Levavasseur project

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Levavasseur project

Levavasseur project.jpg

The Levavasseur project. [1]
Type Tank
Place of origin France
Service history
In service 1903–1908 (project only)
Production history
Designer Captain L.R. Levavasseur
Designed 1903
Specifications
Crew 1 commander, 3 crew
Main
armament
 1 Canon de 75
Engine gasoline internal combustion engine
80 hp

The Levavasseur project was an early project for a tank designed in 1903 by the French Captain Léon René Levavasseur (1860-1942) of the 6th Artillery Battalion, [2] described as a "self propelled cannon project" (French: Projet de canon autopropulseur). It is considered as the first description, made by a soldier, of what would come to be known as the tank. [3] Levavasseur was a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, of the promotion of 1881. [4] According to Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World:

Tank Tracked heavy armored fighting vehicle

A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat. They have heavy firepower, tracks, a powerful engine and strong armour and provide good battlefield manoeuvrability. They are a mainstay of modern ground forces and a key part of combined arms combat.

Contents

A project for a vehicle which had all the characteristics later thought desirable in a tank was put forward to the French War Ministry as early as 1903. Devised by a Captain Levavasseur of the 6th Artillery Battalion, who called it a "canon autopropulseur", the vehicle was envisaged as carrying a 75mm gun mounted in a box-like steel caisson which ran on crawler tracks, or "roues articulées" as Levavasseur called them. Powered by an 80hp petrol engine, the Levavasseur machine would have had a crew of three, storage for ammunition, and a cross-country ability.
— Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World, by Chris Ellis and Peter Chamberlain. [5]

Submission

The project was submitted to the French Technical Artillery Committee (Comité Général d'Artillerie), and after two years of study was presented to the Army Minister by the General President of the Committee. The general described the project in letter No.135, dated 1 February 1905:

The objective of the machine is to create an automobile artillery piece, capable of going over the rough terrain only accessible to horse carriages, and offering to the personnel and the engine parts a complete protection from indirect or small arms fire.
— General President of the Technical Artillery Committee to the Army Minister, 1 February 1905. [6]

Design

The locomotive mechanism is then described as a type of continuous track, supporting an armoured box with a weapon: [7]

Continuous track System of vehicle propulsion

Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle better than steel or rubber tyres on an equivalent vehicle, enabling continuous tracked vehicles to traverse soft ground with less likelihood of becoming stuck due to sinking.

The all-terrain mobility necessary to this machine is achieved by a contraption equivalent to a wheel of very large diameter. This contraption, called an "articulated wheel", consist in a sort of rim composed of wedge-shaped blocks ("voussoirs") connected together by bolts around which they can rotate, and with an elastic connection tending to close up the space between the voussoirs. The faces of the links adjacent to the ground serve as the "sole" of the wheel, and the links opposite form a race ("Chemin de roulement"). These two faces are cylindrical and concentric. Those forming the sole have a radius of four meters. These faces form two continuous surfaces when the blocks are connected.

Rim (wheel) outer part of a wheel on which the tire is mounted

The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire". It makes up the outer circular design of the wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube. In cross-section, the rim is deep in the center and shallow at the outer edges, thus forming a "U" shape that supports for the bead of the tire casing.

Race (bearing) track in a bearing along which the rolling elements ride

The rolling-elements of a rolling-element bearing ride on races. The large race that goes into a bore is called the outer race, and the small race that the shaft rides in is called the inner race.

Radius segment in a circle or sphere (from its center to its perimeter or surface) and its length

In classical geometry, a radius of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the Latin radius, meaning ray but also the spoke of a chariot wheel. The plural of radius can be either radii or the conventional English plural radiuses. The typical abbreviation and mathematical variable name for radius is r. By extension, the diameter d is defined as twice the radius:

A box is positioned with rollers on the races of the two identical articulated wheels. The rollers are positioned so as to maintain the natural shape of the articulated wheels.

Besides these rollers, the box supports two sprockets on each side, the teeths of which mesh with the bolts of the links. They are rotated by an 80hp engine.

Sprocket

A sprocket or sprocket-wheel is a profiled wheel with teeth, or cogs, that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which radial projections engage a chain passing over it. It is distinguished from a gear in that sprockets are never meshed together directly, and differs from a pulley in that sprockets have teeth and pulleys are smooth.

The box, made of bulletproof steel, hold an artillery piece of 75mm on a special gun carriage. It transports one commander, three servants and ammunitions.

— General President of the Technical Artillery Committee to the Army Minister, 1 February 1905. [8]

Reception

The Artillery Technical Committee raised three major objections: [9]

  1. All-terrain machines had not to that day given satisfaction.
  2. Hard objects could enter the mechanism and damage it.
  3. Direction could not be properly controlled.

Overall, it was not felt that there was a demand for such a machine, and horsedrawn artillery was considered adequate. [10]

Aftermath

The 1916 Saint-Chamond tank bore some resemblance to the Levavasseur project in layout, armament (Canon de 75), motorization (80hp engine) and general silhouette. St. Chamond.jpg
The 1916 Saint-Chamond tank bore some resemblance to the Levavasseur project in layout, armament (Canon de 75), motorization (80hp engine) and general silhouette.

Levavasseur reworked his mechanism, improved its resistance to hard objects, and brought forward a new improved project in 1908. He estimated an outlay of 14,000 francs for the construction of a mock-up. [12]

Eventually, the project was completely rejected. A letter dated 13 August 1908 explained that a tractor on continuous tracks was now available from a British company, Richard Hornsby & Sons. [13]

It is unclear whether General Estienne, the French "Father of the tank" ever knew about this project. However, Commandant Léonce Ferrus, who wrote the rejection report, participated in the Schneider tank experiments on 10 September 1915, [14] and in 1916 became involved with the development of the Saint Chamond tank, which bore what Gougaud describes as "disturbing similarities" to the Levavasseur project, [15] such as layout, armament (Canon de 75), power plant (80 hp engine) and general silhouette. [16]

Levavasseur became a lieutenant colonel of artillery, and retired simply expressing his regret that his views had not been taken into consideration earlier, before the advent of World War I. [17]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Gougaud, p.101
  2. ↑ Armoured fighting vehicles of the world Duncan Crow 1970, p. 65
  3. ↑ Gougaud, p. 99
  4. ↑ Gougaud, p. 100
  5. ↑ Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World, by Chris Ellis and Peter Chamberlain p. 65
  6. ↑ Original French: "On se propose d'établir une pièce de campagne automobile susceptible de parcourir tous les terrains accessibles aux voitures attelées et qui assure au personnel et aux organes de mouvement une protection complète contre le tir fusant et la balle d'Infanterie", in Gougaud, p. 99
  7. ↑ Gougaud, p. 99
  8. ↑ Original French: "La mobilité nécessaire à ce projet est obtenue, dans le projet dont il s'agit, par l'emploi d'un dispositif équivalent à des roues de très grand diamètre.
    Ce dispositif, appelé "roues articulées", consiste en une sorte de jante composée de voussoirs réunis entre eux par des boulons autour desquels ils peuvent tourner et munis d'une liaison élastique tendant à appliquer l'une contre l'autre les faces voisines de deux voussoirs. Les faces des voussoirs qui reposent sur le sol forment la semelle de la roue, et les faces opposées un chemin de roulement. Ces deux faces sont cylindriques et concentriques. Celles qui forment la semelle ont un rayon de quatre mètres. Elles constituent deux surfaces continues quand les voussoirs sont jointifs.
    Une caisse repose par l'intermédiaire de galets sur les chemins de roulement de deux roues articulées identiques. Les galets sont disposés pour laisser aux roues leur forme naturelle.
    En dehors de ces galets de roulement, la caisse porte de chaque coté deux galets d'entrainement dont les dents engrènent avec les boulons des voussoirs. Ils sont activés par un moteur à pétrole de 80cv.
    La caisse en tôle d'acier à l'épreuve des balles, porte une pièce de 75 sur affût spécial. Elle transporte un chef de piece, trois servants et des munitions" quoted in Gougaud, p. 99
  9. ↑ Gougaud, pp. 99–100
  10. ↑ Gougaud, p. 100
  11. ↑ Gougaud, p.128
  12. ↑ Gougaud, p. 100
  13. ↑ Gougaud, p. 100
  14. ↑ Gougaud, p. 111
  15. ↑ Gougaud, p. 215
  16. ↑ Gougaud, p. 128
  17. ↑ Gougaud, p. 100

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