AMC 35

AMC 35
Type	Cavalry tank
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	France, Belgium, Nazi Germany
Wars	Second World War
Production history
Designer	Renault
Designed	1934
Manufacturer	Renault, AMX
Unit cost	₣ 360,000 per hull
Produced	November 1938 - January 1940
No. built	at least 57
Variants	ACG 2
Specifications
Weight	14,500 kg (32,000 lb., 16 tons)
Length	4.572 m
Width	2.235 m
Height	2.336 m
Crew	3 (commander, gunner, driver)
Armor	25 mm
Main armament	47 mm SA35 L/32 gun or FRC 47 mm
Secondary armament	coaxial 7.5 mm Reibel machine gun or 7.65 mm Hotchkiss
Engine	Renault water-cooled 4-cylinder petrol 180 hp
Power/weight	12.4
Suspension	horizontally rubber-sprung scissors bogies
Fuel capacity	300 litres
Operational range	161 km
Speed	42 km/h

The AMC 35 (from Automitrailleuse de Combat Renault modèle 1935), also known under a manufacturer's designation Renault ACG-1, was a French medium cavalry tank of the later Interwar era that served in the Second World War. It was developed as a result of the change of the specification that had led to the design of the AMC 34, calling for a vehicle that was not only well-armed and mobile but also well-armoured. Due to technological and financial problems production was delayed and limited, with Belgium as the only user to create active units with the type. The AMC 35 was one of the few French tanks of the period featuring a two-man turret.

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 attain a maximum speed of 50 km/h and be 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 already in the spring the Cavalry, worried by the German remilitarisation of the Rhineland, had first ordered seventeen vehicles and later expanded that order to fifty. For political reasons the commission did not 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.

The AMC 35 had about the same dimensions as the AMC 34, but the hull was longer at 4572 mm 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 as springs horizontal rubber cylinders. At 42 km/h the vehicle was slower than the specified speed. A three hundred litre fuel tank allowed for a range of 160 kilometres. The wading capacity was sixty centimetres and it could cross a trench of two metres. The 25 mm armour plates, riveted and bolted onto the chassis, did not offer the demanded protection.