History

In the 1920s and 1930s Citroën

Citroën

Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...

 developed a long line of half-tracks based on the Kégresse patent. In 1934, the company introduced its newest and more powerful P107 model as a successor to the Citroën-Kégresse P17. But before mass production could take place, Citroën went bankrupt and its new owner, Michelin

Michelin

Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...

, chose to focus on the civilian markets. Unic

Unic

Unic was a French car manufacturer firm founded by Georges Richard in 1906 after having left Richard-Brasier. Société anonyme des automobiles UNIC was established in Puteaux with two-cylinder and four-cylinder models. The 1943 cc 12 CV four-cylinder model was extremely successful and...

 was therefore able to acquire a license for Kégresse patent, and took over the production of the P107.

Two main variants of the P107 were accepted in French military service: a light prime mover for the 75 mm

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...

 and short 105 mm artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 guns, and a platform cargo transport for engineer

Military engineer

In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...

units. More than 2000 examples were in service in 1940.

Foreign use

During World War II, the Germans used these captured half-tracks extensively under the name Leichter Zugkraftwagen 37.
With German half-tracks in short supply, Major Alfred Becker of the 21. Panzerdivision (which in 1944 was stationed near Caen in Normandy) suggested converting captured French vehicles. He ordered the conversion of several hundred Unic half-tracks into U304(f) light armoured personnel carriers.

External links

• http://www.autogallery.org.ru/m/unicp107.htm