D1 and M4 od the 2RCA Oran 1943
German soldiers poses atop a D1 1940 4
Wehrmacht soldier with Char D1
French medium tank D1 and Sd,Kfz 10 1940
D1 front view 2
Char D1 tanks 2
German soldier posing in front of D1
D1 1940 5
D1 white 62 of the 67e BCC
D1 tank 99
Char D1 North Africa
D1 code 44
Abandoned D1 tank 3
Char léger D1 white 07
D1 1940
D1 1940 2
KO’d French Char D1
Renault Char D1 coded 18
Renault D1 and Renault ACG-1 assembly line
A column of Char D1 tanks
D1 tank 1028
D1 1940 3
D1 turret
D1 number 12
A column of Char Renault D1 medium tanks
D1 code 87
D1 in Ligny-en-Barrois
Renault D1 12 of the 67 BCC
Abandoned D1 number 56
Renault D1 18 of the 67 BCC
D1 front view
Char D1 and FT-17 tanks, 1940
The French plan of 1926 to create a Light Infantry Support Tank led to the development of the existing Renault NC1 prototype into the Char D1. The type was produced between 1931 and 1935 in a number of 160. There was a pre-series of ten vehicles; later 150 standard vehicles were built. Until 1936 the vehicles were fitted with FT-17 turrets because the intended cast ST2 turrets were not ready yet. The ST2 turret was armed with a short 47mm SA34 tank gun with a coaxial 7.5mm MG. The hull carried a 7.5mm MG in the bow. The type did not serve as an infantry support tank as originally intended, but as France’s major battle tank of the early thirties; it was quickly phased out in 1937 because of its mechanical unreliability.