2C

This page is about the French heavy tank 2C. For the other version, see 2C bis.

2C

2C

Description

The Char FCM 2C is a rank French heavy tank with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Sky Guardians".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour protection is mediocre, at best. The frontal armour will do little to stop standard guns like the American 37 mm or the Soviet 45 mm, and the sides are vulnerable to autocannons or even the infamous M2 Browning at close ranges. What you do have, however, is a whopping 12 crewmen, which means that even if your main crew has been disintegrated, you are still in the fight as long as you don't get ammo-racked.

Armour type:

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	45 mm 0° (upper plate) 22 mm 69°(juncton armor plate) 45 mm 0° (lower plate) 10 mm 0-69° (junction) rolled homogenous armor 45 mm (machine gun port) molded homogenous armor	22 mm 0°(upper compartment) 22 mm 0°(lower compartment)	___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Turret	___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet	___ - ___ mm	35 mm 17° 30 mm 18° (hatch) 38.1mm (turret ring)	10 mm 76°-87°
Cupola	22 mm 0°-37°	22 mm 0°-37°	22 mm 0°-37°	22 mm 66°-88°

Notes:

• Tracks are 20mm thick
• Side skirts are 10 mm thick(2 layers)+ 22 mm(2 layers)
• Suspensions are 10 mm thick
• ventilation grids are 5mm thick
• engine maintenace doors are 15 mm thick
• tracks wheels are 15 mm thick
• floor is 15 mm thick (at the back and the front) and 10 mm thick

Mobility

The mobility of the 2C is sluggish; you will have little chance capturing points at the start. The 2C does have an electric transmission, giving it the benefit of being able to quickly reverse from a bad situation instead of needing to turn 180 degrees like most tanks.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade				646			__.__
Realistic				442			__.__

Armaments

Main armament

The 75 mm, despite looking impressive, is best attributed as lackluster, even underpowered. Your penetration is on par with German short 75 mm guns, but unlike the German versions, the 2C's gun only has access to its basic APHE round and a HE round. There is no HEAT shells available to counter Matilda or Churchill tanks, and you will suffer against M4 Shermans without proper support. Even the reload rate is inferior, with 5.5 seconds at max crew where pre-F2 Pz.IVs can already achieve about 4 seconds out of the box.

75 mm APX Canon de 75 mm modèle 1897					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	128	±20°	±140°	-	8.1	11.2	13.6	15.0	16.0	7.15	6.32	5.83	5.50
Realistic					5.9	7.0	8.5	9.4	10.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Mle1900	HE	11	11	11	11	11	11
Mle1916	APHE	66	65	58	51	45	40

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
Mle1900	HE	500	5.3	0	0.1	695	79°	80°	81°
Mle1916	APHE	558	7.44	1.2	14	350	47°	60°	65°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the 2C

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
128	97 (+31)	67 (+61)	61 (+67)	55 (+73)	28 (+100)	1 (+127)	No

Machine guns

The two machine guns on the 2C are of dubious utility. The front one has limited traverse arcs by virtue of being bow-mounted, so its use is limited to whatever you point your tank towards. The rear turret is of more doubtful use, however, as it cannot fire to the front and, being a normal MG, lacks the power to damage anything short of open-tops.

8 mm Hotchkiss Mle 1914
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Bow	5,000 (150)	600 rpm	__°	__°
Rear turret	5,000 (150)	___	__°	__°

Usage in battles

The char 2C should be used as a breakthrought tank he is too slow to flank and he has not enought penetration to shoot from afar. Its APHE shell as enought penetration to kill almost anything at close range with its 285 g of TNT making it ideal against open-top vehicles, panzer III and IV. You're greatest enemies will be high calliber hotwizers (SU 122, Ho-Ro, 15cm sIG 33 B Sfl...) you should always avoid direct confrontation with them . In an uptier the Char 2C will strugle penetrating heavy tank like the Matilda III . Despite its slow speed the Char 2C perform well on open maps like Normandie .

Pros:

• Neutral steering gives the tank decent reflex mobility
• Can climb over rough terrain with ease due to its World War I design
• Reverse gearbox lets you pull out quickly of dangerous situations
• Has a dozen crew members, highly survivable
• Flank attacks from behind are easily shrugged off due to containing no essential crew
• Large unoccupied zones, can absorb shells

Cons:

• Awfully slow top speed
• Armour is mediocre at best, very vulnerable to high calibre HE or autocannons
• Limited turret traverse, very prone to flanking
• Poor elevation and depression angles
• Extremely large, easily spotted and hit

History

The FCM 2C was a French "super heavy" tank designed to conquer the "no man's land" of WW1. It was dimensionally the largest tank ever produced, and for a time the heaviest. Ready for production by February 1918, the war ended before any of the vehicles were completed, and so the order of 300 was eventually reduced to just 10, finished in 1921. The standard 2C mounted a 75 mm APX 1897 field gun, similar to the cannon which would be mounted on the M3 GMC tank destroyer. The 2C had many innovative design features for the time, including a hybrid drive, leaf spring suspension, the world's first three-man turret, and stroboscopic cupolas. All of the 2Cs were named after ancient regions of France.

One 2C, No. 99 "Champagne", was given a new two-man cast turret with a 155 mm howitzer. The commander was given his own compartment behind the turret. The side machine gun ports were also removed. This variant would be known as the 2C bis. Eventually, Champagne would be returned to its original configuration and its turret would be used as a makeshift static emplacement in the Mareth Line. Champagne would be the only 2C to survive the invasion of France, with the other nine tanks either being scuttled by their own crew to prevent capture, or breaking down.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the 2C from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Related development

• 2C bis

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM)
Ships
Destroyers
Aigle-class	Vautour
Le Fantasque-class	Le Malin
Battleships
Courbet-class	Paris
Tanks
Light tank	FCM.36
Heavy tank	2C · 2C bis

France heavy tanks
B1	B1 bis · B1 ter
2C	2C · 2C bis
ARL-44	ARL-44 (ACL-1)
AMX-50	Somua SM · AMX-50 Surbaissé · AMX-50 Surblindé
USA	▄M4A3E2