the Germans just by pass the Bunkers of Maginot line by invasion of Luxenburg, Belgium, Netherlands.
and ram true weakest spot of french defense line in simple words Maginot line was useless
The Maginot line wasn't supposed to stop the German everywhere and it worked perfectly. The maginot line was here to shorten the frontlines and allow the French to concentrate their troops in Belgium where they expected to encounter the german army head on. If the German didn't change their plans at the last minute due to the rash of a german plane in Belgium the battle of France wouldn't have been fought because the German army would probably have been stopped in Belgium.
The French tanks had Small turret were only one man could stand and operate the light Gun or MG
while the Germans Tanks had bigger turret with bigger gun AND MG operated by several persons.
The b1 bis had a 2 man turret and a turret gun bigger and better than every German tank gun except for the short 75mm of the Pz IV that wasn't supposed to fight other tanks. The larger turret ring of the S-35 allowed for one of the man to help the tank commander. No B1 bis was destroyed by a german tank outside the Pz IV and everytime the german encountered those they needed to fire their artillery at them or call in the Stukas.
Marcel Bloch needed more powerful engine for MB.150 but Ministry of defense insist on Gnome-Rhone, who hell of problem to get engine running.
Bloch wanted build the engine for MB.150 in his own factory but Ministry of defense refused and to make matter worst Ministry of industry nationalized "Société des Avions Marcel Bloch"
(after war Bloch change his name into Marcel Dassault and founded Dassault Aviation S.A.)
The Aircraft industry was completely inefficient before the government nationalized it. After that production increased and better design started to appear.
main reason was the french generals had no idea what to do with this newfangled "submachine gun" they insist on riffles and heavy machine guns.
this with combination of budgetary constraints because construction of useless Maginot line...
No nations at that point had SMG except for the Germans and even the Wehrmacht didn't have a lot of them during the invasion of Poland. In this regard the French weren't worse than any other belligerent.
Were there any guns that had better AT performance and could fit in the Puteaux SA 18's turret ring?
And were any of the tanks you mention there able to take larger turrets?
Yes. The 37mm SA38 was starting the replace the 37mm SA18 on the R40 (upgrade of the R35 that entered service in 1940) and on the H39 (not the official name, but a good way to denominate the H38 with the SA-38 gun). It was the same gun but longer and had thus better AT capacity. The French were also developing APDS ammo for their gun and a 37mm round was supposed to be introduced in 1940. This would have meant the 37mm SA 38 would have been able to penetrate any German tanks.
Curious if this is something that could be fixed with a practical upgrade program, or if the R-35, H35, H-38 and FCM-36 were basically obsolete designs by the late 30s.
The small infantry tanks were not really upgradeable because they were too small to allow for a bigger gun in a turret. The R40 and H39 would have been the last versions of these tanks. In fact it was pretty much the only problem for the H39 given that in the end it was as fast as the Pz III and better armored. With APDS ammo it would have been able to engage the Pz III before it could even ding it's armor.
Mind you, would gun production be able to keep up with such an upgrade program AND building enough Somuas and Char B1s? Upgrading designs that will be obsolete anyway within a year of actual wartime might not be a good use of resources.
fasquardon
The guns on the Somuas and the B1s were not the same as on the smaller tanks and i don't think the 47mm could have been fitted on the small APX-R turret.
Now for my two cents about how the French could have had better procurement.
1/ Don't separate the Air Force from the Army. The defeat of 1940 can almost single handedly attributed to that decision. Due to the Air Force independence, it completely ignored the role that it was actually needed to do. It focused on long range bombers that fitted it's Douhetist PoV. If it has stayed in the Army, the Air force would have been forced to focus on usefull things : fighters and CAS aircrafts. The AF barely run any CAS support mission during the whole battle of France while the Stukas were left free to bomb French tanks.
2/ actually replace the anti aircraft artillery so the divisions have something to defend themselves against aircrafts.
3/ Make someone realise that putting a larger turret on the B1 would allow the tank to have the 75mm in it's turret.
4/ accelerate the development of the various mortars. If the procurement of the French mortars would have been over when Germany invaded the French infantry would have had as much indirect firepower as the German infantry.
5/ Having radios. Seriously, not having radios is one of the biggest problems some French tanks had.
6/ Avoid the Disarmament conference fuck up. It slowed the B1 development too much.
