Book Review of
Renault R35 & R40 Through German Lens
Camera On No. 26
Author: Alan Ranger
MMP-Stratus Books
ICBN: 978-83-65938-99-0
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $25.00
ICBN: 978-83-65938-99-0
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $25.00
HISTORY:
The Renault R35, an abbreviation of Char léger Modèle 1935 R or R 35, was a French light infantry tank of the Second World War.
Designed from 1933 onwards and produced from 1936, the type was intended as an infantry support light tank, equipping autonomous tank battalions, that would be allocated to individual infantry divisions to assist them in executing offensive operations. To this end it was relatively well-armoured but slow and lacking a good anti-tank-capacity, fitted with a short 37 mm gun.
At the outbreak of the war, the anti-tank-role was more emphasized leading to the development and eventual production from April 1940 of a subtype with a more powerful longer gun, the Renault R40. It was planned to shift new production capacity to the manufacture of other, faster, types, but due to the defeat of France the R35/40 remained the most numerous French tank of the war, about 1685 vehicles having been produced by June 1940.
At that moment it had also been exported to Poland, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. For the remainder of the war Germany and its allies would use captured vehicles, some of them rebuilt into tank destroyers.
SPECIFICATIONS FOR R35:
Place of origin: France
Used by: France, Romania, Poland, Turkey, Israel,
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Nazi Germany, Italy, Bulgaria,
Switzerland, Australia, Syria, Lebanon
Wars; Second World War, 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Designed: 1934
Manufacturer: Renault
Produced : 1936–1940
No. built: R 35: 1,540, "R 40": 145 approx.
Mass: 10.6 metric tons
Length: 4.02 m (13 ft 2 in)
Width 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Crew: 2
Armour: 43 mm
Main armament: 37 mm L/21 SA 18 gun
Secondary armament: 7.5 mm MAC31 Reibel machine gun coaxial
Engine: Renault V-4 gasoline engine of 82 hp
Power/weight: 8.0 hp/tonne
Suspension: Horizontal rubber cylinder springs
Operational range: 130 km
Maximum speed: 20 km/h (12 mph)
The Renault R35, an abbreviation of Char léger Modèle 1935 R or R 35, was a French light infantry tank of the Second World War.
Designed from 1933 onwards and produced from 1936, the type was intended as an infantry support light tank, equipping autonomous tank battalions, that would be allocated to individual infantry divisions to assist them in executing offensive operations. To this end it was relatively well-armoured but slow and lacking a good anti-tank-capacity, fitted with a short 37 mm gun.
At the outbreak of the war, the anti-tank-role was more emphasized leading to the development and eventual production from April 1940 of a subtype with a more powerful longer gun, the Renault R40. It was planned to shift new production capacity to the manufacture of other, faster, types, but due to the defeat of France the R35/40 remained the most numerous French tank of the war, about 1685 vehicles having been produced by June 1940.
At that moment it had also been exported to Poland, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. For the remainder of the war Germany and its allies would use captured vehicles, some of them rebuilt into tank destroyers.
SPECIFICATIONS FOR R35:
Place of origin: France
Used by: France, Romania, Poland, Turkey, Israel,
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Nazi Germany, Italy, Bulgaria,
Switzerland, Australia, Syria, Lebanon
Wars; Second World War, 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Designed: 1934
Manufacturer: Renault
Produced : 1936–1940
No. built: R 35: 1,540, "R 40": 145 approx.
Mass: 10.6 metric tons
Length: 4.02 m (13 ft 2 in)
Width 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)
Crew: 2
Armour: 43 mm
Main armament: 37 mm L/21 SA 18 gun
Secondary armament: 7.5 mm MAC31 Reibel machine gun coaxial
Engine: Renault V-4 gasoline engine of 82 hp
Power/weight: 8.0 hp/tonne
Suspension: Horizontal rubber cylinder springs
Operational range: 130 km
Maximum speed: 20 km/h (12 mph)
THE R40:
The Renault R40 or Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 was a French light infantry tank that was used early in World War II, an improvement of the Renault R35, of which it is often considered a variant.
In the late thirties, there had been several projects to improve the Renault R35 light infantry tank. One of these was directed to the improvement of the horizontal rubber spring suspension system that, apart from being less reliable than originally hoped for, caused an uncomfortable ride, high track and tread wear and an unfavourable weight distribution. The type tended to get stuck in soft terrain. Several solutions were proposed, among them an overdrive, new wheel tyres, a freewheel in the gearbox, the fitting of grouser's or studs on the existing tracks, or the adoption of a new track type. None of these were satisfactory.
Apart from Lorraine, whose proposal based on the Lorraine 37L suspension was rejected as too heavy and complicated to refit, both the AMX factory and the Renault design bureau developed several solutions to this problem from 1937. AMX had its origin in a nationalisation of parts of the Renault company, which resulted in a natural rivalry between the two design bureau's.
Renault proposed a type with doubled wheels on the original bogies (which thus would result in ten road wheels per side) combined with a new track using shorter links, a second type with vertical coil springs and a third type lengthened with a sixth road wheel at the rear, which would also entail a larger wheel diameter. The systems with the six larger wheels or the ten smaller ones could also be used to upgrade existing vehicles.
However, after tests from 19 May until 26 December 1938, an AMX design using six vertical coil springs covered with 8 mm armour plating with twelve road wheels per side, was selected on 16 February 1939. The type superficially resembled the suspension of the earlier Char D1 and Char D2 but was in fact inspired by the Char B1 suspension.
It also used the same track as the Char B1, reducing the number of track links compared with the R 35 from 125 to 56. The AMX suspension resulted in a superior speed on varied terrain and could climb steeper slopes. The Renault system with ten wheels to the contrary slowed the tank and led to a higher fuel consumption.
This was not compensated by a discernible improvement of the steering qualities. However, the AMX system also had its drawbacks. It added a weight of 1.1 tonne to the tank, while the weight penalty was just seven hundred kilogrammes with the Renault six-wheel suspension and only 110 kilogrammes for the ten wheel system.
Also, the longer track links caused a heavy clattering during road travel, reminiscent of the noise made by the Renault FT. Fuel consumption was 40% higher. The variant was named the Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939. At first, it was literally envisaged as a modification, also to be retrofitted to existing vehicles, but the emergency caused by the outbreak of war in September led to a change in policy: the new suspension would only be implemented on the R 35 production run, from the 1501st vehicle onwards, to take place in February 1940.
In late 1939, retrofitting the existing vehicles with the cheaper Renault vertical coil suspension was considered, as it could be done by field workshops and thus posed less of a burden to French industry.
THE BOOK:
MMP (Mushroom Model Publications) is based in the U.K. All their books are printed by their associate Stratus Books, based in Sandomierz, Poland. This book is in English. Stratus does their own line of books in both Polish and English.
This book is soft-cover of 80 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a black and white wartime photo of a knocked out and abandoned R35 that the Germans have pilfered parts off of.
The book contains 121 black and white wartime photos that are grainy and dim. Details are hard to see.
There is no color illustrations in the book. This is sad and I feel it should have included some color profiles.
103 of the photos are of the R35, 47 of them with German soldiers standing by them, 8 photos show them in German hands with German markings, there are 7 photos of R40’s, 2 of them with German markings.
A black and white wartime photo on the back cover shows a R35, destroyed on a road, being passed by German soldiers, one soldier on a bicycle.
The tank is marked as 1st Company’s 4th Action Tank, with hull no. 50566.
I cannot recommend this book too highly, due to the grainy and dim photos and no color illustrations.
Otherwise it is okay reading.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of MMP books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The Renault R40 or Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 was a French light infantry tank that was used early in World War II, an improvement of the Renault R35, of which it is often considered a variant.
In the late thirties, there had been several projects to improve the Renault R35 light infantry tank. One of these was directed to the improvement of the horizontal rubber spring suspension system that, apart from being less reliable than originally hoped for, caused an uncomfortable ride, high track and tread wear and an unfavourable weight distribution. The type tended to get stuck in soft terrain. Several solutions were proposed, among them an overdrive, new wheel tyres, a freewheel in the gearbox, the fitting of grouser's or studs on the existing tracks, or the adoption of a new track type. None of these were satisfactory.
Apart from Lorraine, whose proposal based on the Lorraine 37L suspension was rejected as too heavy and complicated to refit, both the AMX factory and the Renault design bureau developed several solutions to this problem from 1937. AMX had its origin in a nationalisation of parts of the Renault company, which resulted in a natural rivalry between the two design bureau's.
Renault proposed a type with doubled wheels on the original bogies (which thus would result in ten road wheels per side) combined with a new track using shorter links, a second type with vertical coil springs and a third type lengthened with a sixth road wheel at the rear, which would also entail a larger wheel diameter. The systems with the six larger wheels or the ten smaller ones could also be used to upgrade existing vehicles.
However, after tests from 19 May until 26 December 1938, an AMX design using six vertical coil springs covered with 8 mm armour plating with twelve road wheels per side, was selected on 16 February 1939. The type superficially resembled the suspension of the earlier Char D1 and Char D2 but was in fact inspired by the Char B1 suspension.
It also used the same track as the Char B1, reducing the number of track links compared with the R 35 from 125 to 56. The AMX suspension resulted in a superior speed on varied terrain and could climb steeper slopes. The Renault system with ten wheels to the contrary slowed the tank and led to a higher fuel consumption.
This was not compensated by a discernible improvement of the steering qualities. However, the AMX system also had its drawbacks. It added a weight of 1.1 tonne to the tank, while the weight penalty was just seven hundred kilogrammes with the Renault six-wheel suspension and only 110 kilogrammes for the ten wheel system.
Also, the longer track links caused a heavy clattering during road travel, reminiscent of the noise made by the Renault FT. Fuel consumption was 40% higher. The variant was named the Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939. At first, it was literally envisaged as a modification, also to be retrofitted to existing vehicles, but the emergency caused by the outbreak of war in September led to a change in policy: the new suspension would only be implemented on the R 35 production run, from the 1501st vehicle onwards, to take place in February 1940.
In late 1939, retrofitting the existing vehicles with the cheaper Renault vertical coil suspension was considered, as it could be done by field workshops and thus posed less of a burden to French industry.
THE BOOK:
MMP (Mushroom Model Publications) is based in the U.K. All their books are printed by their associate Stratus Books, based in Sandomierz, Poland. This book is in English. Stratus does their own line of books in both Polish and English.
This book is soft-cover of 80 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a black and white wartime photo of a knocked out and abandoned R35 that the Germans have pilfered parts off of.
The book contains 121 black and white wartime photos that are grainy and dim. Details are hard to see.
There is no color illustrations in the book. This is sad and I feel it should have included some color profiles.
103 of the photos are of the R35, 47 of them with German soldiers standing by them, 8 photos show them in German hands with German markings, there are 7 photos of R40’s, 2 of them with German markings.
A black and white wartime photo on the back cover shows a R35, destroyed on a road, being passed by German soldiers, one soldier on a bicycle.
The tank is marked as 1st Company’s 4th Action Tank, with hull no. 50566.
I cannot recommend this book too highly, due to the grainy and dim photos and no color illustrations.
Otherwise it is okay reading.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of MMP books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at: