The Frot-Laffly armoured roller, also Frot-Turmel-Laffly armoured roller (french: Char Frot-Turmel-Laffly, also ''Rouleau cuirassé Paul Frot''), was an early French experimental

armoured fighting vehicle An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured car ...

designed and built from December 1914 to March 1915.

Background

The immobility of the

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...

characterizing the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

led to a need for a powerful armed military engine that would be protected from enemy fire at the same time, and could move on the extremely irregular terrain of battlefields. As early as 24 August 1914, the French colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne articulated the vision of a cross-country armoured vehicle:

Development

One of the first attempts was made in France on 1 December 1914, when Paul Frot, an engineer in

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

construction at the ''Compagnie Nationale du Nord'', proposed to the French War Ministry a design for a vehicle with armour and armament, based on the motorization of a

Laffly Laffly was a French manufacturer of trucks and utility vehicles. Founded in 1849, the Laffly company began manufacturing utility vehicles in Billancourt in 1912. From the mid-1930s and until World War II, the company also manufactured a range of ...

road roller A road roller (sometimes called a roller-compactor, or just roller) is a compactor-type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations. Similar rollers are used also at land ...

with heavy fluted wheels that had been developed from 1912 and had been used to compact canals: The vehicle was fitted with 7 mm armour, was powered by a 20 hp gasoline

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

, and was able to move both forward and backward, with two driver positions, one at the front and the other at the back. It was to be equipped with

machine guns A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

on raised platforms attached to the compactor chassis: one in front, one in the rear, and two projecting from the sides for 360 degrees coverage. This armament was never actually fitted: the

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...

s in the pictures are the result of retouching. The retouched photographs seem to indicate two cannon and six machine guns. Total length was 7 metres, width 2 metres, height 2.3 metres. It weighed a little under 10 tons. It would have been manned by a crew of nine: one commander, two mechanics and six gunners. Speed varied between 3 and 5 km/h. The compactor base was built by the

Company, at

Boulogne sur Seine Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and t ...

using a modified Laffly Type LT, and the armour was made by Corpet Company, at

La Courneuve La Courneuve () is a Communes of France, commune in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, center of Paris. History Inhabited since pre-Roman times, the area is thought to have been a small village up through the Midd ...

. The tank was tested on 28 March 1915 in the grounds of the ''Corpet & Louvet'' factory, and effectively destroyed

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...

lines and climbed a 25% slope, but was deemed lacking mobility:

Aftermath

The project was actually abandoned in favour of

General Estienne A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

's concurrent project of a tank using a tractor base, codenamed ''Tracteur Estienne'', which was being developed at that time. A few months before, in January 1915, the French arms manufacturer Schneider & Co. had already sent out its chief designer,

Eugène Brillié Auguste Eugène Brillié (1863-1940) was a French engineer, who invented the first French battle tank, the Schneider CA1. Biography Early years Brillié was born on 8 May 1863 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. After his studies at the Éco ...

, to investigate tracked tractors from the American

Holt Company The Holt Manufacturing Company began with the 1883 founding of Stockton Wheel Service in Stockton, California, United States. Benjamin Holt, later credited with patenting the first workable crawler ("caterpillar") tractor design, incorporated ...

, at that time participating in a test programme in England. This Schneider program was met with approbation of the French War Ministry, was merged with the Estienne plan, and a production order of 400

Schneider CA1 The Schneider CA 1 (originally named the Schneider CA) was the first French tank, developed during the First World War. The Schneider was inspired by the need to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare which on the Western Front prevailed durin ...

, the first French tank to see the battlefield, was made on 25 February 1916. The prototype of the Frot-Laffly was sold to the United Kingdom, Paul Frot claiming in a letter dated 8 January 1918 that it had influenced British tank design.Vauvilliers, 2008, p. 25

Notes

References

* Alain Gougaud, ''L'Aube de la Gloire, Les Autos-Mitrailleuses et les Chars Français pendant la Grande Guerre'', 1987,

Musée des Blindés The ''Musée des Blindés'' ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or ''Musée Général Estienne'' is a tank museum located in the Loire Valley of France, in the town of Saumur. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 un ...

, * Bruce I. Gudmundsson, ''On armor'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, * François Vauvillier, 2008, "L'Aube du char en France – L'idée de l'engin du ''no man's land'' avant Estienne", ''Tank Zone'' 2: 20–31 * Jean-Gabriel Jeudy, ''Chars de France'', E.T.A.I., 1997 {{DEFAULTSORT:Frot-Laffly Landship Tanks of France World War I tanks of France Trial and research tanks of France

Background

Development

Aftermath

See also

Notes

References