The Renault R35, an abbreviation of Char léger Modèle 1935 R or R35, was a French light infantry tank of the Second World War.
Designed from 1933 onwards and produced from 1936, the type was intended as an infantry support light tank, equipping autonomous tank battalions, that would be allocated to individual infantry divisions to assist them in executing offensive operations. To this end it was relatively well-armoured but slow and lacking a good antitank capacity, fitted with a short 37 mm gun. At the outbreak of the war, the antitank role was more emphasized leading to the development and eventual production from April 1940 of a subtype with a more powerful longer gun, the Renault R40. It was planned to shift new production capacity to the manufacture of other, faster, types, but due to the defeat of France, the R35/40 remained the most numerous French tank of the war, with about 1685 vehicles having been produced by June 1940. At that moment it had also been exported to Poland, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. For the remainder of the war, Germany and its allies would use captured vehicles, some of them rebuilt into tank destroyers.
Development The development plan of 1926 foresaw the introduction of a char d'accompagnement, a cheap mass-produced light tank to replace the Renault FT of World War I vintage, to make it possible for the standard infantry divisions to execute combined arms infiltration tactics, seen as the only viable method of modern offensive warfare left for non-motorised units. The French army did not have the means to motorise more than a few select divisions. In 1930 this plan was replaced by a new one, giving more precise specifications. The first tank to be developed to fulfil its requirements, the Char D1, proved to be neither cheap nor particularly light. In 1933, Hotchkiss offered an alternative solution, the later Hotchkiss H35. For political reasons this proposal was turned into the Plan 1933 and the whole of French industry was in August 1933 invited to propose possible designs. Fourteen companies responded (among which Delaunay-Belleville) and five submitted a prototype: Hotchkiss itself, the Compagnie Général de Construction des Locomotives, APX, FCM and of course France's prime tank producer: Renault. Fearing that his rival Hotchkiss might well replace him as such, Louis Renault hurried to finish a vehicle; construction was soon in such an advanced stage that the changes in specification issued on 21 June 1934, to increase armour thickness from 30 to 40 mm, could not be implemented. On 20 December 1934, Renault was the first to deliver a prototype, with the project name Renault ZM, to the Commission de Vincennes.
In the spring of 1935 this vehicle was refitted with heavier armour and a standard APX turret, attached by the Atelier de Rueil between 18 and 25 April. The prototype was still being tested when international tensions increased due to German re-armament. This prompted an urgent demand for swifter modernisation of the French tank fleet. The ZM was to be put into production immediately. On 29 April 1935 an order of 300 was made, even before the final model could be finished, at a price of 190,000 French franc per hull (unarmed, without the engine and turret, the overall export price was ca. 1,400,000 francs in 1939, that is ca. 32,000 dollars by 1939 standards).The 190,000 FF price (for the complete hull only: the turret added another 100,000), despite being very low when compared in dollars to other tanks of the epoch, is comparable to many similar prices in other French tank contracts. In 1935 there had been for many years a strong deflation of the dollar, making it very strong against the franc. In addition, this was from 1936 worsened by a deliberate French policy of devaluation until the FF was fixed against the dollar on 9 September 1939 at a 43.8 to 1 rate. These exchange rates did not reflect internal value though: they were an artificial instrument to stimulate French exports. This explains how the French were able to produce the entire R35 at about 500,000 FF in 1939: the real value of the materials and labour used, was about $30,000, not $12,000, as the franc was undervalued about 2.5 times. The export price was realistic though and did not reflect the lower prices for raw materials France was able to obtain from its colonies. The first series production vehicle was delivered on 4 June 1936 and had to be extensively tested again as it was different from the prototype.
Description
To save time, Renault based the suspension and running gear on that of the AMR 35 that was designed for the cavalry. It had five wheels at each side, fitted with horizontal rubber-cylinder springs, like the AMC 35.
The hull, with a length of 4.02 m, consisted of three cast modules, with a maximum armour thickness of 43 millimetres, that were bolted together. Total weight was 10.6 metric tonnes (9.8 tonnes without fuel and ammunition). The bottom module carried on each side an independently sprung front wheel, two bogies and the driving sprocket at the extreme front. The final drive and differentials were housed at the right in the nose module. It was steered through a Cletrac differential with five gears and by engaging the brakes. The driver was seated somewhat to the left and had two hatches. The Renault V-4 85 hp engine was to the right in the short rear with the self sealing 166 litre fuel tank at its left. It rendered a road speed of 20 km/h and a range of 130 km. Cross-country speed did not exceed 14 km/h and the fuel consumption totaled 212 litre/100 km. From 1940 onward they were fitted with AMX tails to help in trench crossing.
The cast APX hexagonal turret had a 30 mm thick domed rotatable cupola with vertical vision slits (the highest point of 2.13 m) and had to be either hand cranked or moved about by the weight of the commander, the only other crew member. There was sometimes unofficially a seat installed for him but he most often stood. The rear of the turret had a hatch that hinged down that could be used as a seat to improve observation. The earliest vehicles were fitted with the APX-R turret (with the L713 sight) mounting the short Puteaux 37 mm L/21 SA 18 gun (the first batches were removed from Renault FT tanks which were then rebuilt as utility vehicles) and the 7.5 mm Châtellerault fortress machine gun. The cannon had a very poor armour penetration: only 12 mm at 500 metres. Afterwards the APX turret with the same cannon but the improved L739 sight and the standard Châtellerault 7.5 mm MAC31 Reibel machine gun was used because of delivery delays of the original weapon. There were also so many delays in the production of the turrets that after the first 380 hulls had been produced in 1936 and only 37 could be fitted with a turret, production was slowed down to 200 annually. The 7.5 mm machine gun's spent cartridges (from a total of 2,400) went down a chute through a hole in the floor. The tank carried 42 armour piercing and 58 high explosive rounds.
The R35 at first had no radio, except for the second battalion of the 507e Régiment de Chars de Combat (of Charles de Gaulle), but the R40 had the ER 54 installed. However, this added to the already heavy task load of the commander, who also acted as gunner and loader.
Renault R40 and projects
In 1937 it had become obvious the original suspension system was unreliable and ineffective. After many trials it was replaced in the 1940 production run, after the 1540 vehicles had been built with the original design, by an AMX system using twelve wheels fitted with six vertical springs (AMX was the new name of the military division of Renault nationalised on 2 December 1936). About the same time the radio and a much more powerful gun were introduced. The long-barrelled L/35 37 mm SA 38 in the adapted cast APX-R1 turret (with L767 sight) gave it an effective anti-tank capacity: 40 mm at 500 metres. The new combination was named the Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 but is more commonly known as the Renault R40. It was delivered in time to equip one battalion of the Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade of the Polish Army in France and the last two French tank battalions to be formed. It was intended to fit the R40 with the welded FCM turret in the second half of 1940, while refitting all existing R35s with the longer SA 38 gun and bringing R40 production levels up to 120 per month for the duration of the war. From January 1940, the vehicles of light tank unit commanders were gradually uparmed with the longer gun; but as absolute priority was given to tanks serving in armoured divisions, which were of the Hotchkiss type, of the 273 platoon, company and battalion commanders eligible in Renault units, only a few if any received this "R39". The only official possible exception to the rule that Hotchkiss tanks had to be modified first was made on 12 February 1940 when it was ordered to replace the turrets of 24 Infantry tanks, without specifying the type, present in depot or driver schools in order to obtain older turrets to be fitted on R35 export vehicles.François Vauvillier, 2006, "Toute la Lumière sur le Canon de 37 SA 38", Histoire de Guerre, Blindés et Matériel, N°74, p. 79 In the same period a crash programme was executed to produce 200,000 armour piercing rounds per month for the shorter gun, as there had been only minimal stocks of this ammunition type.François Vauvillier, 2006, "Toute la Lumière sur le Canon de 37 SA 38", Histoire de Guerre, Blindés et Matériel, N°74, p. 78
Several projects were based on the R35 such as a number of fascine carriers: these had frames or other contraptions mounted over the hull or turret with a fascine in them that could be dropped to fill trenches.
Operational history
The R35 was intended to replace the Renault FT as standard light infantry tank from the summer of 1936, but even by May 1940 not enough conscripts had been retrained and therefore eight battalions of the older tank had to be kept operational. On 1 September 1939, at the outbreak of war, 975 vehicles had been delivered out of 1070 produced; 765 were fielded by tank battalions in France, 49 used for drive training, 33 were in depot and 45 present in the colonies. Of a total order for 2,300 at least 1,601 had been produced until 1 June 1940 — the numbers for that month are lacking — of which 245 had been exported: to Poland (50), Turkey (100; two batches of fifty each in February and March 1940), Romania (41 from an order for 200), and Yugoslavia (54). It is likely that the tanks exported to Yugoslavia (in April 1940) are not included under the 1,601 total and that overall production was 1,685; serial numbers known to be actually used indicate a production of at least 1670 vehicles.
France On 10 May 1940, on the eve of the German invasion, in mainland France the R35 equipped 21 battalions, each fielding 45 vehicles. This gave 945 R35/R40 tanks in the French front line units. Of these, 900 were originally allocated at Army level in Groupements de Bataillons de Chars consisting of several battalions:
VIIe Armée GBC 510 9eBCC (R35) 22BCC (R35) Ie Armée GBC 515 13BCC (H35) 35BCC (R35) GBC 519 38BCC (H35) 39BCC (R35) IXe Armée GBC 518 6eBCC (R35) 32BCC (R35) 33BCC (FT) IIe Armée GBC 503 3eBCC (R35) 4eBCC (FCM 36) 7eBCC (FCM 36) IIIe Armée GBC 511 5eBCC (R35) 12BCC (R35) GBC 513 29BCC (FT) 51BCC (Char 2C) GBC 520 23BCC (R35) 30BCC (FT) GBC 532 43BCC (R35) IVe Armée GBC 502 20BCC (R35) 24BCC (R35) GBC 504 10BCC (R35) 343 CAC (FT) 344 CAC (FT) Ve Armée GBC 501 1rBCC (R35) 2eBCC (R35) 31BCC (FT) GBC 508 21BCC (R35) 34BCC (R35) GBC 517 19BCC (Char D2) VIIIe Armée GBC 506 16BCC (R35) 36BCC (FT) 17BCC (R35) 18BCC (FT) Armée des Alpes GBC 514 Bataillon de Chars des Troupes Coloniales (FT)