What is the French 75AC?

[Schoenwulf]

The "75AC" appears as a French unit in Le Campagne de Tunisie, yet it is not listed in the Special Rules under any particular category, e.g. tank destroyers, where I thought it would appear. Based on the time of the campaign, late '42-early '43, the lack of an armor rating, and its fire values of 8-8DF and 3-4AT, it would seem that it should have been listed as a tank destroyer, but that section of the Special Rules states "The Italian Sem 47/32 and the American M6 are the only tank destroyers appearing in.....". So, is it like the M6, a motorized, unarmored TD? If not, how should it be played?

[plloyd1010]

This is my first guess:

It is an 1916 American AA gun, semi-copied from the French 75mm field gun, and mounted on a White 2&1/2 ton truck chassis. 51 examples being supplied before the fall of France. Then again, the French then copied the American bastardization of their gun for their own AA gun in 1917, some of which they also seem to have put on trucks.

[leonard]

The "75AC" appears as a French unit in Le Campagne de Tunisie, yet it is not listed in the Special Rules under any particular category, e.g. tank destroyers, where I thought it would appear. Based on the time of the campaign, late '42-early '43, the lack of an armor rating, and its fire values of 8-8DF and 3-4AT, it would seem that it should have been listed as a tank destroyer, but that section of the Special Rules states "The Italian Sem 47/32 and the American M6 are the only tank destroyers appearing in.....". So, is it like the M6, a motorized, unarmored TD? If not, how should it be played?

Hi Schoenwulf ! A real pleasure to read your AARs !! All these scenarios are really living through these. Thanks !
The French 75AC (AC stands for "autocanon"= self-propelled) truly is self propelled artillery but it is unarmored. These were improvised, field-modified trucks mounting standard 75mm Art pieces (model 1897) set up on a 360° marine mount (called "affut crinoline"). They were secretly built in Morocco and Algeria in late '41, when French armament was being controlled by Axis commissions. They were used against the US in '42 and reorganized before being sent to Tunisia.
The trucks usually were civilian trucks and the mount was bolted to the rear deck. Some were protected by a few armored plates. 40 75mm shells were the normal provision for one such gun. They equipped the 63e and 64e RAA.
See photos and drawings attached.

  75AC Tunisie.docx (Size: 58.27 KB / Downloads: 13)

[Shad]

An answer straight from the source! Thanks for jumping in, Leonard! LCDT doesn't have enough plays (need 30) to crack the Top Expansions list, but if it maintains its rating it'll be top 3 for sure!

[Schoenwulf]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses. That is what I thought the game referred to, but was surprised not to see the unit listed as a tank destroyer since the M6 was classified that way and the stats are fairly close.

A real pleasure to read your AARs !

Thanks! I'm glad that you're enjoying them; after finishing as runner-up for the "Longest Wind" award, I was a tad worried. After over 40 years of authoring scientific/medical research publications, I sometimes worry about being too "clinical". Most of the write-ups are also for my own reference, so if I go back and play a scenario again, I can recall how it played and try some different approaches. So many scenarios, each with multiple approaches, so little time

[plloyd1010]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses. That is what I thought the game referred to, but was surprised not to see the unit listed as a tank destroyer since the M6 was classified that way and the stats are fairly close.

Actually the symbol on the M6 is for a motorized AT gun. It was never actually, or intended to be, a tank destroyer. It was in fact training equipment pressed into service. So for that matter was the M3/75.

[Hugmenot]

Philippe Leonard's game submissions include dozens of pages about the material used in the campaign and textual references to the specific scenarios. Interesting reads for the developers and the latter makes it easier to determine intent when we need to change the victory conditions.

[Schoenwulf]

Actually the symbol on the M6 is for a motorized AT gun. It was never actually, or intended to be, a tank destroyer

That clarifies it, as there didn't seem to be a lot of difference between the M6 and a "75AC". Both are 4-wheeled vehicles with little if any armor and a mounted AT gun, yet the M6 listed in the Special Rules as a TD. Since the French unit carries a larger bore weapon than most M6's did, it would seem like either the M6 should not have listed as a TD, or the 75AC should have been in that same classification.

[rerathbun]

The French 75AC (AC stands for "autocanon"= self-propelled) truly is self propelled artillery but it is unarmored. These were improvised, field-modified trucks mounting standard 75mm Art pieces (model 1897) set up on a 360° marine mount (called "affut crinoline"). They were secretly built in Morocco and Algeria in late '41, when French armament was being controlled by Axis commissions. They were used against the US in '42 and reorganized before being sent to Tunisia.

The trucks usually were civilian trucks and the mount was bolted to the rear deck. Some were protected by a few armored plates. 40 75mm shells were the normal provision for one such gun. They equipped the 63e and 64e RAA.
See photos and drawings attached.

Very good info. 
Shad, would it be possible to add a page for each of the units so we can display this kind of info?  For guns and tanks we can include (open-source) photos.  For infantry maybe a brief about the size of the standard infantry platoon and the guns/other weapons they carried.
For everyone else; I don't have the expertise to fill any of these pages (part of why I'd like to see them).  Are there enough volunteers willing to provide the info to make adding the pages worthwhile?

[plloyd1010]

I'm in. I like blathering on about idiosyncrasies of history and weaponry.