Renault FT modifié 31

Renault produced the first version of this tank in 1917 as the FT-17. At the time it was the first 'modern' tank in its layout and use of a 360-degree rotating turret. All FTs required a crew of two and used the same model 18 hp engine which propelled the vehicle at only 4 mph. The FT-31 variant was in most respects the same as the original version, but with a 7.5 mm Reibel MAC mle 1931 machine gun in the turret replacing the original 8 mm Hotchkiss machine gun. By the late 1930s this tank was extremely obsolete. Relative to even the least-effective tank designs of the 1930s, the FT-17 was slow, small, under-armored, under-armed, and lacked the crew necessary to operate radios, driving, and weapons simultaneously in a rapidly-changing tactical environment. Nevertheless, in the first years of World War II, Poland, Finland, France, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia all fielded the type in front-line units. In May 1940, the French Army still had 504 FTs in service in France, and more than 150 in Morocco, Algeria, the French Levant, Madagascar, and Indochina. Some FTs were buried within the ground and encased in concrete to supplement the Maginot Line. After the fall of France in June 1940, the German Wehrmacht captured 1,704 FTs. They used about 100 for airfield defence and about 650 for patrolling occupied Europe. German forces used some in 1944 to quell street-fighting in Paris.