Hi everyone,

I wonder if anybody can help me. I know roughly what types of tanks were in use during the Russian civil war that followed the revolution in 1917. Mk5 British, either captured from the British or the white forces? It seems to be a little lazy on that front as various sites seem to contradict each other. I have seen said that the Bolsheviks captured some wrecked and burnt out Ft-17's What I really want to know is where did they come from? The French? The British maybe or the White army. Pictures would be nice but with the exception of the one at Kubinka and another on a memorial somewhere. Pictures in Russian service are a little thin on the ground!

pAUL

Sorry cant help you, but check this book maybe you can find what you are looking for, and it is on my wish list.
http://www.amazon.com/Armored-Units-Russian-Civil-War/dp/1841765449/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XBZ6MM2SQMRFQV02PJA

Well, Renault FT17 were captured by Russians from the French, Polish and US units in different years of Civil War.
MkV, MkB and MkA "Whippet" were captured by Red Russian units from White Russian units (in which those tanks were supplied by the British).
I have one Russian book, dedicated to this topic. If You want - send me PM with Your e-mail address, and I shall send You more details.

There is a new book from Russia with quite a bit of information on tanks used in the Civil War.

http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/28995956/

It's the only book I know of on the subject that is still available.

Regards
Scott Fraser

Here are some period pics :

Captured FT tanks :

Near Odessa in April 1919 :



Winter 1919 :



FT tank parading on the Red Square in 1924 (a Soviet-built "Reno" copy is visible on the right )



Other Civil War tanks (I guess these are White Army tanks...) :













Red Army Mk V in 1924 :




Red Army Mk B in 1924 :



H.P.

Eduard, That pretty much confirmed my thoughts on the matter Thanks though.




Scott, thanks for that but wrong Civil war. Osprey do a couple of books on it as well if your interested.




Henri, you never fail to come up with the goods so to speak! I had not seen those FT pics but I have seen most of the MKV's along with pics of the existing ones!

Paul

More Red Army FT's (and some Ruski Renos...) :

Blagoveshchensk, June 1920 (more info here ):



No location for this one ...



Moscow 1924 :



Moscow 1928 :



Period footage

H.P.

Another parading Red Army FT (Petrograd, 1922) :



H.P.

Henri,

Thanks again the pics are great, the video is pretty good and that site has some really useful information.


Looks like It'll have to be a red FT!!


Paul

Pardon for my ignorance, but what are the main differences between the FT and the russian Reno?

As far as I know the armament was different and as built in Russia I would guess the engine was different to. Other than that I don't know.

Paul

According to the Russian Wikipedia page, the Reno was fitted with a 4-cylinder Fiat car engine manufactured by the AMO factory in Moscow.

Here are some drawings showing the distinctive turret with the added machine-gun seen in period pics :

http://postimg.org/image/m94bpmyr7/

H.P.

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One of the FT in the picture above is apparently fitted with the 7.62mm Maxim MG, as in these drawings showing various weapon options (turrets 3 & 5) :



Turret 1 = 37mm gun
Turrets 2 & 4 = 8mm Hotchkiss MG

H.P.

Thanks for the clarification!

WARNING ! This drawing shows the versions of armament, which were made by Red Guerrillas in Russian Far East only ! These particular versions were mounted on ex-US Renault FT tanks, because of those US tanks had not their inventory armament to time of their capture by Guerrillas.

The "Russian Renault" tanks usually had as main armament one "Hotchkiss" gun, or one "Hotchkiss" machine gun. The version "gun + machine gun" was very rare.

Thanks for the info Eduard. I guess speaking Russian surely help with such subjects

H.P.

Having just looked at a few pages of the osprey book online I just went and ordered it. There do seem to be a couple of places suggesting that the White Russian forces may have had a few FT-17 (upto 4 maybe) but they may have only been used for training purposes. I think I might take that option anyway and do it as a Psuedo What if project! But thanks for the help every one.


Paul

Paul

I've just came across some info about the FT tanks captured near Odessa in March 1919 here :

http://arsenal-info.ru/b/book/262014798/12

Here's the Google translation :

"The first "Renault" arrived in Russia December 12, 1918, when in Odessa with the French and Greek infantry landed 20 cars from the 3rd company of the 503th regiment of artillery assault. Even the fall of 1918, this company was aimed at helping Romania and 4 October unloaded in the Greek port of Thessaloniki, but take part in the fighting did not have time. Together with the French and Greek forces sent her to Odessa - began a large-scale intervention in the south of Russia.
March 18, 1919 goal a few cars at the station Berezivka, near Odessa, participated in the battle against Grigorieva Brigade, part of the 2nd Ukrainian Soviet army. The report brigade reported:
"The enemy - Greeks, French and volunteers - was knocked out from the front line and distraught, fled in disarray. Within a few minutes we got a lot of trophies: about 100 guns, four guns, two of them long range, weight equipment, locomotives, seven, five trains, armored train, four tanks and two staff - Greek and French. "

H.P.