Tankopedia
WW1LightLight TankFrance

Renault FT

In service 1917 - 1949

The first tank with a fully rotating turret, a rear engine and a front fighting compartment - the layout every tank since has used.

Built byRenault

Renault FT
FT 17 — Paul Hermans, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Development history

Louis Renault built the FT as a cheap, mass-producible light tank intended to swarm rather than to dominate. Its revolutionary 360-degree turret and classic layout made every earlier design obsolete at a stroke. It served with France and the American Expeditionary Force in 1918 and was still in second-line use with a dozen armies into the 1940s.

Variants

One canonical record, 4 recorded variants.

  1. FT 37 mm (Char canon)

    1917

    Puteaux SA 18 gun in a cast or riveted turret.

  2. FT mitrailleur

    1917

    Hotchkiss machine gun in place of the 37 mm.

  3. FT 75 BS

    1918

    Short 75 mm howitzer in a fixed casemate for bunker-busting.

  4. TSF

    1918

    Turretless radio command vehicle with a boxy superstructure.

Notable actions

  • Second Battle of the Marne (1918)
  • Meuse-Argonne Offensive (1918)
  • Polish-Soviet War (1919-21)
  • Battle of France (1940)