Today's post is all about an armoured fighting vehicle that at lot of people refer to as the first French tank, although it never had a turret. It was designed to open passages for the infantry as well as suppressing German machine gun nets with the hope of ending the stalemate on the front line. It looked so unusual and so unlike anything we have seen since because it has a large overhanging nose section that was used to crush through barbed wire. It was armed with a 75mm Hotchkiss machine gun which was usually situated on the right side of the vehicle and could carry a crew of six.
The Scheider CA1 first saw action on 16th April 1917 but its biggest role was during 1918 when they were used not only to halt the German Spring Offensive but to also break the German front in the French Summer Offensive.
Design faults were plentiful in the Scheider CA1, in fact the list seems pretty endless. Poor ventilation, poor vision, inadequate armour and very cramped conditions inside made it unbearable to those who were inside. In addition to this, it had internal petrol tanks which were extremely dangerous, especially during battle. The overhanging nose section also proved to be a failure because it made the mobility bad.
Improved designs were put forward almost straight away but they were never put into production because other, completely new designs were also put forward. When the war came to a close, most of the Scheider CA1's were scrapped due to the bad design, although some were turned into utility vehicles. Having said that, some did put in an appearance in the Spanish civil war, but that was really the last time they were used.
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