Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne
Studying ballistics, he presented his first major work in 1890, Erreurs d'Observation, to the Académie des Sciences; this stimulated the introduction of modern indirect fire methods.
After establishing the proper organisation, training and production of aircraft while developing communication methods, he commanded the 5th Aviation Group at Lyon for a short time.
At the Battle of Charleroi he shocked his German opponents by the precision of his artillery fire, which was well directed due to close cooperation with aircraft.
[2] Having long been an advocate of indirect fire methods, Estienne now began to search for viable ways to provide close support with field guns.
On 23 August he made his famous statement Messieurs, la victoire appartiendra dans cette guerre à celui des deux belligérants qui parviendra le premier à placer un canon de 75 sur une voiture capable de se mouvoir en tout terrain ("Gentlemen, the victory in this war will belong to which of the two belligerents which will be the first to place a gun of 75 [mm] on a vehicle able to be driven on all terrain").
In the summer of 1915 he learned that Eugène Brillié of the Schneider Company and Jules-Louis Bréton (then a member of parliament) were developing a barbed wire-cutter on a tracked Holt-type chassis.
In particular, he advocated the creation of a force of all-terrain armoured vehicles large enough to assist 20,000 infantrymen to break through the full depth of a German defensive position.
Armed with light artillery, the vehicles would also serve to transport men, equipment and supplies across the 40 km or so that separated French assembly areas from the open terrain behind the German defensive positions.
[3] He was invited to explain his ideas further to Joffre's Deputy Chief of Staff, General Maurice Janin, during a personal visit on 12 December.
Two of his personal enemies, Undersecretary Jean-Louis Bréton (who resented that Estienne had taken over his project) and Colonel Emile Rimailho (the co-inventor, with Deport and General St. Claire Deville, of the famous French 75 mm field gun), cooperated to build the ill-fated Saint-Chamond tank.
This stressed the need for armoured, tracked support vehicles to carry infantry, artillery and recovery teams alongside the tanks, and also for the need for aircraft to conduct an in-depth bombardment of the enemy.
At a conference in Brussels in 1921 he called for a 100,000 man force equipped with 4,000 tanks and 8,000 transport vehicles that could break an enemy's front and advance 80 km in a single night.
[5] Although politician Paul Reynaud supported progressive ideas like those of Estienne and called for a mobile army that could take the offensive as early as 1924, he represented a minority position in the French parliament.
[6] In May 1923 he was made president of the Compagnie Générale Transsaharienne (CGT), formed by Gaston Gradis to promote travel across the Sahara by car and airplane.
