The Laffly S15 was a familty of all-terrain military vehicles from French manufacturer Laffly

Laffly

Laffly was a French manufacturer of trucks and utility vehicles.Founded in 1849, the Laffly company began manufacturing utility vehicles in Billancourt in 1912...

 that shared the same six-wheel drive chassis. They were used by French forces during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Variants

• The Laffly S15T was a light artillery tractor
  Artillery tractor
  Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.-Traction:...
  
   that was used to tow light field artillery pieces such as modernized variants of the 75 mm mle 1897
  Canon de 75 modèle 1897
  The French 75mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze .The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece...
  
   field gun and Canon de 105 court mle 1935 B
  Canon de 105 court mle 1935 B
  The Canon de 105 court modèle 1935 B was a French howitzer used in World War II. It was designed by the State Arsenal at Bourges to replace the World War I-era Canon de 105 court mle 1934 Schneider. Some 610 were originally ordered, although production was terminated in 1939 in favor of anti-tank...
  
   howitzer.

• A personnel carrier and reconnaissance vehicle based on the same chassis was designated as Laffly S15R. It had a different, lighter rear cab and a different transmission that allowed for higher road speed.

• The Laffly S15TOE (théâtre d'opérations extérieures: overseas theatre of operations) was a scout car
  Scout car
  A scout car is a of military armored reconnaissance vehicle, capable of off-road mobility and often carrying mounted weapons such as machine guns for offensive capabilities and crew protection...
  
   designed and built for service in French African colonies. The S15 chassis was preserved, but an armoured cabin protected the engine and crew, with a small turret that was armed with one single Reibel machine gun.

• The Laffly W15T was a low-profile version of the S15T. It was made by Hotchkiss and was used to tow the 47 mm gun.

• The ambulance version was named S15L.

• The W-15 TCC (the CC stood for Chasseur de char, "tank hunter") was a quick and desperate French response to the threat of German Blitzkrieg warfare, which had sent fast armoured formations knifing across the country. It did not enter production until mid 1940, when the French military situation was already quite desperate. Mounting the excellent 47mm SA mle 1937 anti-tank gun on the capable 6x6 chassis of the Laffly W-15 all-terrain truck, the original design called for armoring of the truck and protecting the crew in an armoured cabin. When circumstances required these vehicles to be deployed immediately or not at all, they were rushed to the front with only a gunshield for the 47mm gun. They found a measure of success despite such haste. The 54ème Batterie d'anti-chars automoteurs (Mobile Anti-Tank Battery; BACA), consisting of just five vehicles and some ancillary light anti-tank guns, was credited with 28 tank kills and five armored car kills in just eight days of combat. Had they been developed sooner and deployed more widely, it’s reasonable to think that French forces would have been far better able to cope with the mobile Panzers slashing across Northern France. Tank and AFV armoured doctrine of the French military command in 1940 was much less capable than the equipment they squandered.

Foreign use

When France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 delivered 41 Renault R-35 tanks to Romania

Kingdom of Romania

The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...

 in 1939, a number of Laffly S15T artillery tractors were also delivered. These gun tractors were used by the 2nd Armoured Regiment's support services.

Popular Culture

The S-15 and W-15 TCC are both used in WWII Online: Battleground Europe as the French hauler truck and self-propelled gun

Self-propelled gun

A self-propelled gun is form of self-propelled artillery, and in modern use is usually used to refer to artillery pieces such as howitzers....

, respectively.