Renault TSF – Archive Breakthrough – Antenna and Rope Detail - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

The recently acquired documents added to the known detail we had on the antenna rope and cable. The 60mm (should be 75mm) trailing or guide rope had been hand spliced to a 20mm lead rope by two brothers from the Island of Barra. One of them had spent a lifetime in the merchant navy while the other was our old recently departed friend and author of a number of fine books on the Panther tank together with other subjects. We had reached out on a number of occasions to the Chatham Rope Company to construct the rope to the design and material indicated by the small number of surviving images. These images all had inconsistencies – no two rope and antenna assemblies were identical. The clearest image was unfortunately a mock up or prototypical TSF with antenna, which had a number of differences with the other ‘production’ examples. We selected the clearest examples of the antenna assembly from the production Renault TSF images and used the prototype to show the concept or how the ropes themselves were spliced and whipped. The well known Renault TSF image on parade in Brazil showing the coiled (white washed) antenna trailing rope strapped to the tailor made trenching skid provided the full length of the guide rope using pi r squared. The length of the guide rope was established using the other images as a reference. The total rope length is 14.5m. The length of the 75mm (see 60mm) guide rope is 10metres with a length in addition to this of 1.5 metre to allow the splice to the 3metre long lead rope. Our two Scots spliced the guide rope to the shorter lead rope by leaving an additional length of 1.5 metres on the ends of both ropes. Both ropes were separated into 3 strands and spliced together very tightly by hand. This resulted in Roddy having serious blisters on his hands given the time that had elapsed since he last worked on ropes back on Barra or how soft he had become according to his seafaring brother. The end of the guide rope was whipped to seal the end and stop it from fraying or unravelling. This whipped end together with the spliced end of the overall rope assembly were then tightly bound in a protective canvas sheath. This sheath would provide some longevity to the rope as it was pulled along behind the Renault TSF when in use. This desired solution so ably executed by the two Scots was beyond the fabled ropeyard of Chatham as it was too small for their machines. As our American friends would say – ‘Go figure’. The end of the lead rope is whipped with a metal ring fitted. The antenna cable end is looped through the metal ring and whipped. The new archive findings provide factual dressing to this picture. The ends of both the lead rope and antenna cable are wrapped with ‘Chatterton’ – a fabric based insulation tape made up of a natural tree based thermo plastic, pine resin and Stockholm tar available in both 25mm and 50mm width. Quite pricey today when compared to the standard insulation tape alternative. The Chatterton bound ends of the rope and antenna cable are quite obvious in the clearer wartime images of the Renault TSF.

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