Renault R35

As the threat of war became apparent and the production rate of Polish 7TP tank was insufficient, it was decided to buy vehicles abroad. Poles were most interested in French SOMUA S35 tanks, but the proposal was refused by the French government. In 1938 the Polish Army bought one (according to other sources, two or three) R35 tank for testing. After a series of tests it was found that the design was disappointing: the engine was overheating, the suspension was tough, and armament insufficient. In April 1939 it was finally decided to buy a hundred R35 tanks as an emergency measure. The first shipment of fifty (other sources lower the number to 49) arrived in Poland in July 1939, along with three Hotchkiss H35 tanks bought for testing. In August they were mostly put into service with the Łuck-based 12th Armoured Battalion. At the beginning of the Invasion of Poland 45 (or 46) tanks formed the core of the newly created 21st Light Tank Battalion that was part of the general reserve of the Commander in Chief. The unit was to defend the Romanian Bridgehead, but was divided after the Soviet invasion of Poland of 17 September. Late September the unit was withdrawn to defend the Romanian Bridgehead. Subsequently, 34 tanks were withdrawn to Romania. Six tanks were attached to the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade in Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivsk); they forced their way through Kolomyia and three vehicles crossed the Hungarian border. The remaining tanks - four R35s and three H35s - were put into service with the improvised Dubno Operational Group and took part in the battles of Krasne on 19 September (with the Soviets) and Kamionka Strumiłowa (with the Germans), during which all were destroyed. The second shipment of R35s did not reach Poland prior to the outbreak of World War II.[7] They were diverted by the French to Syria.

Vânătorul de care R35 (VDC R35)
The VDC R35 tank destroyer's prototype, with enlargened turret and 45 mm gun
Type	Tank destroyer
Place of origin	Kingdom of Romania
Service history
In service	1943–45
Used by	Kingdom of Romania
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designer	Leonida
Designed	1942–43
Manufacturer	Atelierele Leonida
Produced	1943-1944
No. built	30 + 1 prototype with a T-26 turret
Specifications (Data from[8])
Mass	11.7 tonnes (11.5 long tons; 12.9 short tons)
Length	4.02 metres (13.2 ft)
Width	1.85 metres (6.1 ft)
Height	2.05 metres (6.7 ft)
Crew	2
Armor	14–40 millimetres (0.55–1.57 in)
Main armament	1 x 45 mm 20K tank gun
Engine	Renault V-4 82 horsepower (61 kW)
Power/weight	7.0 hp/ton
Operational range	120 km
Maximum speed	On road: 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) Off road: 15 km/h

As part of a rearmament program of the late 1930s, Romania sought to obtain a license for the local manufacture of two hundred French Renault R35 infantry tanks. By early 1938, negotiations for establishing a factory for the production of R35 tanks had reached an advanced state. By this time France's own demands for rearmament prohibited further development, however. In August and September 1939, as a stopgap measure, forty-one R35s were supplied to the Royal Romanian Army. These tanks served as the principal tank of the newly formed 2nd Armoured Regiment. At the end of September 1939, an additional thirty-four brand new R35s passed into Romanian hands when the Polish 21st Light Tank Battalion (Batalion Czołgów Lekkich, or BCL) chose internment over capture following the German conquest of Poland and fled over the Romanian border. With seventy-five tanks on strength, the 2nd Armoured Regiment expanded into two battalions.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, the Romanians decided that the R 35s required significant improvement of their anti-tank capacity. At first, the turret of an R 35 of the 2nd Tank Regiment of the 1st Tank Division was swapped for the turret of a captured Soviet T-26. Ultimately, at the beginning of 1943, it was decided to keep the thicker armor of the French turret. Thus, the 45 mm gun of the T-26 was adopted as a replacement for the original 37 mm gun. The Soviet gun was attached to the French turret with the help of an extension which contained the recoil mechanism of the 45 mm piece. The downside to this was that, following these modifications, there was no longer enough space in the turret to keep the coaxial machine gun, which was thus removed. A Romanian-produced 47 mm Schneider gun was also proposed. The upgraded tanks were adopted as tank destroyers under the designation Vânătorul de care R35 (VDC 35; meaning "R35 tank hunter"), with thirty R35s converted until June 1944 by the Leonida factory in Bucharest. The Soviet 45 mm guns were taken from captured T-26 and BT-7 tanks. They were refurbished at the Army Arsenal in Târgoviște while the new gun mounts containing the recoil mechanism were made at the Concordia Works in Ploiești. These vehicles served until the end of the war. A significant amount of the original French-made parts, from both the original and converted R35 tanks, was replaced by Romanian-produced spares in 1941–1942. Romanian factories produced drive sprockets, drive shafts, tracks, new metal-rimmed road wheels and cylinder heads. The wheels were designed locally to be ten times more durable. Added to these were the gun mounts for the 45 mm guns, added as turret extensions, which contained the recoil mechanism. Thus, the Romanian-converted R35 had significant Romanian-manufactured parts in its hull, transmission and turret.[9]

There were sixty R35 tanks in the Romanian inventory on 19 July 1944, thirty of which had been rearmed with 45 mm guns.[10]

The only surviving part of a VDC R35 is a turret owned by a private collector from Slovakia.

On 10 May 1940, on the eve of the German invasion, in mainland France the R 35 equipped 21 battalions, each fielding 45 vehicles. This gave 945 R 35/R 40 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:

"R 39" at the Musée des Blindés at Saumur next to an R 35. Notice the longer gun, in this case a postwar conversion for the Gendarmerie.

The R 35 at Saumur

The R 35 at Aberdeen

• VIIe Armée
  • GBC 510
    • 9eBCC (R 35)
    • 22BCC (R 35)
• Ie Armée
  • GBC 515
    • 13BCC (H 35)
    • 35BCC (R 35)
  • GBC 519
    • 38BCC (H 35)
    • 39BCC (R 35)
• IXe Armée
  • GBC 518
    • 6eBCC (R 35)
    • 32BCC (R 35)
    • 33BCC (FT)
• IIe Armée
  • GBC 503
    • 3eBCC (R 35)
    • 4eBCC (FCM 36)
    • 7eBCC (FCM 36)
• IIIe Armée
  • GBC 511
    • 5eBCC (R 35)
    • 12BCC (R 35)
  • GBC 513
    • 29BCC (FT)
    • 51BCC (Char 2C)
  • GBC 520
    • 23BCC (R 35)
    • 30BCC (FT)
  • GBC 532
    • 43BCC (R 35)
• IVe Armée
  • GBC 502
    • 20BCC (R 35)
    • 24BCC (R 35)
  • GBC 504
    • 10BCC (R 35)
    • 343 CAC (FT)
    • 344 CAC (FT)
• Ve Armée
  • GBC 501
    • 1rBCC (R 35)
    • 2eBCC (R 35)
    • 31BCC (FT)
  • GBC 508
    • 21BCC (R 35)
    • 34BCC (R 35)
  • GBC 517
    • 19BCC (Char D2)
• VIIIe Armée
  • GBC 506
    • 16BCC (R 35)
    • 36BCC (FT)
    • 17BCC (R 35)
    • 18BCC (FT)
• Armée des Alpes
  • GBC 514
    • Bataillon de Chars des Troupes Coloniales (FT)

These pure tank units had no organic infantry or artillery component and thus had to cooperate with infantry divisions. However, 135 R35s (2, 24 and the new 44 BCC) were allocated on 15 May to the provisional 4th DCR (Division Cuirassée). Two more new battalions, the 40th and 48th Bataillion de Chars de Combat, though still not having completed training, were used to reinforce 2nd DCR, the first equipped with 15 R35s and 30 R40s, the second with 16 R35s and 29 R40s bringing the total organic strength to 1035. In addition the 1st and 2nd Tank Battalion of the Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, at first training with Renault FTs, were equipped with 17 R35s and about 24 R40s in late May; in June the R40s had been given back but replaced by 28 new ones. At the same time 1, 6, 25, 34 and 39 BCC were used to reconstitute 1DCR, 10 BCC reinforced 3DCR and 25 BCC was reconstituted with 21 R35s and 24 (ex-Polish) R40s. As about 300 tanks from the materiel reserve were issued to these units as well, around 800 of the 1440 available R35s ended up in armoured divisions after all.

Two R35 battalions (63 and 68 BCC) with 45 and 50 tanks respectively were in Syria, a French mandate territory, and 30 were in Morocco, 26 serving with 62 BCC and four in depot. The tanks in Syria would fight during the allied invasion of that mandate territory in 1941 and then partly be taken over by the Free French 1e CCC, those in North Africa during Operation Torch in November 1942.

A Renault R35 in German service in 1942

4,7cm PaK(t) auf Panzerkampfwagen 35R(f) ohne Turm

The majority (843) of R35s fell into German hands; 131 were used as such as Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731 (f), issued to panzer units and mainly used for security duties or driver training, or used on armoured trains; most were later rebuilt as artillery tractors and ammunition carriers after removing the turret.

A considerable number, 174 according to some sources,[11] were converted into a 47 mm tank destroyer to replace the Panzerjäger I: the 4,7 cm PaK(t) auf Panzerkampfwagen 35R(f) ohne Turm. The tank destroyer version had the turret replaced with an armoured superstructure mounting a 47mm kanon P.U.V. vz. 36 (Škoda A6) anti-tank gun. The vehicles were converted by Alkett between May and October 1941 to try and make an equivalent vehicle to the Panzerjäger I. The result was not as successful as the Panzerjäger I, mainly due to the slow speed of the R 35 and the overloaded chassis. A few were deployed in Operation Barbarossa, most were deployed in occupied territories, such as the Channel Islands,[12] The Netherlands (with Pz.Jg.Abt.657, part of Pz Kompanie 224) and France.[13] They fought in the battles for Normandy with Schnelle Brigade 30 in 1944 (five attached to the 3rd company, Schnelle Abteilung 517[14]), and around Arnhem with Pz.Jg.Abt. 657. Other possible users include 346 Inf. Div. in Normandy and 59th Inf. Div who fought the 101st Airborne during Operation Market Garden.

Tobruk protecting the entrance to the bunker that now houses the Channel Islands Military Museum. This turret was originally mounted on a Tobruk at Saint Aubin's Fort, Jersey.

Some of the turrets removed from the tanks were used on defensive fighting positions known as "Tobruks". This gave the Tobruk enhanced firepower and the gunner protection from shrapnel and small arms.

Fourteen R 35 tanks, used to train tank drivers, equipped the 100. Panzer-Ersatz-Bataillon (100th Panzer Replacement Battalion) in the German Seventh Army in 1944. On 6 June 1944, they were among the first Armee-Reserve units sent into combat near Sainte-Mère-Église to oppose the American airborne landings in Normandy. Supporting a counterattack by the 1057th Grenadier Regiment, R35s penetrated the command post of the U.S. 1st Battalion 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment before being destroyed by bazooka fire.

The Royal Italian Army received 124 R35s with which the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment formed two battalions. The two battalions were assigned to the 131st Tank Infantry Regiment, which was deployed in January 1942 to Sicily. There, the regiment's CI Tank Battalion "R35" was assigned to the XII Army Corps defending the island's West, while the regiment with the CII Tank Battalion "R35" joined the XVI Army Corps defending the island's South. It used some of its R35s in defence of Gela on Sicily against US Rangers.[15][16] 5th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment was attacked by five R35s as it advanced towards Sortino; four were quickly knocked out but the fifth drove right through the battalion and carried on until it was knocked out by a 105 mm self-propelled gun near Floridia.[17]

Some of the tanks that Germany captured were given or sold to Germany's allies: Bulgaria received about forty.[16]

Three Polish vehicles in late 1939 found their way to Hungary.

During the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, the Australian 2/6th Cavalry Commando Regiment's 'A' Squadron used four R35s that had been captured from the Vichy French.[18]

Switzerland took over twelve R 35s that had fled from France.[19]

After the German victory over Yugoslavia in 1941, the Independent State of Croatia took over some R35s that had not been destroyed when fighting 11. Panzerdivision on 13 and 14 April.

A knocked-out Syrian R-35 at Degania Alef.

The R 35 saw combat in Syrian hands when five R 35s took part in an unsuccessful Syrian Army attack on the Jewish kibbutz Degania Alef in the Galilee on 20 May 1948. The kibbutz defenders, armed with a 20 mm anti-tank gun and Molotov cocktails, managed to knock out three R 35s, causing the remaining forces to retreat.[20] One of the disabled R 35s remains near the kibbutz today as a memorial of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. A 1991 IDF probe proved that this R35 had been knocked out by a PIAT round.

The Lebanese Army also incorporated a number of R 35s. Some of the Lebanese vehicles had been rebuilt with a British 40 mm Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun, seeing action in the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

Some R 35s served after the war in the Gendarmerie, as "R 39s" refitted with SA 38 guns. They were phased out from 1951 in favour of the Sherman tank.