It takes its name from the commune of Saint-Chamond where its manufacturers Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt (FAMH) were based.

Later models attempted to rectify some of the tank's original flaws by installing wider and stronger track shoes, thicker frontal armour and the more effective 75mm Mle 1897 field gun.

The Saint-Chamond tanks remained engaged in various actions until October 1918, belatedly becoming more effective since combat had moved out of the trenches and onto open ground.

In January 1915, the French arms manufacturer Schneider sent out its chief designer, Eugène Brillié, to investigate tracked tractors from the American Holt Company, at that time participating in a test programme in England.

[2] On 16 June, new experiments followed in front of the President of the French Republic, and on 10 September for Commander Ferrus, an officer who had been involved in the study (and ultimate abandonment) of the Levavasseur tank project in 1908.

While Brillié began to assemble this second prototype which was to become the Schneider CA1, the arms manufacturer Forges et Aciéries de la Marine et d'Homécourt (aka "FAMH"), based at Saint-Chamond, Loire, was given an order for 400 tanks by the French government, a political move prompted by General Mourret of the Army "Service Automobile".

As a result, the "Forges et Acieries de la Marine et d'Homecourt" company, being unable to replicate certain patented details (notably the tail) of the new Schneider tank, developed its own proprietary design: the "Char Saint-Chamond".

Following his departure from the French State arsenal system (APX) and joining Saint-Chamond, Rimailho adapted a Mondragon designed 75 mm field gun for production for the Mexican Army.

In so doing Rimailho had also upstaged the Schneider CA1 tank which could only be fitted with a smaller Schneider-made fortress gun firing a 75 mm reduced charge ammunition.

The earliest Saint-Chamond prototype, a tracked vehicle longer and heavier than the Schneider tank was first demonstrated to the French military in April 1916.

When it later became apparent that they would be of a different type, Estienne was shocked and wrote: I am painfully surprised that an order has been launched of this importance without asking the opinion of the only officer who, at the time, had undertaken a profound study of the technical and military aspects involved and who had brought the supreme commander to the decision to take this path [towards a tank arm].

A loader (referred to in some sources as the gunner) adjusted the gun's elevation, observing the target through a small hatch in the front of the tank, which left him vulnerable to enemy fire.

A second fighting compartment at the back held one machine gunner next to the secondary driver's position, where the tank could also be driven backwards by the mechanic in an emergency.

The relatively high maximum speed on flat ground was made possible by the "Crochat Colardeau" transmission which coupled a Panhard-Levassor four-cylinder 67 kW (90 hp) sleeve-valve gasoline engine to an electric generator capable of giving an output of 260 amperes under 200 volts.

Second Lieutenant de Gouyon, principal Saint-Chamond driving instructor at Marly, has publicly declared that it has become virtually impossible for him to continue to carry on and, since he is a Member of Parliament, that he will request to have the whole matter placed on the next parliamentary agenda.

If true, these specimens were in all probability not from the Soviet Army as the latter never had been supplied with them and the French Expeditionary Forces to Russia were only equipped with the Renault FT.[citation needed] The last Saint-Chamond tank remaining in existence, an improved mid-1918 model, alongside other French tanks of World War I (Schneider CA1 and Renault FT), is preserved at the Musée des Blindés at Saumur.

It had survived, together with a Schneider CA1 tank of the same vintage, at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Ordnance Museum in Maryland, US, and was donated by the U.S. to the French government in 1987.

[10] A full-size replica in polystyrene foam, built by students of the Lycée Le Corbusier at Tourcoing, is on display outdoors at the Historial de la Grande Guerre museum in Péronne, France.