Renault FT-17 Light Tank (France)
The first tank with a turret capable of rotating though 360 degrees to enter service. The FT-17 first saw combat on 31 May 1918, and like many tank models of the first world war did not initially perform well, with only 3 of 21 tanks involved surviving the battle, but performance soon improved, and over three thousand were produced by the end of the war. The FT-17 remained in use by the French army until its defeat in 1940, when some 1,600 of the model were still in use. The Germans used some for internal policing, and others, buried up their turrets, as part of fixed defences. Between the war the FT-17 was sold to many countries around the world.
How to cite this article: Rickard, J. (24 August 2001), Renault FT-17 Light Tank (France), http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_ft17.html
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