Renault R35

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Char léger Modèle 1935 R ("R 35")
R 35 in the Yad La-Shiryon museum
Type	Light infantry tank
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	France  Romania  Poland  Turkey  Israel  Kingdom of Yugoslavia  Nazi Germany  Italy  Bulgaria  Hungary   Switzerland  Australia  Syria  Lebanon
Wars	Second World War 1948 Arab–Israeli War 1958 Lebanon Crisis
Production history
Designed	1934
Manufacturer	Renault
Produced	1936–1940
No. built	R 35: 1,540 "R 40": 145 approx.
Specifications
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 [1]
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 82 hp [1]
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 antitank-capacity, fitted with a short 37 mm gun. At the outbreak of the war, the antitank-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.