Bolt Action Unboxing – Char B1 Bis
January 23, 2018 by johnlyons
This week John and Justin take a look at the French Char B1 bis tank for Bolt Action from Warlord Games.
Produced from 1937-1940, this early-war tank saw action under both the French and then subsequently the German armies, who refitted some of these tanks with flamethrowers.
This platoon set allows you to build three tanks as either French or German gun tanks or as one of two versions of German flammpanzers.
Have you read Major Hans Von Luck's books?
Good God Almighty … I haven’t even watched this video yet, but a Char B1 in 28mm? That thing’s gonna be huge! Be sure to wear a back brace when lifting it off the table! 😀
Always like the Char B The mechanic’s tunnel .beside the engine also had a roof escape hatch ,But just just how practical it was climbing out on top of the tall tank , making yourself a great target .I don’t know . Those posts on the rear deck between the exhausts are a kind of screw jack stand , there are mounts on the hull sides to hook to and you crank them up lifting the tank off the ground to adjust / change the track . The Germans added a more conventional pair of jacks and tools when they… Read more »
Thank you for the heads-up in history, although I had allready known some of it.
No, I haven´t read von Luck´s book yet and unfortunately I don´t have a John to borrow it from. Pity. But I remember von Luck mentioned in the battle of Normandy 1944, when he was in charge of one of the German Kampfgruppen. The Kampfgruppe may even have had a Char B i it.
And that is the way I would go with this kit: Assemble it as a German version to bolster the defenders of Cherbourg or something.
Looks a good model only the tank seams very WWI throw back in aperence.
Great video lads, I have a soft spot for the odd tanks of the early war like this or the T35
The French had a bigger tank, and the main reason for small AT gun in turret was that they were still thinking HE for anti-infantry and that AT was a minor part, plus it was expensive and difficult to build a large turret race, so smaller turrets were easier to build and couldn’t handle larger AT weapons.
I would agree they weren’t the best but from memory they were mostly all designed as infantry support tanks. Again from memory the French put a platoon of tanks in support of an infantry company or battalion. The French like all the allied nations based these tactics of their experiences in WW1 as they expected ( probably quite rightly ) that another European war would follow roughly the same patterned the first
Belgium offered to extend the Maginot line but the French refused.
Slow moving gas guzzlers … they would have worked wonders if Germany wanted to fight a WW1 style war again … so much of the early war was getting to grips with the blitz … so much of the late war was getting a grip on combined force operations … the face of modern war … that seems to be morphing once again to micro aggression management … the only constant is change.