"However, the welds on this turret couldn't take the incredible force of this _devastating_ weapon" is one of the finest deliveries of sarcasm I've seen in quite some time.

@Bird_Dog00

5 жыл бұрын

Yea, liked that one. Nicholas does have a way with words, and his bone dry humour is just so great.

@timonsolus

5 жыл бұрын

(Relatively) devastating (to enemy tanks). You have to feel sorry for the poor French tankers who ended up in a tank battle armed with a gun designed solely for throwing (small) high explosive projectiles at enemy infantry. Even if many German tanks of the time only had 1.5 cm of armour.

@randomnameseventytwo1307

2 жыл бұрын

@Maximillian Wylde a shell hole in a tank can be repaired in a few hours or days BUT emotional damage from a barbed word lasts years

@cpn_porta

Жыл бұрын

this story was fake, and made up by Renault to keep their infantry monopoly. the FCM could handle the SA38, but the army rejected it because FCM was already needed in the naval production scene and its perceived inability to be upgunned made Renaults inferior project succeed.

@hannesromhild8532

6 ай бұрын

@@maximillianwylde5163 But they would curse you in French. Even a friendly greeting in German would sound harsher then that.

"Oh my god, the tank is on fire!" *TWO HOURS LATER*

@1993Crag

6 жыл бұрын

And that was with the upper hatch already open!

@niclyx7970

6 жыл бұрын

TWO HOURS LATER and with AN INJURED HAND

@Weisior

6 жыл бұрын

HE DID IT AGAIN! :D I absolutely love this guy :D

@joshstew85

6 жыл бұрын

two hours, a pinched finger, pinched nerve, and head bump later!!

@dragonsword7370

6 жыл бұрын

At least he got out of it. The M2 [stuart?] Wouldn't even let him out of the bloody thing without a camera crewman to help lift a hatch!

In this episode: How to origami-fold a 6 foot tall tank operator into a 4 foot tall tank.

@Vnx

6 жыл бұрын

Hahaha, well put! In this case, 6'6" with a size 12(US) shoe. :)

@timonsolus

5 жыл бұрын

Never hire a tanker who’s taller than your tank.

From the diary of the French tanker: 13:22 Oh my god, the tank is on fire... 13:35 Oh my god, i got my fingers sheared off by that damned hatch... 13:48 Oh my god, i just knocked myself unconscious back into burning tank... True story.

@druisteen

4 жыл бұрын

it's a diesel engine

@VekhGaming

4 жыл бұрын

When you expose diesel to high-explosives it will still ignite. Or just ignite other thing is the tank that can catch fire, like ammo or oil.

@druisteen

4 жыл бұрын

Disel need heat for burn & it burn slowly that anyother gas

@druisteen

4 жыл бұрын

@@VekhGaming anyway ! beter than the vickers 6tons

@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM

4 жыл бұрын

@@druisteen Yes a tank who began it's design in 1933 is arguably better than one in 1928. It is good to know that NO ONE other than the french ever fielded this thing while the Vickers 6ton saw service and production the world over until 1959.

I like your channel because you give an often forgotten perspective: that of a tanker. Some others who talk about tanks only mention the stuff that can be found on Wikipedia: How much armour, what gun, how many produced. But you talk about each crew member, where they sit, how much room they had, what buttons they could push, what levers they could lift. You have made me realize just how important it was to have enough room for the crew. I also liked your lecture videos about American Armour myths and Tank Destroyers.

@GeneralJackRipper

6 жыл бұрын

Indeed, that's an all to often overlooked feature of tank design.

@tzmndevill6555

6 жыл бұрын

i agree. that other guy "the challenger" sucks.

@Danox94

6 жыл бұрын

this guy is a legend, one of the few good things about wargaming

@secularnevrosis

6 жыл бұрын

The usability of the tank is important. If the design of the tank is in the way of operating it or maintaining it..it doesn't really matter how thick the armor is or how good the gun is. It can not preform as the specs would suggest. Good design makes, what in terms of specs would be an inferior tank, a useful pice of equipment.

@catfish552

6 жыл бұрын

Absolutely. The practical experience with using fighting vehicles brings up so many interesting points. I'd never otherwise have known that a large, flat, plain engine deck is the tanker's favourite (because that's where he'll be sleeping a lot of the time).

13:21 i love how he said "oh my god,the tank is on fire" with such uncertainty xD

@druisteen

4 жыл бұрын

it's a diesel engine

@iainburgess8577

2 жыл бұрын

Agree, that was one of the best situational deliveries I've seen this far.

@iainburgess8577

2 жыл бұрын

@@druisteen ...driver sits next to the ammo rack. Main source of fire for diesel tanks, also reference early Sherman's....

@mantha6912

Жыл бұрын

as if he wasn't sure if *staying inside the tank* was more preferrable to attempting egress XD

“Oh my God, the tank is on fire?” Priceless!

12:31 "it's pretty conventional so reverse is forward" haha nicely said

@Pershingtank

6 жыл бұрын

Eh, big trucks usually have reverse at the forward left too

@thhseeking

5 жыл бұрын

A lot of cars, too. My ex- had a Datsun 200SSS with a gearbox like that. I always had problems, as my Hilux had 1st at the top left. She called it a "Sports gearbox". I had other terms.

@justforever96

2 ай бұрын

Dog-leg shifter. First is right below reverse so when you are doing a lot of back-and-forth while parking you only have to shift forward and backward in a straight line. It also sets 1st and Reverse off to one side of the normal shift pattern because those are the two gears you don't need while driving, you only need to shift into those after coming to a stop, to start out or back up. It also puts the next two gears that you _do_ use frequently while driving, 2 and 3 in a straight line so you don't need to go over at the same time. It also puts 4 and 5 in a straight line so the only time you need to go sideways is going between 3 and 4. Makes perfect sense and they ought to make all shifters like that. No idea why American cars stopped doing that in the first place. No one has any issue with Reverse being at the _front_ end of the PRNDL stack on an automatic.

On today's program about tanks: we see an engine with the heads removed. There's a tiny gun. And Nick tries to get out of a tank he's almost taller than.

"Oh my god the tank is on fire".......you look nicely crisped there because you are never getting out in time XD

Given how hard it is to get out of, I presume that drivers were drawn from the ranks of gymnasts, circus performers and escapologists.

Thank you, sir. I don't play WOT, but I love your vids about tanks.

French tank procurement is something else. While they’re taking deliveries of these two man death traps the Czechs are building the 35t and 38t for the commercial market. The British were obviously aware of these vehicles and were at least scouting them for good ideas, while the French seem to have been oblivious. The end result was that in 1940 Peru had a more advanced tank than France. The 38t wasn’t a world beater, but it would’ve been a competitive design in that year.

Is it weird, that I'm experiencing an significant emotional event everytime I see some new stuff from this guy? Seriously - great in-depth research, invaluable tips concerning track tensioning ( :D ) and some witty humor. If You like this You need to check out: - operation think tank (David Fletcher & Nick Moran are pure legends), - Myths about american armor, - Nicks prelection about tank destroyers. And in case Nick is actually reading some of this stuff I have a question: Pick one to visit: Bovington, Kubinka, Dorset, Arsenalen.

"oh my god the tank is on fire?" and "oh well I have another nine" lol

@druisteen

4 жыл бұрын

it's a diesel engine

@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM

4 жыл бұрын

@@druisteen Diesel isn't immune from burning. And there's a lot of stuff inside the tank that can burn, ammo, oils, whatever.

BTW, he's being sarcastic about the longer-barrel 37mm SA38 being a "devastating weapon". The armor-piercing performance was considerably less than the German or US 37 mm guns, and the fact that this tank's weld's could not tolerate the recoil of a marginally more powerful gun shows how limited French experience in welding hard plate was at the time. To be fair, everybody dealt with this and the problem of welding sections of armor plate were not completely solved until 1957.

The poor finger, poor head, poor back and... what's the point of having armour if you can't even survive operating the tank itself?

@russianspy5307

6 жыл бұрын

Maybe that was the plan? The enemies capture the tank and then break their fingers, bump their heads and break their spines trying to operate them

@genericpersonx333

6 жыл бұрын

In all fairness, the average French soldier of the 1930s was several inches shorter and quite a few pounds/kilograms lighter than Mr Moran. That said, ergonomics is generally something that most all tank designers put a low priority on. Even today, you will find more than a few "modern" designs that offer little in the way of crew comfort or accessibility.

@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM

4 жыл бұрын

@@genericpersonx333 "generally something that most all tank designers put a low priority on" All the good tanks of the war have good ergos though. Shermans, panzers, the big cats are pretty good.

@genericpersonx333

4 жыл бұрын

@@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM Yeah, the USA and Germany were really the ones who figured out that good ergonomics was a big combat multiplier.

@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM

4 жыл бұрын

@@genericpersonx333 I think the two nations we consider ergonomic are Soviets and French. The Japanese tanks where OKish when you consider the average Japanese soldier was even smaller than the average everyone else. Potential history went into a Ha Go and he doesn't look TOO uncomfortable. I think soviet and french tanks where uncomfortable for the same reasons which was an attitude of "good enough" and importance of production and numbers. I think both the french and Soviet upperclass where out of touch or just didn't care with what the average soldier would have liked.

What I love about this tank is how unlike the R-35 and H-35 which simply tried to fill the shoes of the Renault FT. The FCM 36 actually innovated, creating a tank equally as quirky and adored

@justforever96

2 ай бұрын

I feel like he likes to exaggerate the bad points for the amusement of the viewers in some cases. This doesn't seem that bad to me. An 19 year old with plenty of practice would have no issue swinging themselves out of that thing, especially if the tank was actually on fire. I remember seeing him struggling to get out of the T-34 drivers hatch. Very amusing, but there are plenty of videos of guys in the war who just grab the hatch and swing themselves out without issues. There is a trick to most things like that, and I could do a lot of things when I was 20 that seem much more difficult now that I'm 40. I'm also not 6' +.

Major, Excellent as always. Thank you for highlighting many of these exceptional historic vehicles for us.

Glad you're back! Funny AND informative.

"OMG the tank is on fire!!! hell with it, i was cold anyway.........."

Your pain, sorry to say, is our gain ! :D Enjoyed it greatly, as always :)

Awwww. It's got a cute little horn. Probably sounds like the road runner in the cartoon. Beep Beep.

@m36489

Жыл бұрын

This thing could literally kill you ezily

Love your work Chieftan!

My favorite French tank of WW-II - very futuristic looking for its day with its well sloped armor. The independent traversing main armament is a pretty cool feature too.

Watching you exit that tank had me in tears, That was funny. I'm thinking that there might have been a height requirement for the driver, that being a maximum height. I think your 6ft plus frame pushes the requirements just a little bit. lol. Another quality video dude. Keep them coming. GenFUBAR.

Nice to see you, major!

I get the feeling that tank's spirit insisted on a small blood sacrifice before she would let you leave.

Wow that independent gun traverse is awesome :D

Sir- Given your stupendous use of charming Irish whitsisms and sayings, I sincerely wish you could write one of my OERs.

Great info

I was honestly expecting the Chieftain to have an ice pack on his head during the wrap-up, lol.

That last section of the video with you in that open fronted and cramped driving position. You should print that and mount it in a frame, wonderful shorthand for your profession. That is, fitting into tanks that really didn't have you in mind as a typical crewman.

I'd really like for you to show us the Char B1 Bis! I think it is a very cool looking tank (I am aware it had its shortcomings as a war machine).

I seem to recall something about Napoleon taking six inches off the height of the French males, but looking at you in that tank I'm more inclined to wonder if maybe he took about two feet off their height.

15:14 I see, a sideways reference to Dali’s “Birth of the new man.” Jolly good.

"Oh look at all the space we got from placing the driving mechanizm in the back" French engineers: No, you get fetal pose.

I love this tank its really fun

I've always had a soft spot for these.

I wonder how many times the Chieftain "died" trying to get out of those "burning" tanks... my guess is - more times than he actually got out! Which is why a tank is called a deathtrap... youre cramped, vulnerable to outside and inside threats and, in a hurry, cant really get out. If its not your position thats shit, your ability to escape is hampered by everything. Tightness of space, turret hanging over your hatch, the enemies hosing down the vehicle as youre trying to crawl out and, finally, a fire inside the vehicle, which you need to escape whilst trying to negotiate your pathing with the splattered remains of your comrades. Lovely.

Hello Chieftain love your Tank Reviews including the reviews on the M4 Sherman and Sherman Firefly. If you're aiming to do a review on the Sherman Easy Eight, there is one at the "American Armored Foundation Museum" in Danville, Virginia that you should have a look at. I myself went to this Tank Museum and what a collection of armor this place has. The AAF's Easy Eight Sherman is a beautiful vehicle and she is the only Sherman equipped with a dozer blade in any museum exhibit so you could make mention of the engineering/utility usage of the Sherman. Also, the AAF Tank Museum should be given a mention and some love. The museum possess an impressive collection that all the armored vehicles were collected by the museum's owner throughout most of his years and it is struggling to keep the roof of their building intact. If Wargaming can give their support, it can keep the AAF Tank Museum from bogging down in the mud. So, if you happen to be in Virginia near Danville, give the American Armored Foundation Tank Museum a go.

@peterson7082

6 жыл бұрын

+The Armored Bugger What kind of "Easy Eight"?

@thearmoredbugger9344

6 жыл бұрын

An M4A3E8 Sherman with the M1A2 76mm gun. This particular tank's muzzle brake is missing, but there are grooves on the end of the barrel suggesting it probably had one before she was abandoned. Also, as I said in my comment, she is equipped with a dozer blade.

You make me want to go back to WOT. But i have come to enjoy the suffercycle of WT.

Ouch! I felt that bang to the forehead

@MarekDohojda

6 жыл бұрын

No kidding! I flinched when he hit his head, that looked painful!

Funky Cold Medina!

There is something about hurting yourself on armour that is a special kind of 'experience'.

Yeah, not sure why people aren't more aware of the T-34 being an upsized T-3/BT-1 the Christie design that was by that American hero. With its sloped armor even heavily influencing most early British tank designs as well. I can't remember if you did a BT get around but it might be worth it to do a development series on the t-34 so more people are aware. Nice video Nicholas!

@wbertie2604

5 жыл бұрын

+Simon Meyer He wasn't hated by the USA. The USA tested a number of his designs, but the USA wasn't really producing tanks at the time due to budgetary issues, and when it did, it was conservative, basically deriving the M1/M2/M3/M5 series from Vickers 6 ton, which was a proven design, but changing out to vertical volute suspension in field replaceable units that were felt to offer acceptable performance, but with ease of maintenance. In that sense, the USA did well, as its tanks were reliable. British tanks (e.g the Christie-inspired Crusader) did much less well on reliability, although most of that was with respect to engine and transmission issues. By the end of WW2 just about everyone was moving away from Christie suspension to torsion bar or Horstmann.

When are you going to do one one the panzer 1,2 and tiger 2? And as usual great vid

" the tank is on fire !" seems like staying in is safer than trying getting out..

Thank goodness for the Abram's driver's seat.

SIR, THE 17 POUNDER WONT FIT.

Driving that at high speed you'd be breaking your knees again the hatch lip

Those are direct vision slits, so it occurs to me that some bright boy shooting at them, with a view to shooting the occupants nessesitates them being narrow. Narrow being less than 7mm Mauser size.

"Significantly better. still bad". And to that item factors (lack of coordination and inferior tactics), and no wonder then, they didn't fare all so well.

More guts than glory. Pep were smaller, but then a T34 driver was required to be short.

Tank bites!

I had never heard of this tank.

As far as sloped armor goes the CSS Virginia would also like to have a word.

@TheTruePopeFrancis

Жыл бұрын

USS Zumwalt but it’s a tank.

Regarding vision, weren't the slots supposed to have optics mounted behind them? I thought that was what those hooks around them were for?

Looks like a two man coffin even if it did acquit itself well.

That traverse mechanism defies belief. Completely counter intuitive. One feels for the individuals needing to use it.

@justforever96

2 ай бұрын

That was not at all uncommon. That's how a gear naturally works unless you add a second gear into the train to "correct" the rotation. It's much easier to just train the users to be used to it. They aren't just jumping in the tank and taking it out to fight on their first day. If humans can learn to play the violin they can learn which way to turn the crank to rotate the turret.

So as I am watching you exit the tank I notice the ad above the comments for injury attorney's.

me: trying to take the french tanks seriously... french tank driver: *FIDDLE POSITION*

You see, leave the front hatch open and there is plenty of space... ;)

I forget have you done the B1? If not think we can look forward to an episode of it?

If that tank was on fire you would go headfirst through that hatch

Yes. One of the great joys of studying history is knowing that you don't have to do the things they did ... .

I want to see him get into a B-17 Ball Turret

Poor man. Being so big in such little vehicles.

It seems like the SA18 would have been better used in open-topped tankettes. A slightly enlarged turret ring would have allowed this tank to mount the S35's 47mm gun.

It had an overpressure system, but did it actually have filters for the intake air that could remove chemicals from the air? Somehow i doubt it. Seems like that would be more likely to be for evacuating fumes from firing the guns. Although it's possible, they had gas mask filters, it wouldn't be impossible to install larger versions of those on the intakes.

We don't need tanks we have the Maginot line. Volia!

@MrDgwphotos

6 жыл бұрын

That did come to mind.

@MisdirectedSasha

6 жыл бұрын

The point of the Maginot line was to limit German options more than to stop them. Knowing where the Germans will attack makes stopping them easier. But you still need dudes and tanks and the French were well aware of that. They just didn't quite realize how fast a couple armoured divisions could pass through thick forest with a bit of determination.

@SPAZTICCYTOPLASM

4 жыл бұрын

@@MisdirectedSasha "They just didn't quite realize how fast a couple armoured divisions could pass through thick forest with a bit of determination." This right here is why europe got a nice shock. They thought the germans would see the line, and start bringing in heavy armaments to destroy it and dig in with trenches, like ww1. They didn't expect the krauts to drive through with excellent combined arms and shock tactics.

Really good video of another poorly designed French two man tank. Thanks for the video.

We as humans are about 6-8 inches taller than our WW2 veterans on average. My grandfather a WW2 vet was 5 foot 7 inches tall and he was tall for his era. My father was 5'9 I'm 6'5 so we are taller now than they were then.

@MrGeorocks

6 жыл бұрын

Steadier supply of meat in our diet as far as I know is why that is. More protein, bigger bodies.

@catfish552

6 жыл бұрын

That, and of the people they had available, they'd obviously pick out the shortest ones to stick into tanks.

@Dondolini94

6 жыл бұрын

@MrGeorocks This would explain why ussr designed their tanks so tiny

@n00btotale

5 жыл бұрын

Dondolini94 That's because the USSR did pick the shorter people to be tank crewmen.

Watching him get out was so painful to watch

You would be amazed at how much difference a foot of height and several decades of age can make in how easy it is to access a tight spot. Ever tried to get into the drivers seat after a small woman was using the car and left the seat forward? And that's a matter of the seat being a few inches to close to the wheel. Youth and practice make the rest of the difference. I guarantee the guys who used these things every day didn't have that much trouble getting in and out. I would like to see Mr Moran try to get into some of the crew positions on WWII aircraft wearing full flight gear. I suspect the audience will declare that they are terrible designs and are simply impossible to access, even though many thousands of young men managed it

FCM 36: I am not very well rounded.

Actually the driver's position is perfect. He's already in the fetal position when he spots a German tank.

Hey chieftain, are you planning on attending the collings foundation event this year? Please respond if you can

I know what you were thinking about the way the turret moved "that's French" and that's another mic gone lol

Armoured Citroen 2CV.

@sebastianthomsen2225

4 жыл бұрын

Citroen did build a tank the citroen amr p103! Google it!

Instruments of torture comes to mind. I'm thinking the crews must've been selected from the shortest youngest toughest little bastards in the French army?

Lol the tank was out to get him

Here's hoping he did a vid on the Bandkannon 1 when he was in Sweden , a fantastic vehicle.

@Mastah2006

6 жыл бұрын

I've never heard about this vehicle. Where can I see it?

@Berthrond

6 жыл бұрын

At Arsenalen if you want it in the flesh, or KZread , Google or Books :) Try serching for videos of Bandkannon 1 or look at its wikipedia.

@ZGryphon

5 жыл бұрын

Why would you need a cannon that fires bands? Even a death metal band is going to have pretty lousy armor penetration.

Looks like trying to evacuate the tank could injure you worse than just staying in the tank might!

Funny a GM alternator on that tank

14:08 Take the microphone with me. FCM 36 says NON!

British and French men were shorter, but still very strong in the 1930s and 1940s. Modern boiss are either tall, slim and awkward, or tallish, tubby and awkward. Thanks to the soda and burger industries. Now our tanks are 70 tons.

Will you do any early war german tanks? I would really like to see one for a Panzer I or II.

@wbertie2604

5 жыл бұрын

I am not sure he'll fit in a Pz I

Why didnt tanks slope outward? more room more armor.

Engineers had never heard of ergonomics back then…seriously how is it almost every tank back then was “once you get in, good luck getting out again” or were so careless with all the hard metal protrusions in a vehicle that would do a fair bit of jostling when moving across anything other than a flat surface? Did none of them get in this thing and say “yeah, this doesn’t actually work.”

Hey Nick (is it alright if i call u Nick?) King Tiger with Porscha turret

I'll ask again but, does the AMX ELC bis in that museum still have an interior that a Inside the Hatch could do? Or is it empty on the inside?

@6038am

6 жыл бұрын

he has said, that he might do an elc vid if they an get it out of the spot they have parked it in. next time he gose there

@Edax_Royeaux

6 жыл бұрын

Oh really? I guess that implies the tank is intact on the inside. Interesting.

Chieftain, what has the worst drivers position, this or the cromwell?

Can i ask is your Cross Of Lorraine pin a reference to the 79th Infantry Division?

@TheChieftainsHatch

5 жыл бұрын

It is not. Was only pin in the museum's shop.

Remember these were second generation vehicles

LoL The funny thing is, with every bodily difficulty he has in that tank, i fit in it just fine. Half of france must have been 5 feet tall in 1936/40 i guess?

The peeps were younger and smaller back in the day

Isnt that a Chevrolet alternator?

The Germans actually converted some to SPG using a WWI 10.5cm and the Pak 40 (!!!!!).

@mattdickson2

5 жыл бұрын

Jay Felsberg literally a terrible idea

Poor chieftain