Panhard 178 Information

The Panhard 178 (officially designated as Automitrailleuse de Découverte Panhard modèle 1935, 178 being the internal project number at Panhard) or "Pan-Pan" was an advanced French reconnaissance 4x4 armoured car that was designed for the French Army Cavalry units before World War II. It had a crew of four and was equipped with an effective 25 mm main armament and a 7.5 mm coaxial machine gun.

A number of these vehicles were in 1940 taken over by the Germans after the Fall of France and employed as the Panzerspähwagen P204 (f); for some months after the armistice of June production continued for the benefit of Germany. After the war a derived version, the Panhard 178B, was again taken into production by France.

In December 1931, the French Cavalry conceived a plan for the future production of armoured fighting vehicles. One of the classes foreseen was that of an Automitrailleuse de Découverte or AMD, a specialised long range reconnaissance vehicle. The specifications were formulated on 22 December 1931, changed on 18 November 1932 and approved on 9 December 1932. They called for a weight of 4 metric tons (4.0 t), a range of 400 kilometres (250 mi), a speed of 70 km/h, a cruising speed of 40 km/h, a turning circle of 12 metres (39 ft), 5–8 mm armour, a 20 mm gun and a 7.5 mm machine gun.

In 1933, one of the competing companies — the others being Renault, Berliet and Latil — that had put forward proposals, Panhard, was allowed to build a prototype. The other companies also were ordered to build prototypes: Renault constructed two vehicles of a Renault VZ, including an armoured personnel carrier variant, Berliet constructed a single Berliet VUB and Latil belatedly presented a design in April 1934. The Panhard vehicle was ready in October 1933 and presented to the Commission de Vincennes in January 1934 under the name Panhard voiture spéciale type 178. It carried a Vincennes workshop (Avis) 13.2 mm machine gun turret, as the intended one was not ready yet. After testing between 9 January and 2 February 1934 the type, despite having larger dimensions than prescribed and thus being a lot heavier than four tons, was accepted by the commission on 15 February under the condition some small modifications were carried out. Of all the competing projects it was considered the best: the Berliet VUB e.g. was reliable but too heavy and traditional; the Latil version had no all-terrain capacity. In the autumn the improved prototype, now lacking the bottom tracks of the original type, was tested by the Cavalry. In late 1934 the type was accepted under the name AMD Panhard Modèle 1935. The type was now fitted with the APX3B turret.

After complaints about reliability, such as cracking gun sights, and overheating, between 29 June and 2 December 1937 a new test programme took place, resulting in many modifications, including the fitting of a silencer and a ventilator on the turret. The ultimate design was very advanced for its day and still appeared modern in the 1970s. It was the first 4x4 armoured car mass-produced for a major country.

The final assembly and painting of the armoured cars took place in the Panhard and Levassor factory at the Avenue dIvry in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. There however, only the automotive parts and lesser fittings were built in: the armoured hull was in its entirety prefabricated by forges serving as subcontractors. At first the main supplying company was Batignolles-Châtillon at Nantes, that could supply a maximum of about twenty per month; in 1940 the forge at Firminy became dominant. Likewise the turret, fitted with its armament by the Atelier de construction de Rueil (ARL) was as such again made by subcontractors, mainly the Société française de constructions mécaniques (or "Cail") at Denain. Production of the turrets tended to trail behind that of the hulls; on 1 September 1939 this order backlog had grown to 35; that there was little hope of solving this problem is shown by the production planned on 28 October 1939 for the spring of 1940: fifty hulls as against forty turrets per month.

At the time of acceptance in 1934, already fifteen had been decided to be ordered on 25 April 1934 and fifteen more on 20 May at a price of ₣ 275,000 per hull, more expensive than a French light infantry tank of the period. The actual orders were made on 1 January and 29 April 1935 respectively, and the notification sent on 27 May, with a planned delivery between January and March 1936. Due to strikes, the first vehicles of these orders were only delivered from 2 February 1937 onwards; nineteen had been produced by April, the last delivered in November. The two first orders together can be seen as a separate preseries of thirty, that differed slightly in many details from later produced vehicles.

A third order for eighty vehicles was made on 15 September 1935 but only notified on 11 August 1937. They were scheduled to be delivered between January and July 1938, but due to strikes and delays in the production of the turrets, the actual dates were 24 June 1938 and 10 February 1939.

There were another three orders of which deliveries started before the war: one of forty dated 11 January 1938 and delivered between 13 February and 31 July 1939; a fifth of 35 cars made on the same date but delivered between July and December 1939 (six before the war) after a sixth order for eighty vehicles made on 18 January 1938 and delivered between June and November 1939 (57 before 1 September 1939).

On 1 September 1939, 219 vehicles had been delivered including prototypes, 71 behind schedule. However, production increases soon allowed Panhard to reduce the backlog — at least for the hulls. From December vehicles were produced from two later orders: a seventh of forty, made on 18 January 1938 and completed between December 1939 and April 1940; and an eighth of eighty vehicles delivered from January until the middle of May 1940. The monthly deliveries were: nine in September 1939, eleven in October, eighteen in November, twenty-two in December, twenty-five in January 1940, eight in February, sixteen in March, thirty-four in April and a final thirty in May 1940. The total production of completed vehicles of the standard version of the AMD 35 for France was thus 339.

However, the total manufactured of all vehicles of the larger Panhard 178 family was much higher as there were several non-standard versions — and not all production was completed for France. Firstly there was a radio command variant, twelve of which had been ordered in 1937 and again in 1938, the notification of which was issued on 9 December 1938, the 24 vehicles being delivered between October and December 1939. The next variant was a colonial version, eight of which were produced. The most important addendum consisted of an order for 128 modified vehicles destined for North-Africa. Furthermore, there were two last orders of the standard version, one of twelve notified on 22 July 1939, the second for a hundred made on 27 September 1939, of which both only fourteen hulls would be made for France.

Of all these orders, at the time of the armistice in June, 491 had been completed. On 7 June 52 hulls had been in stock for which no turret was as yet available; probably until 22 June another ten hulls were made for a total production of 553: thirty in 1937, 81 in 1938, 236 in 1939 and 206 in 1940. Total hull production of all versions had been: 24 in September 1939, 26 in October, 27 in November, 33 in December, 36 in January 1940, 40 in February, 32 in March, 42 in April, 32 in May and 24 until the interruption in the middle of June. After the armistice another 176 were completed, from prefabricated parts, for the German occupier, for a total of 729.

These actual production numbers can be compared to the production plans. Before the war it had been intended that war manufacture would be thirty per month. When war really broke out, it was soon realised that the need to raise new units, the replacement of older worn out vehicles and the creation of a matériel reserve to compensate the loss of about 20% of the cars of a combat unit per month during a campaign, would necessitate a much higher production level, even when resorting to the expedient of fitting surplus hulls with older turrets. It had been planned on 10 October 1939 to bring production to forty per month in March, fifty in July, fifty-five in September and sixty from November 1940 for the duration of the war. Later projections were even more pessimistic: accordingly on top of the 657 vehicles notified at that date, on 15 April 1940 another 450 were ordered, a third of them of the radio version, bringing total orders to 1107. The desired peak rate of sixty vehicles was put forward with two months to September 1940; on 1 October 1018 vehicles had to be completed. However, the planned production was now limited to March 1941; as supreme commander Maurice Gamelin had concluded on 27 February 1940 from the events during Fall Weiss that lightly armoured vehicles could not survive on the modern battlefield, from the spring of 1941 the Panhard 178 had to be replaced on the production lines by the heavy AM 40 P armoured car, that was to be much more heavily armoured and armed.

In order to function as an effective long-range reconnaissance vehicle, the Panhard 178 had been kept as light as possible. The vehicle was thus rather small, only 4.79 m (15 ft 9 in) in length, 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) wide and 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in) in height (1.65 m for the hull per se). Also the tapering engine compartment, where a Panhard ISK 4FII bis V4, 6332 CC, 105 hp at 2000 rpm motor had been installed, was built very low, giving the vehicle its distinctive silhouette, with a protruding fighting compartment. Both compartments were separated by a fireproof bulkhead. The use of a large turret with 26 mm frontal armour and 13 mm side armour, combined with 7 mm (bottom), 9 mm (top and glacis), 13 mm (back, sides and front superstructure) and 20 mm (nose) bolted and riveted armour plate for the hull, had compromised weight considerations however, so the vehicle still weighed 8.2 metric tonnes. However the mobility was rather good for a French AFV of the period: a maximum speed of 72.6 km/h (45.1 mph), a cruising speed of 47 km/h (29 mph) and a practical range of about 300 km (190 mi), made possible by two fuel tanks of 120 and 20 litres, the main one located at the extreme back of the hull.

Rough terrain capacity was somewhat limited however: though all four road wheels were actuated, the leaf spring suspension confined the off-road speed to 42 km/h and the possession of just four wheels allowed for a wading and a trench crossing capacity of only sixty centimetres; it could overcome a thirty cm vertical obstacle, assisted by two small bottom wheels in the front hull.

The driver was in the front, using an eight-speed gear box and a normal steering wheel. Steering could be switched into reverse immediately to allow the assistant-driver, facing the rear and seated to the left of the engine (or, from his point of view: the right), to drive the vehicle backwards in case of an emergency, using all four off-road gears, with a maximum speed of 42 km/h. This "dual drive" capacity is common for reconnaissance vehicles. The second driver had a separate entrance door at the left side of the hull. He doubled as a radio operator in the platoon commander or squadron commander vehicles, operating the short range ER29 or medium range ER26 set respectively. To make long-range communications possible, one out of twelve armoured cars was a special radio vehicle.

The APX3 turret, having a large double hatch on the back, was rather large and could accommodate two men, like with the AMC 35; this was at the time exceptional for French AFVs. In the electrically traversed APX3, the commander on the right and gunner on the left benefited from a rudimentary turret basket, and sufficient vision devices including one periscope (which were of the Gundlach type on late examples) per man and PPL.RX.168 episcopes. Armament was first intended to be a newly developed 20 mm gun; when this failed to materialise it was considered to use a 37 mm Modèle 16 gun, standard for armoured cars, but this was rejected because of its poor anti-armour capacity. Instead the 25 mm SA 35 was chosen, a shortened L/47.2 derivation of the standard French antitank gun, the 25 mm Hotchkiss modèle 34. It was fitted with the L711 sight. To compensate for the shorter barrel, the rounds use heavier charges, giving even a slightly superior muzzle velocity of 950 m/s. The gun had a maximum penetration of about fifty millimetres when using a tungsten round; the light 380 gram projectile was easily deflected by sloped armour though, even a 45° angle giving about 100% extra protection over the armour thickness measured along the horizontal plane. German tanks had many vertical plates however, and were vulnerable up to about 800 metres; on the other hand the light round, even when penetrating, often failed to set fire to an enemy vehicle; it sometimes took fifteen shots to achieve this; 150 rounds of ammunition were stored.

The secondary armament was an optionally coaxial Reibel 7.5 mm machine gun, with 3,750 rounds, 1,500 of which were armour-piercing. A reserve machine gun was carried to the right of the driver that could be mounted on top of the turret for anti-aircraft defence. Its magazines were carried on the inner walls of the fighting compartment, including the large main entrance door on the right.

Experience showed that the type had several shortcomings: a weak clutch, slow turret rotation, a cramped interior, unreliable radio sets, poor cross-country drive and very noisy brakes. On the other hand, it was reliable, easy to drive on roads and the engine as such was rather silent; all desirable qualities for a reconnaissance vehicle.

During the production run several modifications would be made, such as the fitting of lifting hooks. The first thirty vehicles had two more primitive periscopes on the turret roof, a Chrétien diascope on its front and simple vision slits with armoured shutters on its sides; their drivers too had to use vision slits instead of an episcope. They also lacked a silencer and had semi-circular cut-outs at the wheel plate edges. From about the 111th vehicle (or fourth production batch) onward, several changes were introduced, including the fitting of an armoured ventilator covering on top of the turret, a factory plate with the name "Panhard" on the nose and a new softer factory camouflage pattern with the brown and bronze green spots no longer separated by black lines. From the 270th vehicle onwards stowage boxes were constructed on the back fenders, obscuring the pointed form of the engine compartment. The last turrets produced also had a backward pointing episcope for the commander, instead of a vision slit.

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