Vbcp 39l -APC-

[Kriegerfaust007]

Variants

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An abandoned VBCP 38L in 1940

The first development from the TRC 37L was an armoured personnel carrier, the Voiture blindée de chasseurs portés 38L (“Armoured mounted infantry vehicle 38L”). Like the TRC 37L, this Lorraine 38L was equipped with an armoured tracked trailer. The total capacity was twelve men: the driver and one passenger in the driving compartment, four in the former cargo bay, and six in the trailer. To protect the infantry squad, high box-like armoured superstructures were built over both the bin and the trailer, with doors at their back. The loaded weight of the main vehicle was 7.7 tonnes. A total of 240 VBCP 38L vehicles were ordered, of which nine had been delivered on 1 September 1939 and around 150 by 25 June 1940. In view of the war threat, the order was made before the prototype could be tested.[4] Of all participants in the Battle of France, the French army would thus be the only to employ a fully tracked APC. The vehicles were intended for the Bataillon de Chasseurs Portés, the (single) mechanised infantry battalion within the Division Cuirassée, or armoured division of the Infantry. However, on 10 May, they had not yet been allocated to these units, who still used half-tracks. During May, the vehicles were hurriedly taken into use by the 5e BCP and 17e BCP of the 1re DCr and 2nd DCr respectively. The 4e DCr did not receive any.[4]

An improved model, the VBCP 39L, was created by expanding the cargo bay to carry eight passengers, apart from the two crew members. This model had no trailer and a total capacity of ten persons; extra room was found by raising the upper deck — the passenger compartment was open-topped — and constructing a more forward sloped armour glacis, contiguous with the nose section; the type thus resembled postwar APCs. Some two hundred VBCP 39L vehicles were ordered, to replace the 38L on the production lines from the 241st vehicle onwards,[4] but none had been delivered by June 1940, the manufacture remaining limited to a single prototype.[4] Experimental and limited production models included tank destroyers armed with 47 mm SA 47 guns (Chasseur de Chars Lorraine) and command post vehicles; probably a Voiture de transmissions blindée sur TRC Lorraine 37 L ER prototype was produced.[5]