AMR 33

Renault AMR 33
AMR 33 at Musée des Blindés
Type	Light cavalry tank
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	France, Nazi Germany
Production history
Designer	Renault
Designed	1932
Manufacturer	Renault
Produced	1933 - 1935
No. built	123
Variants	AMR 33 TSF
Specifications
Weight	5.5 metric tonnes
Length	3.5 m (11 ft 6 in)
Width	1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Crew	2
Armour	13 mm
Main armament	7.5 mm Mitrailleuse mle 1931
Secondary armament	reserve gun could be used as anti-aircraft weapon
Engine	8-cylinder petrol 84 hp (63 kW)
Suspension	oil damped horizontal springs
Ground clearance	32 cm (13 in)
Fuel capacity	128
Operational range	about 200 km (120 mi)
Speed	54 km/h (34 mph)

The Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance Renault Modèle 1933 (AMR 33 or Renault VM) was a French light cavalry tank developed during the Interbellum and used in the Second World War.

Developed by Renault from 1932, the type was in 1933 ordered by the French Cavalry; a total of 123 would be built until 1935. The AMR 33 was lightly armed and armoured; though it was very fast for its day, it proved to be a mechanically unreliable vehicle, especially its suspension elements were too weak. It was therefore succeeded by an improved type, the AMR 35.

Though its name might suggest otherwise, the AMR 33 was not a scout vehicle and mostly was not equipped with a radio set. The AMR 33s were intended to form a large mass of light tanks, preceding the medium types into battle. In reality they never served as such; when enough medium tanks were produced to form armoured divisions, the AMR 33 had already been replaced by the AMR 35 and was limited to the Cavalry Divisions and in 1940 to the Cavalry Light Divisions to provide fire support to motorised infantry and dismounted cavalry. In the Battle of France of 1940 the AMR 33s were quickly lost. Some captured vehicles were for the duration of the war used by Germany.

To counter the threat posed by the massive Soviet arms build-up since 1928, the year Joseph Stalin took power, the French government on 4 July 1930 conceived the plan to form a projection force capable of assisting its allies in the Cordon sanitaire. This force would have to consist of five motorised infantry divisions and the five existing cavalry divisions, one brigade of each of which would have to be motorised. In 1934 the 4th Cavalry Division would have to be transformed into an armoured division. The plan called for the introduction of many specialised vehicles, among which was an Automitrailleuse de Cavalerie type Reconnaissance (AMR), specified on 16 January 1932 as a vehicle of three tons, armed with a light machine gun and having a range of 200 kilometres.Automitrailleuse was then the generalised term for any light armoured fighting vehicle armed with a machine gun and was also used to indicate a cavalry tank, as by law tanks (Chars) had to be part of the Infantry. Although the name might suggest otherwise, an AMR was not a specialised reconnaissance vehicle but a skirmisher without a radio. The gathering and reporting of information was the task of an AMD (Automitrailleuse de Découverte).