A Captured Lorraine in Service with Feldgendarmerie

A captured Lorraine painted in dark gray and working in southern Russia with a Feldgendarmerie (German Military Police). The Lorraine 37L or Tracteur de ravitaillement pour chars 1937 L, ("Tank Supply Tractor 1937 L") was a light tracked armoured vehicle developed by the Lorraine company during the Interwar period or Interbellum, before the Second World War, to an April 1936 French Army requirement for a fully armoured munition and fuel supply carrier to be used by tank units for front line resupply. A prototype was built in 1937 and production started in 1939. In this period also two armoured personnel carriers and a tank destroyer project were based on its chassis. Mainly equipping the larger mechanised units of the French Infantry arm, the type was extensively employed during the Battle of France in 1940. After the defeat of France, clandestine manufacture was continued in Vichy France culminating in a small AFV production after the liberation and bringing the total production to about 630 in 1945. Germany used captured vehicles in their original rôle of carrier and later, finding the suspension system to be particularly reliable, rebuilt many into tank destroyers (Panzerjaeger) of the Marder I type or into self-propelled artillery.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_37L
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3985041&highlight=lorraine#post3985041

French Heavy Tank Char B1 'Madagascar'

French heavy tank Char B1 bis №206 'Madagascar', crewed by Lieutenant Dumontier (Chef de char/tank commander), Sergeant Vergez (pilote/driver), Corporal Faucet (aide pilote/co driver), and Corporal Narbonne (radio operator). This tank was lost on 19 May 1940 after the fighting at Ham while part of 2e DCR outside Guiscard, abandoned by its crew after being immobilised due to damage to the drive train. In order to deal with the increasingly tense situation leading up to the outbreak of World War II, a decision was made to modify and improve the existing B1 tank, giving rise to the B1 bis. Distinctive features included the large 75mm gun turret and strengthened front armor. The engine was also upgraded to bring the tank up to contemporary standards. The French government tasked individual suppliers with producing key parts, which caused problems and greatly reduced the number of tanks that were built. Although these and other strategic failures inhibited the B1 bis tank ability on the battlefield, it was greatly feared by German soldiers who encountered it. Featuring strong firepower and defense, the B1 bis could more that hold its own against the tanks of the Wehrmacht during individual combat.

Source :
http://www.chars-francais.net/2015/index.php/classement-individuel/chars-b1-et-b1-bis?task=view&id=301
http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx?item_no=TA%2035282
http://www.ww2incolor.com/french/aae.html

German Soldiers Posing with Captured French Tractors

The always popular photo, 'posing with captured war material', in this case French tractors and trucks, summer 1940. In the foreground, Renault UE 2 Chenillette tractors. During the Fall of France, about 3000 UE and UE2s had been captured by the German Wehrmacht. Most were employed unmodified, after an overhaul by the AMX (Atelier de Construction d'Issy-les-Moulineaux) factory under guidance of the German MAN-company, as tractors for the 37 mm, 50 mm and, ultimately, 75 mm and 76.2 mm anti-tank guns: the Infanterie UE-Schlepper 630(f), which also was used to tow light and even heavy infantry guns. They might also function in their original primary role of munition carrier, as Munitionsschlepper Renault UE(f), some of these had an armoured roof fitted above the bin, to protect the ammunition load against overhead shell airbursts. Chenillettes were however also modified into self-propelled guns: a German 37 mm PAK was fitted just in front of the bin. There was no room for the crew in such a small vehicle: the gun had to be operated while standing behind it. Nevertheless of this Selbstfahrlafette für 3.7 cm Pak36 auf Renault UE(f) about 700 would be built in 1941. A late modification from 1943 was the UE fitted with four Wurfrahmen 40 launchers for 28/32 cm rockets: the Selbstfahrlafette für 28/32 cm Wurfrahmen auf Infanterie-Schlepper UE(f), forty of which would be built in two versions, one with the launch frames at the sides of the hull, the other with a raised platform on the back. Other modifications included: the Mannschaftstransportwagen Renault UE(f), a personnel carrier produced in two versions; the Gepanzerte-MG-Träger Renault UE(f), simply a Renault UE fitted with a machine-gun in a superstructure above the commander's seat; the Schneeschleuder auf Renault UE(f), a snow plough, fifty of which were modified in 1942; the Schneefräser auf Renault UE(f), also a vehicle intended to combat heavy snow conditions on the Eastern Front, but in the form of a snow miller; the Fernmeldekabel-Kraftwagen Renault UE(f), a telephone cable-laying vehicle and the Panzerkampfwagen-Attrappe auf UE(f), a dummy tank for training purposes, resembling a Soviet T-34. More complicated rebuilds were the Sicherungsfahrzeug UE(f), an airfield security vehicle produced for the Luftwaffe which, besides the 7.92 mm MG 34 casemate on the right, had a special high armoured superstructure fitted on the left back in which a guard could sit armed with a 13 mm machine-gun and the Kleiner Funk- und Beobachtungspanzer auf Infanterie-Schlepper UE(f), a special radio and artillery observation vehicle, forty of which would be modified by the Beck-Baukommando in France to eventually serve with the 21. Panzer-Division.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_UE_Chenillette
http://www.ww2incolor.com/german/france_40.html