Renault FT and TSF – Differences in Tool Stowage - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Another point discovered in our final weeks of restoration of these two machines was the tool requirement for both vehicles. The loading plan of the period shows quite clearly what and where tools are to be stowed on the Renault FT. The document showed the tools in position on a Renault FT with a section of the FT turret tourelle showing. We assumed the tool stowage set up would be the same for the Renault TSF and thought no more of it until we arrived at the point of addressing the antenna masts for the TSF. The list of kit required by another (we assume later) document specifies that we have 3 antenna fibre baton masts.. The length of these masts was discussed in a previous piece on the subject in which we discounted the length provided in a 1930 document. We referred instead to a wartime image in which 3 spare antenna masts were stowed on the side of the vehicle. To require 3 spare antenna masts is quite understandable given the flimsy construction and length of the masts. A difficult situation is not helped by the weight and length of the rope attached to it via the antenna cable – let alone the height of the mast and trees under which they would have to navigate. The obvious and stipulated requirement for additional antenna masts strengthened by the wartime image of a Renault TSF questions which tools were stowed on the TSF. The area in which the crowbar, the long handled shovel, the curette and the sledgehammer is being used for stowage of the spare antenna masts with their integrated pulley system at the top of each mast. The pick remains on the left hand upper engine deck above the tool box and jack cric. We have opted for this layout as we have yet to see another option in the limited array of period and postwar images of this very rare vehicle. A few tools are now in storage given our recent decision…….

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