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FCM 2C ca-forte Obusier D'assaut Automoteurs(Self-propelled Heavy Assault Artillery based on Char 2C chassis)BackgroundDuring World War I, France's defense industry was very active in political lobbying and regularly used high-placed connections to secure lucrative funding for any 'pipe dream' project they could imagine. It was in this climate that General Léon Augustin Jean Marie Mourret, then a director of artillery and one of the greatest supporters of the heavy tank concept, was able to divert resources towards what would eventually become the Char 2C. Unfortunately this made many powerful enemies for him and they ended his military career before anything could be completed. However, his efforts were not in vain, for now the public was aware of these “land battleships” and hope ran wild that these monstrosities would win the war. Resistance to any heavy-tank development had become political suicide, so Mourret's rivals made great public showing of support for the largest and heaviest of his projects, with the thought that they could never be built. Indeed, they still weren't finished by the time the war ended, but suddenly there was an entire war-time economy without any war to produce for, and if it wasn't let down slowly then a financial catastrophe would follow. So industry kept producing weapons while they retooled back to civilian fancy, and thus Mourret's monster was finally able to be born.HistoryThe period after the Great War was one of great upheaval and transition in military doctrine and procurement. This was not at all helped by all of the bickering and back-room dealings of those wanting to stay relevant and to secure their place for the future. But of all of the new weapons, none had caught the public's imagination so much as the super-heavy tank, and Mourret's long outspoken support for the concept had skyrocketed his new political career to great prominence. He was then able to secure enough extra funding to double the initial order of ten Char 2C tanks, though the ethics of this source meant the deal, and the extra tanks, had to be kept in the strictest of secrecy. This influx of revenue could not have come at a better time for Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM), since the end of the war they had struggled to find new business. But instead of producing all twenty vehicles, they siphoned a large portion of the cash to help get the company back onto stable footing in the civilian market. FCM justified this to Mourret on the grounds that if the company collapsed then there would be no one left to produce his pet projects; besides only 4 gigantic tanks were much easier to hide than 10. These extra tanks became FCM's 'proof of concept' testbeds, and they were free to try any new ideas. To help keep their existence obscure, FCM promoted them at public events all around the country. This made it difficult for anyone to keep accurate track of where each of the vehicles were at any given time, and allowed FCM some flexibility in hiding them right in the open. And when it seemed that some nosy reporters were catching on, Mourret simply arranged for them to be “reorganized” into a different unit, or by putting some of them into “semi-retirement”.In the meantime, technology and industry kept advancing at a lightning pace, and no where was this more evident than in aviation. The leaps and bounds taken in aircraft development caused yet another shake up in military planning. The sinking of several battleships in 1921 by an American airpower demonstration was the final straw. Futurists could see that static defenses and structures were now obsolete and foolish to continue dumping resources into. France still had a vast collection of railway guns that would be incredibly vulnerable in a new war, but convincing old generals who were still set in their old ways of waging war was not going to be easy. DevelopmentMourret, being an artilleryman at heart, didn't want to see these valuable stockpiles wasted. After several years trying to push new defense modernization spending ended fruitlessly, he instead convinced FCM to begin feasibility studies to make these guns more 'mobile'. In early 1926 they began adapting several new turrets for a 2C to be able to carry larger guns than its standard 75mm. These tests went well, but were still a long way off from what Mourret desired, so again FCM went back to the drawing boards. This time they stripped one of the tanks of it's two turrets and forward superstructure. The driver's controls were relocated to the engine room as an interim measure, and the forward compartment was reinforced to hold the mountings for a variety of different guns. The first of these was a 164mm Model 1893/96, its original pedestal being mounted directly into the 2C chassis, in the old driver's compartment. This gun fired a 52kg shell to just over 15,000m. It sat high enough to rotate 360°, though the height of the engine exhaust compartment caused difficulty for the gun crew. The gun performed admirably in this unusual format, and the chassis held up to repeated shock loads much better than expected. After over a hundred rounds were fired with this setup the gun was removed and discarded.Next up was a 194mm Model 1870/93 pulled directly from its rail mounting. The turret was stripped away and the gun was mounted with traverse limited to 20° both sides from center. This was due to the great height of the gun and the fear that the recoil would overturn the tank. The extra weight directly over the most curved portion of tracks created somewhat of pivot point. This only became an issue when firing at traverse angles greater than 5°, whereupon the recoil would spin the tank a little, necessitating the gunnery crew to reorient to azimuth for every shot. High elevations at maximum traverse would actually lift the rear of the tracks off the ground and swing them up to half a meter! This translated to entirely missing the area of the target at the gun's 18,000m range and was obviously not going to be workable in a combat situation. Driving the prow into a berm helped minimize this problem, but again was not a long term solution.The Second Test VehicleDuring a visit in 1929 Mourret expressed his disappointed in the slow progress and chastised FCM for being far too conservative in their goals. He pressured them to immediately begin working on mobility solutions for the 340mm howitzers. FCM's top engineers knew this would not be possible without an entirely new chassis, something impossible in the current political climate of reducing military spending, and Mourret would not be able to hide that much money again. The only solution was more aggressive alterations. With the test vehicle in desperate need of a major refurbishment FCM began modification of a second 2C chassis in order that testing would not be interrupted.For starters, the test crew demanded that a bit more thought be put into the slightly-less-than intolerable driving conditions. Since FCM wanted to try out a center mounted gun placement to eliminate the balance problems, the original drivers cab could be left alone. The entire amidships compartment that had been limiting them so much thus far was removed, along with the engine's ventilation and exhaust systems housed within. The exhausts were re-piped to the very rear of the vehicle and, since the machine gun stations were not needed during the testing phases, the ventilators were simply cut into the hull sides. After reinforcing around the engine room and stiffening some suspension components, they modified the St. Chammond towed-carriage of a 240mm Model 1884/17 and mounted it into the open hole left by the exhaust and ventilator housing. Sheared rivets were discovered after several test firings, and this was found to be due to the reinforcement not being spread out enough so too much torsional stresses were being applied on just the center of the frame. Welding was now a much more utilized practice than when the 2Cs were originally built, so welders were sent in to reinforce all of the major joints and to add more bracing. This proved satisfactory and FCM then set about coming up with aiming solutions for larger, trunion-mounted guns that would not have a traverse ability. About a dozen different tests were undertaken in this regard, including tails with ratcheting shovels, front and rear transverse-mounted outriggers, hand cranks on the final drive, and fifty men with pry bars. The most promising of all was simply adding a second reduction gear to the final drive, though of substantially higher torque, and changing over as needed.During all of this the overhaul of the first test vehicle had been completed, along with some further modifications. A control cab was finally added to the rear compartment for the driver. Two sleeper jacks from the 305mm railway gun from the collection that Mourret had provided, along with outriggers from a smaller rail car, were mounted to the front end of the chassis to support the gun in all firing positions. Further testing continued to refine equipment and procedure, and set up time after movement was reduced to nearly half of that for a towed gun of similar size.The 305mm is SelectedIn 1931 the second chassis was going through mobility testing, when upon coming out of a river it slipped sideways and toppled over. Two men walking alongside were crushed and three more drowned when it went underwater. It was decided that the excessive top weight led to the imbalance and instability, exactly what FCM had tried to avoid by mounting it there. These unfortunate deaths might have destroyed the program were FCM not as adept at covering up “workplace accidents”. In any event, the executive engineer was among them and it was a terrible setback, but it did give FCM some pause to reconsider the direction they were going. The center of gravity problems caused by simply stacking an oversize gun on top of an oversize tank could not be overcome unless FCM let loose their inhibitions. This was helped when after six months and shipping in two other Char 2Cs they could still not get the second test vehicle unstuck. The decision was made to cut it up into salvageable parts and work with what they could. This time they decided from the outset to do away with the “proof of concept” mentality and “slap-together” fixes. They began working towards a combat capable vehicle that could actually be produced, and Mourret started the task of making sure the military would believe they couldn't live without it.The area around the fallen tank was sandbagged and the water drained so that cutting torches could be used. The gun was cut off its mounting and left in the river, engines likewise as they were deemed well beyond their prime. It was very fortunate that the track and suspension sponsons came out intact, as this allowed FCM to think outside of the box that was the 2C chassis.They immediately began building a new box frame, but widened by 80cm and lengthened by 240cm. The salvaged track sponsons were attached to the sides, making the new assembly shaped like a channel, into which a 305mm gun with its cut-down rail carriage could be set. This allowed the final drives to be rotated 90° and the electric transmissions to be nestled in between them. A third 2C testbed was utilized for parts and then converted to an ammunition carrier. The fourth, and final, 2C was prepared to go through these same alterations, once FCM determined the set up to be sound. Two modern, more powerful, radial aircraft engines and higher powered generators were placed vertically right up against this new arrangement, which opened up the entire center of the hull to give space for a powder locker and shell storage. Ten fuel tanks were built into the deep floor, giving a capacity of 1,789 litres. This was a 40% increase, but due to the excessive weight and more powerful engines the range was only increased by 10 kilometers, to 160km.The gun was mounted in the chassis facing rearward. This allowed some of the recoil to be absorbed as the vehicle was rocked back on its smoothly curved prow. The gun carriage was very solidly secured to the track sponsons along almost their entire length, helping to spread shock forces out evenly. The new forward compartment contained a dedicated drivers station, and a conveyor lift for hoisting ammunition. Provision was made for 14 rounds, and a dual trolley system in the floor allowed travel into and/or out of the locker, greatly increasing efficiency of ammo handling. The idea was that the gun could begin firing as soon as it was set up by using the on board locker, giving extra time for the ammo carrier to get into position, at which point rounds could then be supplied to the gun and to replenish the locker at the same time. Crew consisted of commander,, observer, engineer, two gunners, mechanic, radioman, driver/loader, electrician/loader, and three additional loaders for a total of twelve. It was 1932, and they were ready to shoot.DisappointmentFCM understood that they were asking the 2C chassis and components to support far more than was originally intended, and they accepted that things were going to break. But if they could just hold their contraption together long enough for Mourret to work his magic, then money, and a contract, should be no worry.The test firings surprised everyone; the chassis was handling the recoil better than anyone had hoped, though the crew were unwise to let go of handholds when firing commenced. After three outings to the firing range and then back to the warehouse for resupply, the ammo carrier was finally completed and the gun could take a rest. Good thing too, because all the driving was overstressing the sponsons even more than firing the massive gun. The suspension was strengthened yet again, and makeshift grousers (simply large steel plates) were welded to the outer edges of the track links to help reduce ground pressure. Improved suspension alterations were made to the fourth test vehicle while it was still in construction. Then track links began breaking during maneuvering, and welding reinforcements were added to the tracks in the shop and exchanged in the field. More problems were cropping up all the time when FCM received the news that their benefactor in this venture, Léon Mourret, had died. The only fortunate circumstance was that he had already scheduled an exhibition for the army's general staff, and FCM would be able to build their presentation into a proposal for a contract. For the next three months they took it easy and worked on patching things up and finishing the second gun.But Mourret had sold the idea of mobile heavy artillery far too well, and on the day of the presentation nearly everyone was disappointed with what they saw. The vehicles lumbered around at a paltry 11 kilometers per hour, hardly what was needed to “shoot and scoot”. It looked like it would tip over after every firing, and the gun was even several sizes below the largest available. The consensus was that it was an idea that held potential, but not enough to tip the scale. Funding would be stopped, until FCM could show a prototype with substantially more promise.FCM was furious. They appealed on the grounds that stopping funding would prevent further development of this very needed concept of force projection. They even presented it as the easiest and fastest way to get overwhelming firepower to any of their colonies, especially those that did not have an extensive network of rail lines. But all was to no avail. So they locked everything related to the project in the warehouse and walked away.The EndAnd they were all but forgotten, until one fine spring day in 1940. An engineer to the project began calling all the old test crew back. It had been seven years and so many of them had moved on to other places in their lives, but after several days he was at least able to get about half of them gathered. With so few of the railway guns being mobilized they knew that a lot of artillery crew would be sitting around with not enough useful to do. Once at the test range the mechanics got to work pulling the big guns out of storage to see if they could still even operate, while the engineers hunted down any artillerymen stationed there who would help them fight for their country.One of the vehicles started right up like it had been left only yesterday, while one of the others needed a new generator and had some oil leaks. Three days of repairs, preparations, and familiarization and they were all ready to go.By the 21st of May they had made it to Reims and began shelling German advancements on the other side of the Aisne river. After firing of all 148 rounds of ammunition between the three vehicles they retreated 40 km to an artillery depot , restocked and refueled, and moved another 30 km into a forest to resume firing. Tracks broke twice after they were loaded, slowing them down and allowing the Germans lines to get precariously close. Also, this time the Germans were already aware of their existence and so were on the lookout for telltale traces of big guns. After letting out only about a dozen rounds a Stuka spotted them and dove in. From the air it looked just like two rail road guns, and that is how his wingman reported the encounter, for the attacking plane was also destroyed in the explosion that resulted from the nearly full powder lockers.When German ground forces arrived there was nothing recognizable except for the two 305mm gun barrels, to which they thought was a strange place for such a gun without an emplacement or any rail track. With no evidence of any survivors the story ended where it lay, and was forgotten by everyone else who had been touched by it.Until last week. I found my great grandfathers diary in the attic. All I knew of him before that day was that he died in the war, but no one knew where or how. He had a story of a wondrous machine in those pages, and a few pictures and drawings stuffed between. As they say: the truth is stranger than fiction.centertopSPECIFICATIONS:GUN:Length overall: 13.25mGun: 305mm/40 Mle 1893/96Length of chassis: 11.4mShell: 349 kg AP/SAP/HEWidth: 3.75mRange: 34,000mHeight: 3.7mElevation: -4°/+40°Weight empty: 138.2 tonnesTraverse: 0° fixed trunionWeight combat: 153.6 tonnes360° via rheostatic control of electric transmissionsCrew: 124x optical scope for direct fire on structuresEngine:Communication:A: 2x Sautter-HarleER53 wireless telegraphy setB: 2x Gnome et Rhone 9K Mistral 550 hp4x 250m wire spoolsSpeed: 11 km/hTraverse: 10°/secHull Armor: 45mm/22mm/22mmRate of Fire: 1-2 rounds per minute231946729169-899762879628 ................
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