| Full Name | Char léger Modèle 1935 R |
| Class | Heavy Vehicle |
| Movement | 4 |
| Armor Value | 3 |
| Vs Infantry (RNG / FPR) | 5/5 |
| Vs Vehicle (RNG / FPR) | 4/4 |
| Traits | |
| Period | 1936-1943 |
| Theaters of Service |
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The R35 was designed as an infantry support light tank to replace the venerable yet obsolete Renault FT-17 (which had been in service since World War I). It was intended to equip autonomous tank battalions that would be allocated to individual infantry divisions. To this end it was relatively well-armoured but with a top speed of 12 mph quite slow. Its short-barreled 37 mm L/21 SA 18 main gun was not an effective anti-tank weapon. It also carried one 7.5 mm MAC31 Reibel coaxial machine gun. The R35--and its up-gunned variant R40--were the most numerous armored fighting vehicles in French operational service as of May 1940; France produced 1,540 R35s between 1936 and 1940. France exported limited numbers of the type to Poland (50 units), Romania (41 units), Turkey (100 units), and Yugoslavia (54 units). After the fall of France in June 1940, Germany and its allies used no less than 843 captured vehicles (designated Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731 (f)), about 174 of which were rebuilt into tank destroyers (designated 4,7 cm PaK(t) auf Panzerkampfwagen 35R(f) ohne Turm). The Royal Italian Army received 124 R35s, and used them primarily in the defense of Sicily in 1943. Some R35s also served under the Vichy French flag in Syria and Morocco, and upon capture served with Free French forces in North Africa.