Hotchkiss Jeep with SS 10 missiles.

The SS 10 missile was a wire guided anti-tank missile with shaped charge. SS standing for sol - sol (ground to ground). It was developped from 1948 from the german X7 design by Jean Bastien-Thiry of the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique which was incorporated into Nord Aviation in 1954. The missile was then named Nord 5203 but it was mainly known as the SS 10. With the capacity to pierce 500 mm of armour plate, the SS 10 could destroy any tank of the time. The SS 10 could be launched from the ground, from jeeps or from the AMX 13 tank.

One of the first export buyers was Israël who used this missile succesfully during the 1956 Sinaï war. The US Army also bought 500 in 1959. The last missiles were made in 1962, by this time 30 000 had been made. The SS 11 (Nord 5210) introduced in the French Army in 1956 is a more powerfull but also heavyer developpement of the SS 10. Some test have been made from Jeeps but it was found too heavy and not suitable for the infantry.

Jean Bastien-Thiry has also been the main planer of the attack against Général de Gaulle on  August 22, 1962. 187 shell casings were found on the pavement, holes from fourteen bullets were found in the president's vehicle, a DS, one of which had been through the third post barely missed the president's head. Bastien-Thiry was convicted and sentenced to death. He was the last covict to be executed in France.