AMC 35

Infobox Weapon
name=AMC 35


caption=
origin=FRA
type=Cavalry tank
is_vehicle=yes
service=
used_by=France, Belgium, Nazi Germany
wars=
designer=
design_date=
manufacturer=Renault
unit_cost=
production_date=
number= 50
variants=
weight=14,500 kg
length=4.572 m
width=2.235 m
height=2.336 m
crew=3 (commander, gunner, driver)
armour=25 mm
primary_armament=47 mm SA35 L/32 gun
secondary_armament= coaxial 7.5 mm Reibel machine gun
engine=Renault water-cooled 4-cylinder petrol
engine_power=180 hp
transmission=
fuel_capacity=
pw_ratio= 0.0056
suspension=horizontally sprung scissors bogies
clearance=
vehicle_range=161 km
speed=40 km/h

The AMC 35 (from "Automitrailleuse de Combat Renault modèle 1935") was a French cavalry tank of the later Interwar era that served in the Second World War. It was produced as a result of the change of the specification that had led to the design of the AMC 34.

Development

Renault had developed the AMC 34 according to the specifications of the Plan 1931. On 26 June 1934 these were changed: it was now demanded that the vehicle attained a maximum speed of 50 km/h and was immune to antitank guns. On 7 March 1936 a changed prototype was delivered by Renault, who requested that the vehicle would be accepted if it met the new specifications; after all the AMC 34 had already been accepted for production and this was nothing but a slightly changed variant. The French materiel commission, the "Commission de Vincennes", became suspicious however by the fact that the factory designation had been changed from "Renault YR" to Renault ACG. When the commission inspected the prototype on 9 March it indeed transpired that it was a completely new design. Accordingly a complete test programme was ordered, which was finished on 27 November. At that date the commission judged that despite many changes the type was still unfit for service due to its mechanical unreliability. However in the spring already the Cavalry, worried by the German remilitarisation of the Rhineland, had first ordered 17 vehicles and later expanded that order to fifty. For political reasons the commission didn't dare to cancel the order; it accepted the type, noting that it would be highly advisable to test types in future before ordering them. The first vehicle was received by the Cavalry on 1 November 1938.

Description

The AMC 35 had about the same dimensions as the AMC 34, but the hull was longer to install a shortened 11.08 litres V-4 180 hp version of the V-6 engine used in the Char B1. There were five road wheels. The suspension used horizontal rubber-reinforced coil springs. At 42 km/h the vehicle was slower than the specified speed. The 25 mm armour plates, riveted and bolted onto the chassis, didn't offer the demanded protection.

The prototype had a two-men APX2 turret, fitted with a 25 mm SARF fortress gun and a 7.5 mm "Reibel" machine gun. As the 25 mm antitank guns were needed in the Maginot line, in the production series the 47 mm SA 35 gun was used. The roughly octagonal APX2 turret consisted of cast sections, welded, riveted and bolted together. The tank carried 120 gun rounds and 5250 machine gun rounds.

Production and export

The Belgian Army had ordered 25 AMC 34 hulls in 1935, together with a matching number of APX2 turrets. When Renault indicated it no longer intended to build the AMC 34, Belgium had installed thirteen of the turrets, equipped with a coaxial 7,65mm rechambered Maxim 08/15 MG, on coastal defence pillboxes. In 1937 the Belgian minister of defence, General Henri Denis, learned of the existence of the AMC 35 and on 3 June asked whether twelve hulls could be delivered for the remaining turrets. At that moment the French Cavalry no longer itself intended to use the type (but the SOMUA S35 instead) and advised that priority should be given to the Belgian order. In July the prototype was transported to Belgium. This caused a political row however: politicians from the right feared it would antagonise Hitler and so endanger Belgian neutrality; those from the left wanted only purely defensive weapons. Nevertheless in the summer of 1938 the other eleven hulls were accepted.

Slowly, at a rate of about one a month, production continued. The thirteenth vehicle was, as mentioned above, delivered on 1 November 1938; in March 1939 the original order of seventeen was finished — including the Belgian vehicles: because in December 1936 the military division of Renault had been nationalised as the AMX-factory, any finished vehicle (also those to be exported to Belgium) automatically was property of the French state and this fulfilled the delivery conditions. At the beginning of the Second World War a number of 22 had been reached. Production then accelerated: three were built in September, nine in October, eight in November. In December the total production of three was delivered to the Belgian Army, as it needed some tanks in working order to allow a single platoon to take part in the winter manoeuvres. In January 1940 five were produced, completing the order for fifty, including the prototype. Production was then discontinued. Fifteen had been exported to Belgium, 35 remained in France.

After the war it has for some time been thought that the total production had been a hundred: 75 for France, 25 for Belgium. This mistake had its origins in the events during the infamous process of Riom where the Vichy regime indicted many for their presumed failure in preparing the French Army for war. The accused, eager to show that French tank production was in fact much higher than that of Germany, estimated the AMC 35 production at 75, apparently adding the number of the Belgian AMC 34 order to the total production number. Later writers, assuming that 75 was the number of tanks intended for France, repeated this mistake and added another 25 Belgian tanks.

Operational history

Belgium

When all twelve hulls had at last arrived in Belgium, another two turrets had been installed on pillboxes at Remouchamps where a fortress was initially intended to be build. But due to the lack of funds only two pillboxes with a turret were constructed. Only ten tanks could therefore be fitted with the APX2 B turret, which had the diascope on the left side moved to the facet behind, because the drum magazine for the 7.65mm Maxim 08/15 machine gun made it impossible to look through it in the original position. Older sources claim that a 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun was fitted. An armour plate was welded over the hole. It was soon discovered that engine, transmission and suspension wear was excessive.

In September 1939 the two tanks that were in the worst condition were selected for transport to the arsenal of Etterbeek, to be put in working order using parts of the two redundant hulls. This project wasn't finished at the time of the German invasion; three more tanks, replaced by the delivery of December 1939, were then present at the arsenal: officially to be refitted also, but in fact six tanks were cannibalised to keep the others running; one was used for driver training.

The eight remaining tanks were concentrated in the "Escadron d'Auto-blindés du Corps de Cavelerie", literally the "Armoured Car Squadron of the Cavalry Corps", which had three platoons. One platoon 'Staff and Services' and two platoons of four tanks each. The personnel was a mixture of soldiers of the 1st Lancers Regiment and the 1st Guides Regiment, both units sharing the same barracks ("Caserne de Witte-de Haelen") at Etterbeek. These fought against the German Army in May 1940. Four were destroyed by 37 mm PAK fire when counter-attacking, two broke down and two surrendered to the German on May 28th 1940 when the Belgian army put down its weapons. The faith of the tank which served as instruction tank for recruits is not clear yet.

The Museum of the Army in Brussels shows a single turret taken from one of the two pillboxes that defended the harbour of Zeebrugge. The turret is property of the city of Brugge which loaned it to the Army Museum in Brussels for 99 years.

France

At first the French tanks didn't equip any units; no crews were trained to man the type. After the German breakthrough at Sedan it was on 15 May decided to send the entire tank materiel reserve to the frontline. Several ad hoc-units were hastily formed. First twelve AMC 35s were used to equip the "11e Groupement de Cavalerie"; then five even more informal "Corps-francs Motorisés" were formed, but only five AMC 35s could at first be made ready for them; seven more were later delivered. The crews reported that the materiel was unreliable and suffered from an extremely short range in rough terrain. The CFM's fought a delaying battle between the rivers Seine and Loire.

The wreck of an AMC 35 has been salvaged and restored at the Musée des Blindés at Saumur.

Germany

Vehicles captured by Germany during the Fall of France were used by the Wehrmacht as the PzKpfw AMC 738 (f) or (b) for occupation duty.

Projects

One prototype was built of a smoke-laying vehicle; an AMC 35 hull was rebuilt and fitted with 19 containers, each with 165 litres of smoke fluid, that could be sprayed into the air by a compressor.

One AMC 35 hull was rebuilt as a 75 mm tank destroyer, the Renault ACG-2. The original AMC 35 was therefore in French sources of the period often called the Renault ACG-1.

External links

* [http://www.wwiivehicles.com/france/armored-combat-tanks/amc-35.asp WWII vehicles]