AMC 35

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The AMC 35 (from Automitrailleuse de Combat Renault modÃÆ'¨le 1935 ), also known under the designation of the manufacturer Renault ACG-1 , is a French tank the intermediate cavalry of the next Interwar era that served in the Second World War. It was developed as a result of a change in specification that has led to the design of AMC 34, calling for vehicles that are not only armed and mobile but also well-armored. Because technology and financial issues of production are delayed and limited, with Belgium as the only user to create active units of type. AMC 35 was one of the few French tanks in that period featuring a two-person tower.

Video AMC 35

Development

Renault has developed AMC 34 in accordance with the specifications of the 1931 Plan. On June 26, 1934 this was changed: it is now demanded that the vehicle reaches a maximum speed of 50 km/h (31 mph) and is immune to anti-tank guns. On 7 March 1936 a modified prototype was delivered by Renault, who requested that the vehicle be accepted if it met the new specifications; after all AMC 34 has been accepted for production and this is just a slightly changed variant. The French material commission, Commission de Vincennes , became suspicious but by the fact that the appointment of the factory had been changed from Renault YR to Renault ACG . When the commission checks the prototype on March 9th, it is known that it is really a completely new design. Thus, a complete test program is ordered, which is completed on 27 November. On that date the commission considered that despite many changes, the type is still not feasible for the service because it is not mechanically reliable. But already in the Cavalry spring, worried about the German remodelization of the Rhineland, first ordered seventeen vehicles and then expanded the order to fifty. For political reasons, the commission did not dare to cancel the order; it accepts the type, noting that it would be advisable to test the types in the future before ordering it. The first vehicle was accepted by Cavalry on 1 November 1938.

Maps AMC 35

Description

AMC 35 has almost the same dimensions as the AMC 34, but the hull is longer at 4572 mm to install the 11.03 liter V-4 180 hp version of the V-6 engine used in Char B1. There are five road wheels. The suspension is used as a horizontal rubber cylinder spring. At 42 km/h the vehicle is slower than the specified speed. The three-liter fuel tank allows for a distance of 160 kilometers. The wading capacity is sixty centimeters and can cross a two-meter ditch. The 25 mm steel plate, glued and bolted to the chassis, does not offer the requested protection.

This prototype has two APX2 turrets, with the commander/loader on the left and the shooter on the right, equipped with a 25 mm SARF attack rifle and a 7.5mm machine gun . Because 25mm antitank guns are required on the Maginot line, in the SA 35 47 gun series production is used. APX2 Turret octagonal shaped almost consist of cast parts, welded, fixed and bolted together. The tank carried 120 pistols and 5250 rounds of machine guns.

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Production and export

The Belgian Army had ordered 25 AMC 34 hulls with Renault on 13 September 1935 at a price of 360,000 French francs, along with an appropriate amount of APX2 towers to be shipped by Batignolles-ChÃÆ' ¢ tillon, for a total project budget of 18.5 million Belgian Franc. Hulls are indicated to be the "second series", an enhanced AMC 34 - referring to the same development line that will produce AMC 35. Their delivery should begin in October 1935. However, that month Renault started production of the original AMC 34; he has not been able to produce an upgraded version. Technology, financial and social issues - in December 1936 the Renault military division was nationalized and restructured into a new AMX plant - ensuring that for 1936 as well, delivery would be delayed. Since large orders become impossible, the project has a low priority.

On 3 June 1937 Belgian defense minister, General Henri Denis, demanded that a single prototype be sent to Belgium; it was transported on June 4th. After testing between August 23 and 27 showed that his climbing ability was poor, Belgium decided that seven tanks devoted to Chasseurs Ardennais were unnecessary and reduced orders according to eighteen. The emergence of the prototype has led to political strife: politicians from the right feared it would be at odds with Hitler thereby jeopardizing Belgium's neutrality; who from the left want only pure defensive weapons. When deliveries failed to materialize, in December 1937 it was decided to cancel the order completely, to receive a fines penalty of four million francs and to transfer the remaining budget to the production of an artificial T-13 tanker crusher.

These results however, embarrass the French government: it presses Renault to accept the new arrangement. In early 1938, it was discovered that the Renault factory had the material to build a total of 75 original tanks; from parts of this stock enough to about sixty tanks already produced; assembly has started in about fifty vehicles. Agreed on 21 April 1938 to complete 35 vehicles, ten to be sent to Belgium including the prototype, the value of the fine of his contract. Belgium also received five sets of spare components and eight sets of armor. The new contract was signed on 15 June; it is determined that Belgian tanks will be delivered before 31 July. At that time, the French Cavalry itself no longer intended to use the type (but S40 SOMUA instead) and informed that priority should be given to Belgian orders. Renault had requested permission for this on May 6, but on June 2 the French Ministry of Defense responded that the original agreement provisions should be followed; this requires a separate delivery of ten batches at a time: the first seven tanks for France, followed by three for Belgium.

Production of the series only began in November 1938 and the actual delivery of the first three vehicles to Belgium was delayed until March 30, 1939, the second batch was exported in May and the last three vehicles arrived on 7 August.

In 1938, the turret was also shipped. Now that there is a fifteen surplus, it is used in a fortress: thirteen of them in coastal defense boxes; two other turrets were installed in drug boxes at Remouchamps where a fort was originally intended to be built, but due to lack of funds only two casemata were built. Turret equipped by Belgium with different weaponry: instead of SA 35 French pistol, FRC 47 mm Belgian pistol mounted; This closely related type has a barrel that is 15 mm shorter. Also a different machine gun: an optional 7.65 mm coaxial which is offset by Hotchkiss (Maxim) 08/15 MG. The Belgian Turret is produced in Nantes as APX2 B , which has a diascope on the left side moving to the facade at the back, because the drum magazine for Maxim 7,7mm Maxim 8/machine rifle makes it impossible to see it through its original position. The older sources mistakenly claimed that a 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine gun was installed. The iron plate is welded over the hole. They were rebuilt in Ghent by SEM ( Socià © à © tÃÆ'  © d'ÃÆ'â € lectricitÃÆ'  © et de MÃÆ' © canique Van den Kerckhove & Carels) between September 1939 and February 1940.

For France too, production continued after 1 November 1938, with final assembly at AMX; in March 1939 the original seventeen sequences were completed; at the start of the Second World War a total of 22 has been achieved. Production is then accelerated: three built in September, nine in October, eight in November. For this production all the remaining ingredients are used, apparently to fulfill the original order: when in December the Belgian Army requested the delivery of spare parts, therefore required several tanks in order to work to allow one platoon to take part in winter. maneuvers, Renault can not provide this. In January 1940, five were produced. Production was then discontinued for a total of 57. Ten were exported to Belgium, 47 remained in France where they were registered in this amount in the Spring of 1940. It is unclear whether this included prototype and project tank and how the number was reconciled with a total of fifty orders.

After the war, for some time it was considered that the total production was a hundred: 75 for France, 25 for Belgium. This fallacy stems from events during Riom's vile process in which the Vichy regime demanded much because of their failure in preparing the French Army for war. The defendant, wanting to point out that the production of French tanks is actually much higher than Germany, estimates AMC 35 production at 75, apparently adding the number of orders of Belgian AMC 34 to order for France. The authors then, assuming that 75 is the number of tanks devoted to France, repeats this error and adds another 25 Belgian tanks.

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Operational history

Belgium

When the nine hulls arrived in Belgium, it was soon discovered that engine, transmission, and excessive use of suspension. In January 1940, two tanks in the worst condition were selected to be transported to the Etterbeek warehouse, to undergo a cannibal to keep others running; one is used for driver training.

The remaining eight tanks are concentrated in the Escadron d'Auto Blindà ©  © du Corps de Cavelerie, literally "Armored Car Squadron of the Cavalry Corps", made on September 1, 1939 at Watermael-Boitsfort. The terms Auto Blindà © Lourd/Zware Pantserwagen , or "Heavy Armored Car," are used to avoid politically sensitive "char" or "tanks" or "tanks. The unit then moved to Ghent for his first training, gradually receiving more vehicles from Carels. Then move back to Brussels. The squadron has three platoons: one platoon "Staff and Service" ( horse rings ) and two platoons four tanks each. The personnel are a mixture of soldiers from 2 Lancers Regiment (2e Lansier who speak Dutch) and Guiding Regiment francophone 1, both units share the same barracks ( Caserne de Witte-de Haelen ) at Etterbeek.

When the war broke out on May 10, the driver's training tanks were united with seven others to bring the squadron to the eight-man organic force. It fought against the German Army between 17 and 27 May 1940. Four were destroyed by a 37 mm PAK fire during a counterattack, two broken and two surrendered to Germany on May 28, 1940 when the Belgian army laid down his weapon.

The Army Museum in Brussels shows a single tower taken from one of two defense boxes that defend the port of Zeebrugge or Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. Turret belongs to the city of Bruges who lent it to the Museum of the Army in Brussels for 99 years.

French

At first the French tanks did not complete any units; no crew is trained to be the type of person. After the German breakthrough at Sedan was decided on May 15 to send the entire reserve reserve tank to the front. Some ad hoc units are formed in haste. The first twelve AMC 35 is used to complete the 11e Groupée de Cavalerie ; then five or more informal Motoris Corps are formed, each of which must be equipped with seven tanks, but only five AMC 35 which can initially be prepared for them; the other seven are then sent. The crew reported that the equipment was unreliable, and suffered from a very short distance on rough terrain. CFM fought in a delayed battle between the Seine and the Loire.

In the literature of the anglophone, AMC 35 is often described as a great opportunity that failed for France to change waves against Germany: its two men's towers were then seen better adapted to the demands of modern maneuver warfare. For example. Armor historian Brian Terence White rates this type very favorably:

... one of France's most advanced tanks for its size there and equipped with a good weapon it has a two-man turret... with all the advantages in command it provides.... Somewhat surprisingly, because in retrospect this seems to have become one of the best pre-built French light tank designs, only 100 are built.

But this type can also be interpreted as an excellent example of design constraints that forced France to adopt one human-tower in other tanks: the price for the tower area of ​​the AMC 35 is unreliable and, for the medium tank rÃÆ'Â'le, the vehicle is very bad.

The wreck of the AMC 35 was saved and restored in the MusÃÆ' © e des Blindà © in Saumur, where it has been featured since 2006.

German

Vehicles taken by Germany during the French fall were used by Wehrmacht as PzKpfw AMC 738 (f) or (b) - depending on whether they were captured from France or Belgium respectively - for training driver.

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Project

One of the prototypes was built from a smoke vehicle; AMC 35's hulls are rebuilt and equipped with nineteen containers, each with 165 liters of liquid smoke, which can be sprayed into the air by a compressor.

One AMC 35 hull was built as a 75 mm tank destroyer, Renault ACG-2 . Therefore, the original AMC 35 in French sources during the period is often called Renault ACG-1 .

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Note

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Literature

• Georges E. Mazy, 2008, "Les Autos BlindÃÆ' © s Lourds du Corps de Cavalerie Belge 1940", Histoire de Guerre, Blindà © & amp; MatÃÆ'  © riel , N  ° 84, pp. 18-29

src: static.warthunder.com

External links

• MusÃÆ' Â © e des blindÃÆ' Â © s de Saumur
• World War II vehicles

Source of the article : Wikipedia