Renault FT expert?

[Bozothenutter]

Apologies for posting here, but pre-WW2 seems a bit of a ghost town.

Who is the current expert on FT's?

Either here, or other fora, or even not on fora at all.

I'm a member of the Weald foundation (for now...), I've sent some emails over to Saumur, asked Renault if they have an archive, but there seems to be no authority on these.

I have a few thin books, all the pics on the internet, but that's it.

 

[Stef N.]

Have you tried Bovington? They definitely have one and helped Meng design theirs so should have more documentation. I only know what is freely online as I started one a year ago and got the basics.

[Black Knight]

If we can summon @TeeELL to the party.

I think he's a member of a WW1 tank forum/website. He might be able to help

[Bozothenutter]

12 hours ago, Black Knight said:

If we can summon @TeeELL to the party.

I think he's a member of a WW1 tank forum/website. He might be able to help

Ooh, have a link to said forum?

 

Not Landships I hope, 'cause that's a bit well, err, quiet.....

[Bozothenutter]

13 hours ago, Stef N. said:

Have you tried Bovington? They definitely have one and helped Meng design theirs so should have more documentation. I only know what is freely online as I started one a year ago and got the basics.

I have tried them before, with regards to the Mk.IV, but the don't seem to answer email inquiries. 

[Stef N.]

4 hours ago, Bozothenutter said:

I have tried them before, with regards to the Mk.IV, but the don't seem to answer email inquiries. 

That's a shame.

My only other tip is to look at the Missing-Lynx forum if you haven't already. There's usually a few experts on there.

[Kingsman]

I posted a topic on Landships and had an answer the next day.  The most obvious counter-question would be to ask what exactly it is you want to know.

 

Weald Foundation have recently excellently restored their FT and TSF and amassed a great deal of knowledge in the process.  I have seen and looked inside both.  They have open days, you can visit.  Oliver Barnham and his staff are usually very willing to talk about their projects and collection. 

 

Musee des Blindes at Saumur would be top of my list of places to try as the FT was a French tank.  But again, they will want a clear idea of what you want to know.  (Ask in English, don't be tempted to use Google translate French!) 

 

But from personal experience I can tell you that museum archives can be inundated with very general and effectively unanswerable enquiries, which gets in the way of answering those questions that are presented in such a way that they can be answered.  There is also a common misapprehension that military archives have blueprints of everything they ever used.  Questions to archives need to be clearly defined in order that they can be answered.  Alternatively with Bovington you can ask to make a reading room visit to view their FT - or other - material.  I will be there tomorrow to look at some material: I was specific with the material I wanted to see.  Many archives don't even have fully digitised archives.  Bovington doesn't have one for public access, but might do in the future.  National Archives do but their search engine is a bit clunky.

 

On the subject of the FT I don't image that Bovington has much.  Their example is an unarmoured prototype purchased for evaluation.  It has the original low-fronted cast MG-only turret, cast nose and cast driver's compartment front, features which did not make it into production.  A handful were used by the Tank Corps in France in 1918, possibly loaned by France.  The Medium A was faster and better-armed, likewise the Medium C - although that did not see service.