 The ARL 44 clearly shows that it is based on earlier French heavy tank design.The hull is long, 722 centimetres, but relatively narrow, just as a vehicle meant to cross wide trenches.The covered suspension, with its many small road wheels, that had already been outdated in the thirties, is the most obvious sign of its basic Char B1 ancestry; it is in essence identical to that of the Char B1 ter.