Panzer IV Vs. Char B1 Bis France 1940 by Andrew Birkbeck
IPMS Seattle Chapter Newsletter Page 1 Panzer IV vs. Char B1 Bis France 1940 by Andrew Birkbeck Despite the use of “tanks” in the First them to be very different vehicles, and World War, and their use in the opening the author expertly briefs the reader as stages of the Second World War in to why they turned out the way they Poland, September 1939, it was in the did: the Char B1 Bis heavily armored, Battle of France in May 1940 that these yet relatively slow, while the Panzer IV weapons were used for the first time on was more lightly armored, and as a any large scale. The battles around the result lighter, and thus faster. French towns of Stonne, Hannant, and Gembloux for the first time in history Under the heading “The Combatants”, saw massive clashes, involving the author describes the crews of the hundreds of tanks on both the French two tanks, their training (or lack of it), and German sides. And it was during the various mechanical devices these battles that actual “armored installed in the tanks (episcopes etc), divisions” from both sides were and how these helped or hindered the involved. This book covers the two effectiveness of the two tanks. Also major armored vehicles of the Battle of covered is the makeup of the two tank France, the Wehrmacht’s Panzer IV, and organizations, on the French side the the French Army’s massive Char B1 Bis. DCR (Division Cuirasee) and on the The author, Steven Zaloga, is a well German, the Panzer Division.
[Show full text]