FT-17 in WWII

Hallo,

I am looking for informations about FT-17 in Romanian Army. I am interested mostly in 1939-1945 period. Are there any details about their service in this time frame?

Thanks in advance!

There were 75 FT-17s in inventory on 6/22/41. I'm sure someone with better sources than mine, can be more detailed.

They were used for training and police action. I think that on the 23 August 1944 some FT17 tanks were on guard duty at important strategic objectives: Bucharest, Sibiu, Resita, Ploiesti. Allegedly, they saw action against the germans, but I don't know the actual combat report. All of these tanks were later confiscated by the Red Army, according to this book: Scafes, Cornel I; Scafes, Ioan I; Serbanescu, Horia Vl (2005). Trupele Blindate din Armata Romana 1919-1947. Bucuresti: Editura Oscar Print.

The tanks which had a gun were called "Mascul" (male in Romanian), the ones that had a machine gun were called "Femela" (female in Romanian). In WW2, the tanks were painted in khaki. There were some tanks with 1918 moulded turrets and some tanks with 1917 riveted plates turret. Most of these tanks were bought from the French Army, but a few were captured from the russian army in 1917 (Austin and Austin-Putilov production).

46 (48in some sources) tanks had a Puteaux 37mm gun and 28 tanks had a 8mm machine gun (Hotchkiss, most likely, or Chatelleraut MG, I'm not sure).

This post has been edited by Mircea87 on May 28, 2010 12:50 pm

I am wondering, why would they do it? IN 1944, they were museum quality pieces.

Gen. Dénes

I am wondering, why would they do it? IN 1944, they were museum quality pieces.

Gen. Dénes

Scrap Metal IMO.

Al

No, probably the Russians thought that these tanks could have been used in a loyalist (pro-german) coup d'état, I guess.
Or maybe they were not that happy with ~70 WW1 tanks (antique, but nonetheless, tanks) near their supply lines.


LE: wait, apparently they were confiscated in Feb 1945. So, this has something to do with the process of sovietization of Romania. The russians gave armor only to the soviet-organized divisions (like Tudor Vladimirescu-Debretin). The rest of the tanks were confiscated and the armored formations were disbanded, because they didn't want that these tanks in the hands of the regular army (they were still under the oath of allegiance to the king).

This post has been edited by Mircea87 on May 29, 2010 01:02 pm

In a WWII book I've recently read, I've stumbled across some info about the fate of the romanian FT-17 tanks.

According to Ioan S. Dumitru's book "Tanks in flames" - Nemira Publishing House, Bucharest - 1999 - on February 25th 1945, the FT-17 tanks from the 3rd Tank Batallion, arrived in Moravce.
The unit, allong with the other units that formed the 2nd Tank Regiment, were placed under the orders of the Russian 5th Guards Tank Corps "Stalingrad - Kiew", which took the decision to hand them over to the unusable weapons collectiong base (SPAM) in Sahy.

The FTs were most likely sent to the front in early 1945 along with most of the remaining Romanian tanks so that there could not intervene when general Radescu (the prime-minister) is replaced by a Communist controlled government. The FTs obviously were not able to carry out a campaign on the front and this is why they were scrapped. However, they could still be used in police actions, as proved during the events in August 1944, when a company of ten saw action within Bucharest against German troops. The only fight I was able to identify in which FT-17s took part is the storming of the Military Academy, where the German Military Mission was located. A platoon of FTs assisted the 1st Squadron of the 2nd Motorized Calarasi Regiment in the attack.

More details could be found in an article [in Romanian] in the 2nd issue of MODEList magazine: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=5068

I found what I was looking for:

Batalion Carelor de Lupta FT – 06/41 – Security and training duties in Rumania – 75 x FT17
--HQ – Stat, 5 x R-35
--Pluton Antiaeriene – 4 x AAMG (Truck-Mounted)
--Pluton Transmisiuni
--Companie 1.Care de Lupta – (22 x FT17)
----HQ – Stat, 2 x FT17
----Pluton Care de Lupta – 5 x FT17
----Pluton Care de Lupta – 5 x FT17
----Pluton Care de Lupta – 5 x FT17
----Pluton Care de Lupta – 5 x FT17
--Companie 2.Care de Lupta – 22 x FT17
--Companie 3.Care de Lupta – 22 x FT17
--Companie Intretinere (Workshop Co.) – 4 x FT17 (Reserve Platoon)