Schneider CA1 - Production

Production

In the original contract of 25 February 1916 it had been stipulated that all four hundred units would be delivered that same year: the first hundred by 25 August and the last by 25 November, completing the full order in nine months. Because Schneider had no experience in armoured fighting vehicle production and a true pilot model was lacking, this was highly optimistic. Also the Schneider company had expected to be able to employ the other major French arms producer, the Forges et Aciéries de la Marine et d'Homécourt, as a subcontractor but this rival proceeded to develop from the alternative prototype ordered by Mourret a heavier tank design, the Saint-Chamond. As a result, the Schneider subsidiary Société d'outillage mécanique et d'usinage d'artillerie or SOMUA at Saint Ouen near Paris was only on 8 September able to deliver the first vehicle at the training centre at Marly. On the original deadline of 25 November the total had risen to just eight vehicles; on 4 January 1917 thirty-two were present. To aggravate matters, these were training vehicles, not fitted with hardened armour but boiler plate.

Late January production picked up, attaining three or four units per day. However, it soon slowed down again because the new Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle, ordered that priority should be given to the manufacture of the Schneider CD towing tractor. As a result, production fell from seventy tanks between 28 January and 27 February to sixty between the latter date and 28 March and only twenty additional vehicles were manufactured until 12 April. On 15 March the total accepted by the Army had reached 150 tanks; by 1 April this number had risen to 208, by 1 June to 322. Then production almost came to a halt, both because of a loss of interest in the type and to maintain a sufficient spare parts manufacture. The total reached 340 on 30 September, 370 on 1 December and 372 on 19 December. The full order would not be completed until August 1918.