The Germans designated the Renault Char De Bataille B-l (Char B) four-man heavy tanks as Panzerkampfwagen B-2 740(f). As of 10th May 1941 the French Army had some three hundred and seventy Char Bs in service and the Germans captured around one hundred and sixty of them. The Chars were altered to the German standards, along with some other minor modifications, but were not issued to troops as quickly as other captured tanks.
Sometimes fear alone is enough to overcome an enemy. This was certainly the case with flame-throwing tanks. These gruesome weapons had their main tank guns replaced with a flame-thrower which could fire a jet of flame for up to fifty yards. This was not a particularly accurate, or even an effective, weapon but both sides used them in the Second World War. They were designed to be used to winkle infantry out of strong defences, pillboxes and bunkers, but their main effectiveness lay in the fear they generated.
The flame gun fired an inflammable mixture from a 100-litre tank, which was enough to fire 80 two-second bursts of flame.
In March 1941 it was decided to convert a number of Chars to flame-thrower tanks and weapon carriers. From November 1941 to June 1942 some sixty Panzerkampfwagen B-2 740(f) tanks were converted to flame-thrower tanks, designated as Flammwagen auf Panzerkampfwagen B-2(f)/Flammpanzer 132(f). Conversion consisted of removal of the hull-mounted 75mm KwK 35(f) L/17 gun and replacement with Koebe’s Flammenwerfer (flame-thrower). The flame-thrower had limited traverse of its own and the tank had to be pivoted to face the target.
This installation of the first flame-thrower was inefficient and was followed by a second model. In place of the original armament platform space was made for a special Spitzkoepf (as used in the Flammpanzer II), which housed the flame-thrower spray head and allowed it to operate at 180° radius. Along with this installation an additional visor was mounted in the frontal plate. Approximately twenty-five Chars were converted by Wegmann & Company at Kassel and Daimler-Benz in Berlin. These, along with six unmodified Chars, were issued to Panzer Abteilung (F) 102, and on 23rd June 1941 arrived on the front. In Russia Panzer Abteilung (F) 102 supported the 24th and 296th Infantry Divisions. It was not a successful baptism. On 27th June 1941 Panzer Abteilung (F) 102 was disbanded and further development of flame-thrower mounts took place. A final version was now introduced, which consisted of installing a ball-mounted flame-thrower in the mantlet fixed in the location of the original armament, along with an extension of the fighting compartment. Thirty-six Chars were converted in this way, and previously converted Chars were also rebuilt to this standard.
As of 31st May 1943 the 223rd Panzer Company on the Eastern Front had four Chars and twelve flame-thrower Chars, while 7th SS-Freiwillingen-Gebirgs-Division ‘Prinz Eugen’ in Yugoslavia had 7 regular Chars and 10 flame-thrower Chars. In addition, the 101 Panzer Brigade in France had 10 regular Chars and 24 flame-thrower Chars, and Panzer Abteilung 213 in the Channel Islands had 10 flame-thrower Chars (5 on Jersey and 5 on Guernsey) and 26 Chars (12 on Jersey and 14, including 2 command tanks, on Guernsey). Panzer Abteilung 206, which operated in the Cherbourg peninsula in June 1944, used five Chars. A Number of Chars also saw service with 100th Panzer Ersatz und Ausbildung Abteilung (Reserve Tank Battalion), which was supporting the 96th Infantry Division in the St. Lo-Caretan area in June 1944.
A large number of the captured French Char B tanks were converted into the flame-thrower model and saw action in Russia with the 223rd Panzer company.
Following the conversion of Chars to flame-thrower tanks in 1942, 16 were converted to 105mm leFH 18/39 L/28 (leichte Feldhaubitze -light field howitzer) carriers designated as ‘10.5cm leFH18/3(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen B-2(f)’, also known as Sturmhaubitze B-2(f). This conversion was fairly simple and consisted of the removal of original turret armed with 47mm KwK 35(f) L/34 and replacement with a superstructure housing the howitzer. Along with the removal of turret, hull mounted gun was also removed and the opening covered with a bolted plate. The entire conversion was done by Rheinmetall-Borsig in Dusseldorf, and all of the resulting vehicles were issued to Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 200 stationed in France.
Some Chars were also converted to training tanks, designated as ‘Panzerkampfwagen B-2(f) als Schulfahrzeug/Fahrschulwagen B2(f)’. According to original German captured tank inventories, as of July 1943 there were six B2(f) tanks as part of Army Group A (Eastern Front), 17 in the Balkans and 81 in the West. Chars were used for internal policing and security duties and remained in service as late as May 1945 in the Channel Islands. Some were recaptured by the French Resistance (e.g. FF1 -Forces Francaises de I’lnterieur - French Forces of the Interior) and used after the liberation of Paris.
The FCM Char de Rupture 2C (3C) was a heavy tank shaped by the lessons of the First World War and was the world’s first multi-turreted tank, operated by a crew of 11 to 12 men. Only ten were manufactured from 1918 to 1921. In May 1940 six 3Cs were still operational but never reached the front line, due to a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber attack, which immobilised the train on which they were being carried and made unloading from their special railcars an impossible task. The abandoned tanks were then captured by the 8th Panzer Regiment of the 101 Panzer Division. The Germans designated 3Cs as Panzerkampfwagen 3C 74 1 (f) but none were used, and they were only evaluated in October 1940. Afterwards they were moved to the Renault Factory, where they were all probably scrapped in 1942.
General Heinz Guderian at the front commanding his troops during the massive encirclement battles of summer 1941.