The Belgian Army at the outbreak of WW2

[[nl]Invincible]

Ohhhh Snotvodd I need to talk with you about somthing

[snotvod]

Since Invincible brought this back up, i might as well continue

The Armour
By 1940, the Belgian army was far from being fully motorised.
Horses were still a widely used means of transportation, both for men and materiel. There were 2 fully mechanised divisions, one armoured regiment and two fully motorised divisions.

By the early 1930's, it was realised that the ww1 vintage Ft-17 tanks were no longer suited for combat, and so a replacement was searched for. This was found in the French amc-34. After some troubles with the production, it was decided to wait for the improved amc-35 (Auto-Mitrailleuse de Combat 1935), also called acg-1.

A belgian ACG-1

Despite that the Belgian politicians weren't too happy with the fact that the military had ordered tanks -wich were considered as offensive weapons-,
the order for 25 acg-1's was kept, but only 12 were delivered before the war broke out.

Since Belgium was strictly neutral at the time, an alternative was searched. This was found in mounting a 47mm FRC antitank gun onto several different chassis, either in an open superstructure, or in a revolving turret.
Being a tank destroyer, this was considered a defensive vehicle, one version even had a backward facing gun .
There were 4 versions, The first one being the VCL 47:
Simply a VCL artillery tractor with a cannon bolted onto the front part.
This was not a good solution and others were tried.

VCL47
The next versions were the T13 BI and BII, these had a cannon mounted in a half open turret surounded by fixed armoured plates. To allow 360 degree rotation, these had to be folded down. Of these two versions a total of 50 was produced.

T13BII preserved at the royal army museum, plates folded down.

same vehicle, plates folded up

The third version was much more advanced, being a tank in every aspect, exept perhaps its poor armour (8mm max). 150 units of this version were produced.

T13BIII

The weapon mounted in all of these vehicles is the 47mm FRC, a fine little gun, performing better then the German equivalent, the pak 36, the French 47mm was slightly better though.

47mm FRC

This was towed by a funny little vehicle, the Vickers Artillery Tractor. It came in two versions, the infantry version, with extra armour and lower speed, and the cavalry version with, you can guess, no extra armour and higher speed

Uutility, infantry version

Utility, cavalry version

And last but not least, an armoured car mostly used to tow light guns, like the 47mm: The Marmon Herrington Armoured car, seen here in German hands:


Now, looking at these steel monsters, let's not forget the most important thing, the men driving, operating, and sometimes cursing them:



Next up: Softskin vehicles...

[Von Mudra]

Hey, snotvod, I have a website for yah:

www.abbl1940.be

enjoy!

[snotvod]

I knew of that site already, i even know the guy who made it, but thanks anyway

[craka)(craka]

General: Why?

[Von Mudra]

Originally Posted by snotvod

I knew of that site already, i even know the guy who made it, but thanks anyway

Your no fun.

[[nl]Invincible]

Nice update mate! Intresting read, I like that Marmon Herrington Armoured car.

[[130pz.]Kading]

the sabre gaurd on the second helmet is pritty badly beaten up. but i want one to go with my french one.

[snotvod]

Oh noes !!1!! I forgot about the T.15!
This was a nimble little recon tank, armed with a 12.7 mm machinegun.

How could i forget such a cutie.

[Pornska]

How much soldiers were in service at 1940 Snotvod?