AMR 35

The Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance Renault Modèle 35 Type ZT (AMR 35 or Renault ZT) was a French light tank developed during the Interbellum and used in the Second World War. It was not intended to reconnoitre and report as its name suggests but was a light armoured combat vehicle, mostly without a radio and used as a support tank for the mechanised infantry. The AMR 35 originated from a project in 1933 to improve the earlier AMR 33 by moving the engine from the front to the back. In 1934, a stronger suspension was fitted and the type was chosen to replace the AMR 33 on the production lines that year. Three orders were made by the French Cavalry, totalling two hundred vehicles in five versions, including two machine-gun tanks, two tank destroyer types and a command tank. Later, ten were ordered of a radio communication variant, the Renault YS, and over forty were built of a tropical version, the ZT 4. The production would be much delayed by financial and technical problems, deliveries only starting in 1936. The AMR 35 proved to be an unreliable vehicle. It was one of the fastest tanks of its day, but its very speed overstressed its mechanical parts. In 1937, it was decided not to make any further orders but organisational difficulties slowed final deliveries of some versions until well into 1940; even by the time of the Fall of France in June 1940 the ZT 4 order had not yet been finished. During the Battle of France, the AMR 35s were part of armoured and motorised divisions, the vast majority being lost during the first weeks of the fighting. During the remainder of the Second World War, Germany made use of some captured vehicles.