World War I, Interwar Period and Developments
At the start of the First World War, in August 1914, in response to the then acute shortage of artillery ammunition Renault suggested that car factories such as Renault could manufacture 75mm shells using hydraulic presses rather than with the usual longer and costlier lathe operations. Identical methods were also used by Andre Citroen in his own factory. The resulting shells helped overcome the shortages, but as they had to be manufactured in two pieces they were inherently weak at the base thus sometimes letting hot gases detonate the melinite inside the shell. Over 600 French 75mm guns were destroyed by premature explosions in 1915, and their crews killed or injured.
Louis Renault was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur after the war for the major contribution of his factories' to the war effort. His factories mass production in 1918 of the revolutionary and highly effective Renault FT-17 tank, which he had personnally designed with Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, was perhaps Renault's most significant contribution during that period.
During the interwar period his right-wing opinions became well known, leading to various cases of labour unrest with proletarian avant-garde workers at the Boulogne Billancourt plant. He pleaded for a necessary union between European nations.
Louis Renault competed fiercely with André Citroën, whom he called "le petit Juif" ("the little Jew"), growing increasingly paranoid and reclusive at the same time, and deeply concerned about the rising power of Communism and labor unions, eventually retreating to his country estate, a castle on the river Seine near Rouen.
Renault remained in complete control of his company until 1942, dealing with its rapid expansion while designing several new inventions, most of which are still in use today, such as hydraulic shock absorbers, the modern drum brake, compressed gas ignition, the turbocharger, and the taximeter.
Read more about this topic: Louis Renault (industrialist)
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