Лорен 37L: Бронированный тягач снабжения французской армии.

French tracked carrier

The Lorraine 37L or Tracteur de ravitaillement pour chars 1937 L, ("tank supply tractor 1937 L") is 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, two armoured personnel carriers and a tank destroyer project were also 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 role 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.

In 1934, the order was given to design a munition supply vehicle to increase the operational range of independent tank units. The same year, the Renault 36R was selected for further development; three hundred were ordered from 1938. However, this tractor was only partially armoured; on 17 April 1936, a new set of specifications was drafted for a fully armoured vehicle to deliver fuel and munitions to tanks fighting on the frontline. Early in 1937, the Lorraine company finished a prototype. It was a lengthened version of a proposed replacement type for the 1931 model Renault UE Chenillette tracked infantry supply tractor. In February 1937, the matériel commission, the Commission de Vincennes, was ordered to test the prototype and to complete an evaluation before 1 November 1937, even if testing had not been finished. The prototype was only presented on 9 July and tested until 4 August. It was equipped with a 2371 cc Delahaye four cylinder 124 F engine. In reality, this number was never attained; e. g. 20 were made in January, 32 by both companies in May 1940. On 26 May 1940, 432 vehicles had been delivered to the army by Lorraine and Fouga out of 440 produced. Production continued after that date and an estimated total of about 480 to 490

In 1939, the Lorraine 37 L was gradually introduced to the supply units of the tank battalions. This coincided with a change in tactical thinking about the use of armour. In the early thirties, French doctrine had favoured the construction of ever deeper defensive belts to counter infantry infiltration tactics to defeat enemy attacks before they could develop into full scale manoeuvre warfare, a field at which the French were aware of being less adept than their most likely adversary, Germany. Expecting any possible enemy to defend himself likewise, the armour branch of the French Infantry became much preoccupied with the vexing problem of how to break through similar in depth positions itself, emphasizing close cooperation with the foot soldier. Far less attention was paid to the next phase: the envelopment of the enemy forces. The situation changed in the late thirties. Having at last built a considerable number of modern and well armoured tanks, the Infantry became confident in its ability to break the enemy line, if sufficient artillery and air support was provided within a combined arms tactic. At the same time the political situation made it likely that large scale offensives were needed to bring Germany to its knees. Though few officers advocated the creation of armoured divisions able to execute both the breakthrough and the strategic exploitation phase — these required trained personnel in numbers that simply would not be available — it was understood that the "manoeuvre mass" of tanks effecting the break would immediately have to envelop the defensive enemy position and defeat counterattacking enemy armour reserves, otherwise the momentum of the attack would be lost and the breach would not be kept open long enough for the motorised divisions and cavalry armoured divisions to be launched to quickly occupy and hold strategic key positions. However, this posed a serious logistical problem: trucks would not be able to closely follow the tanks on the battlefield. The prescribed procedure for resupplying was for the tanks to return to their start positions to be refitted. While this had still been practical in the previous war with its much slower tempo of operations, it was unacceptable in modern warfare. The tanks would have to be supplied in the field to continue their advance as soon as possible. Thus a tracked supply vehicle was needed that could overcome the expected poor terrain conditions, with many shell craters and trenches, and it had to be armoured to protect against shell fragments, given that the breakthrough sector would likely be in range of concentrated enemy artillery. The type was provided to the armoured units of both the Infantry and the Cavalry. Each independent tank battalion of the Infantry, or Bataillon de Chars de Combat, had an organic strength of twelve Lorraine tractors: Of all participants in the Battle of France, the French army would thus be the only to employ a fully tracked APC. The vehicles were intended for the Bataillon de Chasseurs Portés, the (single) mechanised infantry battalion within the Division Cuirassée, or armoured division of the Infantry. However, on 10 May, they had not yet been allocated to these units, who still used half tracks. During May, the vehicles were hurriedly taken into use by the 5e BCP and 17e BCP of the 1re DCr and 2nd DCr respectively. The 4e DCr did not receive any.

In 1939 and 1940 the type had been mainly produced in the Lorraine factory at Lunéville. Early 1939 it was decided to erect a factory in a more southern location, less vulnerable to German bombing, at Bagnères de Bigorre. This Atelier de Bagnères had not made a single vehicle by the time of the armistice between France and Germany, but it was, like the other tractor producing Fouga factory at Béziers, located in the unoccupied zone of Vichy France. Limited production continued after June 1940 for a total of about 150, although military models were not officially produced. Some of these vehicles had a shortened chassis, their suspension consisting of only two bogies per side. Lorraine tractors were ostensively fitted for use in forestry and construction; in reality they constituted a clandestine armoured fighting vehicle production as they could be easily rebuilt. The AMX factory secretly produced armoured bodies for these vehicles, which were stockpiled. The type was called the Tracteur Lorraine 37 L 44. After the German occupation of the south of France in November 1942, many of these chassis were hidden. In the spring of 1944, the French resistance attacked the Bagnères factory on orders from London, the allies assuming that it produced vehicles for Germany. To prevent further attacks, the resistance was informed of and involved in the affair in the summer of 1944 by the promise to arm existing vehicles for their use. The first twenty of these were delivered in January 1945, after the liberation, and the factory continued modifying vehicles for the duration of the war at a rate of about twenty a month, often by fitting an armoured superstructure, armed with a light or heavy machine gun, to the front or back of the chassis.

A considerable number of Lorraine tractors, about 360, fell into German hands. Due to its reliability, the type was well suited to the mobile tactics the Germans favoured in 1941 and 1942. They were first used as such, renamed the Lorraine Schlepper (f). As the Germans themselves had not produced a similar type, the Lorraine tractors filled a requirement for fully tracked supply vehicles as Gefechtsfeld Versorgungsfahrzeug Lorraine 37L (f) or Munitionstransportkraftwagen auf Lorraine Schlepper. In July and August 1942, Major Alfred Becker directed the conversion of 170 of these vehicles into the 7.5 cm PaK40/1 auf Geschuetzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) or Marder I, a 75 mm equipped self propelled anti tank gun. At the same time, 106 were converted into self propelled artillery: 94 into the 15 cm sFH13/1 (Sf) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) and twelve into the 10.5 cm leFH18(Sf) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f). Also, an artillery observation vehicle was provided: the Beobachtungswagen auf Lorraine Schlepper (f), thirty of which were produced. A single conversion entailed the fitting of a Soviet 122 mm howitzer: the 12.2 cm Kanone (r) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine (f). The Germans also employed the VBCP 38L as the Lorraine 38L(f). For a time, it has also been assumed that a 47 mm tank destroyer conversion existed: the presumed "4.7cm Pak181(f) auf PanzerJäger Lorraine Schlepper (f)", based on preserved photographs that, however, in reality depicted the French Chasseur de Chars Lorraine mentioned above, an ad hoc conversion built in June 1940.

Lorraine tractors were used after World War II for various experimental roles. A number were sold on the civilian market, being used to carry cranes and digging equipment. However, the factory did not secure, despite lobbying, an order from the French Army, due to the fact that so much discarded Allied matériel could be obtained for free. Likewise, an attempt in 1946 to export the type to Switzerland failed. Some were listed in the army inventories for a few years after the war; the last known user was Syria. The Maurice Dufresne Museum, in Azay le Rideau, and the State Military Technical Museum, at Ivanovskoje, exhibit surviving vehicles of the shortened version. Two vehicles of the long version are part of the collection of the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr at Dresden.