Free Schneider CA1 Paper Model
The Schneider CA 1 (originally named Schneider CA) was the first French tank, developed during the First World War.
Schneider was inspired by the need to overcome the trench deadlock that prevailed on the Western Front during most of the Great War. These were specially designed to pave the way for the infantry through barbed wire and then to suppress German machine gun nests. After the first concept by Jacques Quellennec was designed in November 1914, the type was developed from May 1915 onwards by engineer Eugène Brillié, paralleling the development of the British tank that same year. Colonel Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne in December 1915 began pressing for the formation of a French armored unit, leading to order in February 1916 for four hundred Schneider CA tanks, manufactured by SOMUA, a subsidiary of Schneider located on the outskirts of Paris, between September 1916. and August 1918.
Like most early tanks, the Schneider was built like a simple armored box, with no internal compartmentalization. It had no turret, with its main armament, a short 75 mm gun, in a sponge on the starboard side. By later standards, it would therefore be an assault rifle, not a tank. [1] The vehicle was considered a highly imperfect design, due to its poor layout, insufficient firepower, cramped interior, and low mobility due to its protruding nose piece, which had been designed to destroy barbed wire belts but in practice led to tanks getting stuck. The refined design began immediately but production, the Schneider CA 2, CA 3, and CA 4, was eventually canceled.
The Schneider CA 1 tank was widely used in combat during the last war years. Their first actions on April 16, 1917, were largely unsuccessful, tank units suffered heavy losses, but later battles were more successful. In 1918 the Schneider tank played an important role in stopping the German spring offensive and destroying the German front in the French summer offensive. They were active until the end of September 1918, less than two months before the Armistice of November 11, 1918, their numbers plummeting due to attrition. After the war, the surviving tanks were largely rebuilt as utility vehicles, but six Schneider tanks were deployed by the Spanish in the Rif War in Morocco and the type saw its final action early in the war.
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