Schneider CA1 - Operational History

Operational History

To deploy tanks, it was first needed to train crews and create tank units. In July 1916 Estienne started to set up a training base at the Fort du Trou-d'Enfer, a fortress at Marly-le-Roi. For reasons of secrecy this location was officially attached to the 81st Heavy Artillery Regiment. On 15 August the camp was formally established and quickly filled with recruits, most of them young volunteers from various French armies. At Marly the crews received their first instruction consisting of the basics of maintenance and a lot of driver training with an emphasis on crossing trenches, avoiding shell craters and running down trees and walls. Because at first no actual Schneider vehicles were available, Holt tractors were used instead; later the boiler plate training chassis were employed with the superstructure removed and replaced by a protective wooden frame. For unit training and live fire exercises, demanding far larger manoeuvre grounds, on 30 August 1916 a camp was established at Cercottes, which received its first training vehicles on 17 November 1916. To get better acquainted with the mechanical side of the tanks, most crew member had to leave Cercottes for a month to work as a trainee with the SOMUA factory. New vehicles would normally be first delivered at Cercottes. In 1917 the Cercottes base grew to a strength of about five thousand men, many of them sent there from units trying to get rid this way of undesirable elements, forcing the base command to reduce manpower by again removing them. On 28 September 1916 a large instruction centre was established at Champlieu, south of Compiègne. This location, close to the front line and officially part of the warzone, could serve for final training and sending out battle-ready units to those armies needing them. Also the tank workshops were located there, repairing and updating existing vehicles.

As their production goals were more ambitious, the French lagged behind the British somewhat — it took them more time to organize their industrial production lines. They deployed the Schneider tanks for the first time on 16 April 1917 at Berry-au-Bac during the unsuccessful Nivelle Offensive. This first engagement was a partial disaster as 57 of the 132 tanks engaged were destroyed, mostly by being set on fire by German artillery. This first experience resulted in the better armoring of the gasoline tank and its move to the rear of the tank. Twenty units with Schneider tanks were formed, named Artillerie Spéciale 1–20, under the overall command of the now brigadier-general Estienne. In 1918 these "old" tanks continued to be used in the same units together with the newer and more effective Renault FT tanks until late October 1918, 2 weeks short of the November 11 Armistice . Production at SOMUA only ended in August 1918, when exactly 400 had been built including the prototype. At least one Schneider was delivered to Italy, which after testing abandoned the plan to build 1500 of them.