Restored WWI FT 17 French Renault Light Tank. Engine Walk Around and tank in action. Restored tank on display at the Museum of the American G.I. in College Station, Texas
The 11 11 1980, I was in Saumur as student reserve officer for my national service and during the meeting the General commanding the Cavalry School of Saumur named in the order of "Légion d'honneur" one of the first driver of FT17, a 90 years old man. For the meeting, 2 FT17 of the Tanks museum of Saumur were set on each side of the French banner. After the ceremony, the old soldier explain how it was driving the tank on battlefield. The director of the museum proposed to him to sit at his place in the tank. At three young boys we helped him to get inside the pilot place. Then, he remembered all the commands and explain them. The director of the museum asked him if he were able to drive it again and make a sign to the men behind the tank for running the engine. I was 23 years old at this time but I realized that I belong to the few able to say : I've seen one of the first tank driver of the history drive at the end of his life this tank that he drived as a young man 63 years earlier. Remembering that today make me feel a lot of emotion
Good job, I'm impressed. As a former tank leader on french MBT (AMX30B) in the 90's, I may surprise you, but my AMX 30B had the same system to turn right and left. It's only the AMX 30B2 and other series after (30B2 S or Brennus) that had a wheel ! The FT 17 is the tank of the Victory in 1917-1918. Germans had no answer against it. A platoon had 3+2 or 4+1 organsiation (I mean 3 with a machine gun + 2 tanks with 37 mm guns or 4 machine guns and 1 with 37 mm). The tank design was done to permit the tank to pass above the trench, to stop, the Machine gun were done to kill guys in the trench. The 37 mm was done to fire on the german machine guns which were on higher position in sort of light blockhaus done with sand bags. The things had been (for once) well thought by french HQ. British tanks in WWI were far heavier, but were hard to move under rain and didn't impact the german lines as the FT 17. From end of august 1918 to end of the war, once french army had enough tanks to attack all along the front line (about 2 to 3 thousands FT 17), French troops broke the last defensive line of the german easily and were advancing 10 to 20 km per day. Some plans had been organised till january 1919. French and British Generals had expected to reach Berlin at that date. Germans army was exhausted so was French one, but when you're in the victory side, when you see you advance every day, that more Germans soldiers surrender every day, it gives you an undefectible morale. Politics (Wilson mostly) decided either way and war was ended in november. Few weeks would have permitted German civilians to see that their army were outrageously beaten. As none of the allied soldiers entered in german territory, it permitted german people to accept the lie of the german generals and later of Hitler.
So the dog clutch in the hand crank is a safery device so you dont break your thumbs. Those of you who can recall hand cranking a car (my last one was a 1953 Morris Minor which had the capacity to be hand cranked if the battery was flat) will remember that the cand cranking technique was to keep your thumb on the outside of the handle and to only grip it with your fingers. This was because many cars did not have a dog clutch and as such, the compression of the engine could cause the handle to whip back and break or dislocate your thumb.
Thanks for the detailed description. Some day, I hope to visit your museum and see it in action. There appears to be no manuals or plans on the internet for people to view. Your explanations were very helpful in understanding the construction and use of the tank.
Awesome work! We used to have the "Museum of World Wars" in Buena Park, CA (back in the 70s-80's) and they had an FT that had suffered a major hit from front about head height for driver through the radiator and it took the head off the engine. The hole looked to be about 8 inches in diameter. I've always wanted to see one running. Thank you.
Even for such a huge muffler, it's so loud, can't imagine being inside it for hours at end with all the hatches closed shut. Salute to those who fought the war from inside this... Great restoration BTW.
Beautiful... Thank you to all of you who have offered their time and energy to make this great tank work like new.. and it will be a terrific teaching tool for many many years to come.. And great eye candy too!
superbe et bravo , le général Patton y a fait ses armes en 1917 , c'est une page d'histoire pour ce char et un clin d’œil à ce général hors du commun , digne de certains maréchaux de Napoléon : la cavalerie est la pointe de la flèche .
Manual / hand started antique tractors, have those same type of valves on the cylinder heads and they are used as a compression release to make starting easier. Open valves, hand crank engine and as soon as the engine starts, shut the valves. I used to start a 2 cylinder John Deere model "A" unstyled front end tractor using this method. It had no electric start and was started by spinning the flywheel by hand. Makes starting a cold engine alot easier. If the engine was already warm, I only opened one valve that was on same side as flywheel and used the compression stroke from that cylinder to start it.
Thank you for this great video. I am constructing the Takom 1:16 model of this tank, and your video is being tremendously helpful for information on the colors of the elements inside the engine compartment. Also, the Takom model does not provide the tube that carries the 4 cables that go from the magneto to the spark plugs. I did not realize that those cables had to be there until I saw your video --duh! I have constructed by hand a reasonable version of the tube and the cables using an electrical wire and strands of copper wire taken from the inside of the electrical wire. I made the cables black instead of orange because I suspect that orange cabling would have been unacceptable for those very serious gentlemen from the early 20th century! I also plan to find some way to construct the 4 primer cups and their long levers. It's going to be hairy to do in such a tiny size, but I'm going to give it my best try. Anyway, thank you so much for your invaluable video!
Bonjour de France , very good job, it s famous tank of WW1 (more Best that english tanks...😊). A lot of ft17 was give to usa. In 1939 a lot of ft17 was in fonction in french army. ... Thanks for your work
Great Video 👍 , the Renault FT-17 is my favorite WW1tank. Cool action to build a tank over 100 years old. Another reason to move to America😉 ...in Germany is not so easy to build a tank let alone to drive...🙄
Very good restoration, love to see the original engine in it. As far as I know do the preserved British WW1 tanks which run have a modern engine in it (one of it is a complete replica built on an excavator frame)
Wirklich eine gute Restaurierung ist euch da gelungen. Schön das so etwas in Museen gezeigt werden Kann dank eurer Arbeit. Leider spreche ich kein englisch und die Untertitel sind nicht gut übersetzt worden, so das zum Teil der sinn der Erklärung verloren geht. Really a good restoration has succeeded you there. Nice that something like this can be shown in museums thanks to your work. Unfortunately I do not speak english. The subtitles have not been translated well, so that in part the sense of explanation is lost.
The FT 17 is my favorite tank of all time! You guys did a beautiful job restoring this one :) It still blows my mind that the early version had wood front wheels.
I do wonder what the Germans thought when they saw this tank coming at them. They aren't the frightening land leviathans like the British tanks, and I dare say the FT is kind of cute machine. But with hundreds of these things coming at you with machine gun and 37mm cannon fire, would this tank inspire terror?
They have one of these in the bottom floor in the West Point museum in Highland Falls NY. I remember the track plates were all inscribed with the word "ANSCO". Not sure of where and when that specimen was built though.
This is an incredible restoration. Although a replica is second best and a running full scale model is third best, because of the small size and very simple lay-out, this is one of the few tanks in which a low cost replica or running model can actually be made and it has been done at least once in the states with a full mock up also being done. . While no "plans" are out there, the data is available on the net. A couple of friends and I have finally gotten started on an FT 17 running model in Texas, the data acquisition has been completed and we are confident we have enough information to allow us to build the "third best" full scale running model with correct armor thickness but the plates to be primarily out of wood although we may opt for metal as the product goes along (you start with what you know you can accomplish and then during the process sometimes opportunity to increase quality appears. First step is to build the turret (the easiest is the riveted plate type), then the body, then the suspension. Material has been acquired for the Turret which I hope to have completed by the fall, but also perhaps the body. Going to focus on one "section" at a time.
Knight_Bracher Not sure if it’s a runner, but they have one at Bovington tank Museum in Dorset.. www.tankmuseum.org/museum-online/vehicles/object-e1965-43
Nice job ! Glad to watch a FT on power. Is she an American made ? ( Bought by the us government after war ?) Or that one fought in France ? Dominique from France.
The narrator said this tank was used in France in combat but it was made by the French. Although the US got permission to build them, very few US made tanks were shipped to France. In WWI France had the capacity but not the men.
there is a ft 17 tank at cfb borden . i dont know if it is running order. canada purchased about 100 or more from the american army at the start of 2nd ww as tank trainers.
Awesome 👍 job on the tank Can you imaging putting in that thing in a muddy battle field and good Ol' Joe the driver stalls it out pppfffttt!!!, I guess the guy with the least seniority gets to crank it back up🤔
Cute. But considering the lack of armor on everything a 37MM round would kill most vehicles. Did they have different kinds of rounds like tracer, armor piercing, incendiary or explosive? What does it have for armor about 3/4” or about 15-20MM? And what is the rear attachment? Are those front idler wheels wood?
armor was globaly 16mm think, turet 22mm, this was ennough for protection against all rifles, machine guns and grenades, only special rifles was able to get trought at short distance (cal 13,2mm german 1918 tankgewehr). The 37mm Puteaux canon was made to destroy machine gun nests.Later in 1937 improved 37mm canons with high velocity ogives (600m/s) was armor percing up to 21mm (so able to destroy light armored vehicles), rear attachement was a sabot to get trough trenches, or avoid rear tumbles in steep climbs.Wood forward wheels was standard and work good
You might get it to go a bit faster with, say, the motor out of some 90s-era pickup (specifically, I'm thinking of the ~100hp 4cyl out of a Dodge that I drive) while still being able to fit it within the original engine compartment. Of course, you would also need a new transmission geared for the higher speeds as well. However, it would be an absolutely bone-shaking ride; the tank's suspension probably had about 4 inches of travel or less, so above about 10 mph you'd be liable to damage anything and everything on the tank in pretty short order.
