The Charron girardot voigt Model is here
This article was first published on 23, april 2017
In France :
The Charron Girardot Voigt Company (named after the three founders) is associated with the creation of one of the first armored combat vehicles in history. In fact, in 1902, a C.G.V passenger car was equipped with an open 3 mm armored bathtub structure in place of the rear passengers seats and including a Hotchkiss machine gun mod.1901 supplied with 2470 rounds. This vehicle was tested at the Chalons camp on 30 June and 1 July 1903 by the French army, whithout success. It should be noted that the vehicle was presented as a draft of a future war car, which means that C.G.V has already planned the future model 1906.
Meanwhile, the other European countries are also engaged in the design of armored cars, and the Austrian-Hungarian branch of the German firm Daimler develops the Daimler 1905 which has the particularity of being totally armored with the weapon in a rotating turret .
The French engineers of the firm C.G.V are going in the same direction and the work on a new machine-gun begins in 1904 under the direction of Naval Major (R) Paul Alexis Guye. The vehicle chosen is a 35 HP passenger car and then fully armored at 6 mm with a Hotchkiss mod.1901 machine gun supplied at 2470 rounds under a rotary turret.
In Russia :
At the same time, in Russia, an officer of the imperial army, the Georgian prince Mihail Aleksandrovich Nakashidze was also interested in automobiles. In 1902, he published a book entitled « The automobile, its economic and strategic importance for Russia ».
He quickly added to his military service an entrepreneurial activity by partnering with two associates (Count Potoki and Colonel Golovin) and founded in 1902 in Warsaw the « grand garage international d’automobiles » whose aim was to Import vehicles from abroad. It is particularly interested in French manufacturers (note that the name of the garage is in French and that the French manufacturers are among the pioneers of the automobile at that time) and made agreements with Panhard-Levassor, De Dion-Bouton , Mors etc. A few times later, with the success of the company, he retired from military life. Unfortunately, the Russo-Japanese war which began in January 1904 forced him to engage and he received a command there in the 7th regiment of Siberian Cossacks in Manchuria.
One must read the article of the french newspaper the Figaro of 09/04/1915 to understand the continuation: (see the article in extenso and its discussion at the end). This article can confirm or invalidate certain facts that are found here and there according to the websites. For other facts this is presumed.
Nevertheless, the prince maintains his commercial activity in the automobile through his associates in Warsaw. It was then that Fernand Charron decided to propose his armored car to the commander-in-chief of the armies of Manchuria. The latter delegates Prince Nakashidze, a great promoter of the motorization in the imperial army to discuss the details. After a meeting in Moscow and a discussion on the different features of the vehicle, six cars were ordered including two without turret. Contacted, the Russian defense department, refuses the purchase of the vehicle but agrees to assume responsibility for transport and maintenance by a French engineer of C.G.V. Nakashidze then thinks of using his armored cars in Manchuria against the Japanese to convince the Russian headquarters.
Unfortunately, soon after, Russia was forced to sign a humiliating peace with Japan following the defeat of Port-Arthur. The Russian General Staff refused to send the armored cars to the east and proposed to test it around St. Petersburg. Nakashidze, sure of his success had ordered six additional copies, ie a total of twelve copies that were beginning to be assembled. The prototype of the so-called CGV 1906 was finished and then presented and tested on February 10, 1906 in Puteaux to personalities of the French army and immediately dispatched to Russia (patents Nos. 363 712 and 363 713 of 13/02/1906 cover The dome system for light artillery pieces – central pivot for assembly on the automobile and the war car). So there will be only one vehicle arriving in St-Petersburg on March 8, 1906.
The armored car was tested on a St. Petersburg – Oranienbaum – Crowns (South of St. Petersburg) raid with shots at the Oranienbaum Infantry School. Overall, the Commission acknowledges that the tests have been successfully completed and that the vehicle may be useful in reconnaissance, communications, cavalry combat and pursuit of the enemy in retirement, but also serious handicaps ( Notably low maneuverability in off-road) prevent its use as is. Nakashidze, not discouraged and with the help of a fierce press campaign and lobbying, even posing as the director of the armored cars branch of CGV, persuaded the staff to continue the tests at his own expense. Nevertheless, the conclusions of the second committee are not different from the first.
Nakashidze then decided to turn to the Minister of the Interior and Chairman of the Council Stolypine, and made an appointment for 12 August 1906 on the island of Aptékarsky, where he had a residence. While Nakashidze was waiting to be received, an explosion sounds. It was a terrorist attack that targeted Stolypin, but he was unharmed. Unfortunately, Nakashidze was killed in this attack and with him there was no chance of contracting for his armored car in Russia (some believe that this appointment was meant to propose his vehicle to the Ministry of the Interior in police and Law enforcement). Meanwhile the Puteaux plant was building the ordered vehicles.
The six machines already built and ordered by Nakashidze himself were therefore sent to Russia but the Russian authorities who had not assumed to buy them blocked them on the border with Germany and then sent them back to France. CGV seeked after their return to sell them, even at a discount price, and the German army bought two vehicles (it is unknown if these two cars were bought by the Germans during the trip before returning to France or after ), The rest remaining in France where they were put in a garage. In 1914, at the declaration of war, they were requisitioned by the Ministry of War. These cars were used by an army headquarters in a transport role (headquarters of the 4th French Army of General de Langle de Cary) and one by the Sordet cavalry corps.
The firm C.G.V seeked to get paid for its order but the Russian authorities argued that this order was initiated by an individual person and therefore did not concern the government itself.
C.G.V soon recovered from this affair because the advertisement on this armored car made the firm known throughout Europe and even in the United States (see April 1906 issue of popular mechanics).
The only car left in Russia was retested in October 1907 and then donated to the military district of St-Petersburg where it was dismantled, the chassis used for other purposes and the armor used for tests of resistance to infantry fire.
In Germany :
Anyway, the German army recovered two armored cars, which it intensively tested, renaming them « panzerautomobil CGV modell 1909 » . One can see them on a photo during maneuvers in 1909 in the organization chart of the 5th Guard Infantry Brigade. Later these two vehicles took part in the defense of Eastern Prussia against the Russian army in the first weeks of the war.
Technical description :
Start-up from inside the compartment
Pneumatic : diameter 135 mm, full which allow 10 min of rolling even after bullet shot. Wooden wheels protected by a metal disc
4-cylinder engine Speed 45 km / h on road and 30 on varied terrain. Autonomy 600 km with tank of 120 liters of gasoline
Crossing: slope 25%, ford 60 cm.
Weight 2,9 T
Two projectors, one of which is protected in the center.
Folding windscreen and retractable panels on doors
On the sides, two crossing rails
Price 80000 francs (in fact the same price as the equipment with lebel rifles of an entire infantry regiment)
Sources :
various websites,
wikipedia,
Alain Gougaud, L’ aube De La Gloire
Gallica,
Figaro newspaper 04/09/1915 gives an interview of Fernand Charron himself
le temps newspaper,
le petit parisien newspaper,
la vie au grand air magazine
Facts and legends: the Nakashidze myth
There are controversial facts on many sites, such as the fact that the Germans had stolen two cars during their transfer, the fact that the prince had the cars drawn, that he was director of the branch armored cars of the firm CGV, that the Germans modified the cars, etc …
The Prince Nakashidze seems according to official Russian history to be presented as the director of the branch armored cars of the firm C.G.V. These armored cars are also named Nakashidze-Charron in Russia. He also talks about « our » factory, ordering other cars without referring to anyone, curious attitude, probably also attracted by the profit there would be with the supply to Russia of armored cars, This is probably why he seems to put as much passion to selling these cars.
The article of the Figaro makes it possible to invalidate or to confirm certain facts that one finds here or there according to the websites. For other facts this is presumed.
The article of the Figaro of 09/04/1915:
« In 1905, the Manchurian War was in full swing. As I read the reports, I had the idea of writing to the commander-in-chief of the Russian armies, proposing him to make armored cars for him. A few days later I received a telegram from Manchuria thus conceived: « Received proposal for a war-car. » Find yourself at such date, at such address, with powers to deal with the construction and conditions. Signed: Prince Nakashidze « – Girardot and I, at the date and time indicated, we found in Moscow the signatory of the despatch. A young, charming, intelligent officer, with full powers of the commander-in-chief of the armies of Manchuria. In exactly ten hours everything was arranged. We explained to him the plan I had conceived; The drawings were submitted to him; For his part he brought his ideas, and the same evening we set out for Manchuria and Girardot and I with a contract of six armored cars, four with dome and their machine-guns, and two for the transport of ammunition and war-treasure . «
We set to work at once. We had, as a collaborator, an artillery commander, who devised certain technical details for the handling of the rotating cupola. The creusot, which was used for the plates of armor, helped us with his advice for the special work of this steel, and exactly four months afterwards, the first warcar carried out its first tests. They were perfect, we were delighted.
In the agreement with the Russian government it had been agreed that we had no right to sell our cars of war, of the accepted model, except to Russia and France. I hastened to seize the question of the Minister of War.
I obtained an audience from the Minister of War M. Etienne: I received the best reception; He examined all the details of the armored car himself, made him explain the mechanisms, tried it open and closed, and convinced and enthusiastic, he immediately delegated (?) To accompany me to the » Artillery of Puteaux where he was to join us.
The reception at Puteaux was reserved. It was true in 1905 that an armored car could at that time seem premature, a bellicose novel fantasy. However, when the minister had arrived, and had begged the officers to examine the machine and its mechanism, I must admit that they were very attentive and satisfied with their investigations.
I first presented the shielding samples, and the experiments made at 60, 80, 100, and 200 meters with the lebel rifle. I operated the various protective fasteners, which protect the occupants, the closures whose controls were inside. As soon as the car arrived in the danger zone, the front was completely closed, but thanks to a special device the driver had a free view; He was not bothered in any way to drive the vehicle.
Inside, the car was illuminated electrically, for it was necessary, on the march, to be able to follow the road on the map, to oversee the lubrication, to open the boxes of the projectile bands.
The vehicle in running order did not exceed 2700 kgs, the speed in level of 50 km / h, its average was 40 km / h.
At 60 m, the ball of the lebel crossed the armor but remained harmless, at 150 m it pierced without crossing, to 200 m, it was flattened. All the attempts made in Russia before the expedition to Manchuria had been most satisfactory, and the Emperor himself had witnessed the experiments.
Finally, I must note a strange incident:
The first four armored cars of C.G.V arrived safely in Russia, but the last two lost their way across Germany. After a month of complaints in all directions, I begged my friend and commercial manager of that time, Jacques Faure, to follow the traces of these two cars in all the stations where they had been posted. He was thoroughly familiar with German and very resourceful. Jacques Faure found the two vehicles, one of which was partly dismantled, in Berlin, in an artillery depot. The Russian Embassy made a move, and, free from curiosity German, the two cars were directed to Russia. The Germans, to apologize, pretended to have exercised an absolute right, the carriages having been declared as ordinary automobiles, and not engines of war, which was true. The Germans, moreover, profited by their indiscretion, and the construction of the armored cars, the study of which had not cost them dearly, had to be carried out without delay.
Some time after the visit to Puteaux and described above, two C.G.V armored cars were summoned to follow the maneuvers of the Sarthe. They were assigned to the artillery service, while they were destined for the reconnaissances service, which was why I had designed them. The future proved that my friends and I were right.
The first car of war was exhibited at the salon of 1905, where it had a great success of curiosity. Only one Chinese mission was sent to the CGV.
The two cars built for France were stored in a hangar for eight years. It took war to get them out … «
Discussion:
Fernand Charron, director of the C.G.V took the initiative to contact the Russian General Staff in Manchuria (not the Ministry of War) to offer these cars. The request does not come from the Russian side.
The latter then despatches Prince Nakashidze to negotiate.
Mr Charron does not know the prince because of the description he makes of it, so it can not be said that the prince was already working for C.G.V.
There is a meeting in Moscow where a discussion of the plans between the two parties and according to some Russian requests helps to determine the concept of the car.
A six-car contract is signed including TWO WITHOUT TURRET (to my knowledge this is the first time I see this information). This is reminiscent of the photo of the German models, which suggests that Germany bought a model with and model without a turret
The model is released four months later (in fact on February 10, 1906) which places the Moscow meeting in October 1905 (in another newspaper Fernand Charron gives the date of September 4, 1905).
Many Russian sites say that the prince passed these agreements of himself without the consent of the highest authorities. It must be remembered that Mr. Charron contacted the general commanding the armies of Manchuria, that he received a reply from Manchuria, and that he met an officer with the full powers of the general commanding the armies of Manchuria, without agreement of the country’s highest defense authorities.This may also explain the future attitude of these authorities to the purchase of the six vehicles.
Finally, there was confirmation of the German incident, but from what we understand, there were six cars sent, four of which arrived, the two seized by the German authorities are returned and sent to Russia. So it seems that Russia received the prototype in March 1906 and then the six (four plus the two seized by the Germans) on what date? That will be refused by the Russian customs. This does not invalidate that two cars were later bought by Germany for testing purposes as was practiced by France for the Daimler 1905, even if there was no purchase.
Mr Charron talks about two cars built for France? (That would explain the assembly pictures of February 1906 which shows a car with the number 8 – six for Russia and two for France?) that will do the maneuvers of the Sarthe with the 4th corps in autumn 1906. These tests consist to shoot at an infantry company and then on a squadron of dragons without warning from either side. The military authorities do not seem to be enthusiastic about the result. It must be remembered that there is a controversy not about the usefulness of a vehicle carrying a weapon but about the usefulness of placing armor on it or not. In other words, is it necessary to build Charron 1902 or Charron 1906.