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This is a list of French military equipment in the Second World War. This focuses primary on weapons issued to the French Army and Free French forces. Weapons used by the French Resistance vary but generally consist of French, Allied, and captured German weapons, alongside various miscellaneous equipment.
Armoured personnel carriers
The AMX-13 is a French light tank produced from 1952 to 1987. It served with the French Army, as the Char 13t-75 Modèle 51, and was exported to more than 26 other nations. Named after its initial weight of 13 tonnes, and featuring a tough and reliable chassis, it was fitted with an oscillating turret built by GIAT Industries with revolver-type magazines, which were also used on the Austrian SK-105 Kürassier. Including prototypes and export versions, over a hundred variants exist, including self-propelled guns, anti-aircraft systems, APCs, and ATGM versions.
The Saint-Chamond was the second French tank to enter service during the First World War, with 400 manufactured from April 1917 to July 1918. Although not a tank by a strict definition of a heavily armoured turreted vehicle, it is generally accepted and described as such in accounts of early tank development. It takes its name from the commune of Saint-Chamond where its manufacturers Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt (FAMH) were based.
The Renault R35, an abbreviation of Char léger Modèle 1935 R or R 35, was a French light infantry tank of the Second World War.
The Hotchkiss H35 or Char léger modèle 1935 H was a French cavalry tank developed prior to World War II. Despite having been designed from 1933 as a rather slow but well-armoured light infantry support tank, the type was initially rejected by the French Infantry because it proved difficult to steer while driving cross-country, and was instead adopted in 1936 by the French Cavalry arm.
The MAC mle 1931 machine gun, was a machine gun used in French tanks of the World War II era, as well as in fortifications such as the Maginot line. It is also sometimes known as the JM Reibel, from Jumelage de mitrailleuses, or Reibel twin-mounted guns and really refers to the specialized twin-mounting frame used in JM cloche cupolas on the Maginot Line fortifications, while MAC mle 1931 refers specifically to the gun. The JM twin-mounts were the standard emplacement for the mle 1931 in fixed fortifications, while tanks and other AFVs received single guns.
The Renault R40 or Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 was a French light infantry tank that was used early in World War II, an improvement of the Renault R35, of which it is often considered a variant.
The ARL 44 was a French heavy tank and tank destroyer, the development of which started just before the end of the Second World War. Only sixty of these tanks were ever completed, from 1949 onwards. The type proved to be unsatisfactory and only entered limited service. The tank was phased out in 1953.
The Laffly S15 was a family of all-terrain military vehicles from French manufacturer Laffly that shared the same six-wheel drive chassis. They were used by French forces during World War II.
The 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun was a French anti-tank gun from the 1930s, built by the Hotchkiss arsenal, that saw service in the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War and the Indochina War.
The 47 mm APX anti-tank gun was a French anti-tank gun that saw service in the first years of the Second World War.
The Hotchkiss 13.2 mm machine gun, also known as the Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun, was a heavy machine gun, primarily intended for anti-aircraft use, designed and manufactured by French arms manufacturer Hotchkiss et Cie from the late 1920s until World War II, which saw service with various nations' forces, including Italy and Japan where the gun was built under license.
Schneider et Compagnie, also known as Schneider-Creusot for its birthplace in the French town of Le Creusot, was a historic iron and steel-mill company which became a major arms manufacturer. In the 1960s, it was taken over by the Belgian Empain group and merged with it in 1969 to form Empain-Schneider, which in 1980 was renamed Schneider SA and in 1999, after much restructuring, Schneider Electric.
French development into tanks began during World War I as an effort to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare, and largely at the initiative of the manufacturers. The Schneider CA1 was the first tank produced by France, and 400 units were built. The French also experimented with various tank designs, such as the Frot-Laffly landship, Boirault machine and Souain experiment. Another 400 Saint-Chamond tanks were manufactured from April 1917 to July 1918 but they were underpowered and were of limited utility because the caterpillar tracks were too short for the tank's length and weight. The most significant French tank development during the war was the Renault FT light tank, which set the general layout for future tank designs and was used or redesigned by various military forces, including those of the United States.
The Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (APX) was a state arsenal belonging to the French Army. It was located at 8, quai national in Puteaux.
The White AM armoured car was a French First World War armoured car that was built on a commercial American White Motor Company truck chassis with armoured bodies supplied by the French firm Ségur & Lorfeuvre, it was used by the French military from its introduction in 1915. Between the wars the French military completely rebuilt the vehicles as the White-Laffly AMD 50 and the Laffly-Vincennes AMD 80, in these guises it served until at least 1943.
