but look at pist war designs, the Concorde (part British - part French) the Mirage fighters, the Aluette helicopters, the Airbus company etc etc as far as Engineering goes they are up there with the best no doubt! Viva le France 🇫🇷

[Brett-glev]

The images are rarely pertinent to the narrative, just almost random footage of tanks form a different theatre of war. 😔

[philliphaasbroek]

love your video's my friend. It feels like back in the 2nd WW.

[timmorris]

Any significant weakness in an A.F.V. is tantamount to disastrous.The range of <100 miles also was significant in the operational limitation of the tank.

[knottyal]

German panzers came across a similar problem when they encountered a small group of British Matilda tanks. German shells just bounced off the thick armour. Again though, Matildas weren't fast.
Unfortunately for the French they deployed their tanks in penny packets, but the panzers arrived in droves. Stuka air support in 1940 was used as a battlefield mobile artillery, which kept French heads down while the panzers broke through.

[Eddewardeke]

As so often, in these documentaries, the text is good and the pictures are so often out of the blue....

[janrobertbos]

...bataillon de chars de combat...vive le capitain Billotte...vive la France!!!

[bbkingwasthegreatest]

The B1 was a very competent tank but most of it's design aspects were very old fashioned, it used complicated tracks and running gear and had a high profile as well as being slow and thirsty on fuel, but as a tank and a fitting vehicle it was very good just let down by tactics and it's other faults.

[Cbabilon]

Did no one else notice that at the beginning they were showing the American industry building the Lee fighting tank with its side mounted 75 mm?

[davidr.t]

In War Thunder if same tier or downtiered the Char is almost completely indestructible
Remarkable tank.

[ThomasHarrison-ul]

The Char, if properly employed, could have changed the outcome of the Battle of France.