18 Facts About Renault FT

Renault FT was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history.

The Renault FT's configuration became and remains the standard tank layout.

The Renault FT saw combat during the interwar conflicts around the world, but was considered obsolete at the outbreak of World War II.

Renault FT declined, saying that his company was operating at full capacity producing war materiel and that he had no experience of tracked vehicles.

Louis Renault FT himself conceived the new tank's overall design and set its basic specifications.

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Renault FT imposed a realistic limit to the FT's projected weight, which could not exceed 7 tons.

Louis Renault FT was unconvinced that a sufficient power-to-weight ratio could be achieved with the production engines available at the time to give sufficient mobility to the heavy tank types requested by the military.

Charles-Edmond Serre, a long time associate of Louis Renault FT, organized and supervised the new tank's mass production.

Renault FT's design was technically far more advanced than the other two French tanks at the time, namely the Schneider CA1 and the heavy Saint-Chamond .

Nevertheless, Renault FT encountered some early difficulties in getting his proposal fully supported by Estienne.

Renault FT's design remained in competition with the superheavy Char 2C until the end of the war.

Prototype was refined during the second half of 1917, but the Renault FT remained plagued by radiator fan belt problems throughout the war.

The name is derived from the two-letter production code that all new Renault FT projects were given for internal use: the one available was 'FT'.

Louis Renault FT agreed to waive royalties for all French manufacturers of the FT.

Renault FT tanks were used by most nations having armoured forces, generally as their prominent tank type.

Renault FT tanks were used in colonial conflicts, for instance crushing a revolt in Italian Libya in 1919.

Renault FT tanks were fielded in limited numbers during World War II, in Poland, Finland, France, Greece, Romania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although they were already obsolete.

Fact that several units used the Renault FT gave rise to the popular myth that the French had no modern equipment at all; actually, they had as many modern tanks as the Germans; however, the majority had one-man turrets and were less efficient than German tanks such as the Panzer III and IV.