Was the Renault FT-17 light tank actively used in combat during WWI? If yes, in what battle(s)?
1 Answer
The Renault FT-17 first saw combat on May 31st, 1918 and was used on several occasions in the coming months.
Explanation:
The Renault FT-17 tank was probably the most advanced tank design to enter service in the First World War. It was envisioned in 1917 that some 12,000 of these tanks would be built -- the 'female' with a Hotchkiss machinegun, and the 'male' with a low-velocity 37mm gun. As it was some 3,000 were built in France in before the end of the war, and additional copies were built in the US but none entered combat.
The first Renault Tanks helped break up a German attack on May 31st, 1918 and the tanks frequently saw combat on other occasions in the coming months in both the French and American armies. Agile as the Renault was, it was still not that mobile on the battlefield and they took a lot of casualties as the Germans developed anti-tank capabilities in the final months of the war. The tank was not that decisive a weapon, saving its use (with the Canadian and Australian Corps at Amiens in August 1918).
After the war, some 4,000 Renault FT-17s end up in 26 different militaries and hundreds were still in use (albeit in training and internal security roles) in the Second World War. Canada received a train-load of FT-17s from the US in 1940 and used them in Camp Borden to start training tank-drivers and crew-commanders during the early days of the Canadian Armoured Corps.
