FCM 2c

Produced by the French ship manufacturer Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM), this heavy tank served from 1921 to June 1940. Readily discernable from its appearance, its design was firmly rooted in World War I concepts. Within its elongated hull a crew of 12 managed two engines, four 8 mm Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine guns (three in gimbal ball mounts at front and both sides forward, one mounted in a rear turret), and a shortened 75 mm Canon de 75 modèle 1897 in a fully rotating main turret. The behemoth weighed 69 tonnes, which made it the heaviest tank ever to reach operational status (the next operational tank to approach its weight would be the German Panzer VI Ausf. B Tiger II in 1943). FCM produced only ten units, which also went under the designation Char d'assaut de grand modèle (Char) 2c. Its design and development starting in 1916 was shrouded in mystery and controversy. First operational in 1921, their military value decreased as more advanced tanks appeared. By the end of the 1930s they were obsolete, because their slow speed (up to 9 mph) and high-profile made them vulnerable to advances in anti-tank guns. Nevertheless, the French Army activated all ten in late 1939, using them primarily for propaganda purposes and assigning names to each tank. French commanders ordered the six remaining operational FCM 2cs loaded onto rail cars in June 1940 to escape capture by German forces in the north of France; the train was blocked on June 15, and French soldiers destroyed the tanks so they would not fall into German hands. The Germans, in turn, used footage of these destroyed vehicles in their own propaganda.