The Schneider CA 1 (originally named the Schneider CA) was an Armored Fighting Vehicle developed in France during the First World War. Although not a tank in the modern sense of the word, not being a turreted vehicle, it is generally accepted and described as the first French tank.
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The Schneider was inspired by the need to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare which on the Western Front prevailed during most of the Great War. It specifically had to open passages for the infantry through barbed wire and then to suppress German machine gun nests.
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The Schneider CA 1 tanks were widely used in combat during the last war years. Their first action on 16 April 1917 was largely a failure, the tank units suffering heavy losses, but subsequent engagements were more successful.
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The tank was of the “box” type, lacking a turret, with the main armament, a short 75 mm cannon, in the right side.
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Generally it is considered a very imperfect design, even for its day, because of a poor lay-out, insufficient fire-power, a cramped interior and inferior mobility due to an overhanging nose section which had been specially designed to crush through barbed wire belts. Improved designs were almost immediately initiated but the production of these, the Schneider CA 2, CA 3 and CA 4, was eventually cancelled.
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In 1918 the Schneider tanks played an important rôle in halting the German Spring Offensive and breaking the German front in the French summer offensives. They were active until the end of September 1918, less than two months before the Armistice of 11 November 1918, their numbers having dropped considerably due to attrition. After the war the surviving tanks were mostly rebuilt as utility vehicles but six Schneider tanks were deployed by Spain in the Rif War in Morocco, and the type saw its last action in the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
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