After Operation Overlord and the German retreat from France, Free French forces were able to recapture several examples of the Char B1s. Some French partisans were even able to capture B1 tanks from Germans and use them against enemy troops stationed in Paris as the Allied forces approached the city.
When the French Provisional Government was established after most German forces retreated from France, it also created a tank regiment armed with B1 bis tanks. This unit — the 13ème Régiment de Dragons — engaged pockets of German resistance on the French Atlantic coast, with none lost to action.
It eventually deployed to occupied Germany after the Fall of Berlin from May 1945 to April 1946. However, when the unit was recalled to France, it was soon dissolved. The Char B1 Heavy Infantry Tank was also struck from the list of French Army equipment alongside this event, officially ending its over-one-decade of service.
The French were knocked out early in the World War II, meaning it couldn’t develop its heavy tank industry the way the Soviets and Germans did. Nevertheless, they fielded a capable one right at the start of the war in the Char B1.
[Featured image by Musée de la Reddition via Wikimedia Commons| Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]
