Battle of Hannut - Opposing Forces - Allied Forces

Allied Forces

The Battle of Hannut became the largest tank battle of the campaign. The French DLMs had two Brigades Légères Mécaniques each, one of these, the "combat" brigade, contained two tank regiments, each regiment having a medium tank squadron equipped with the SOMUA S35, and a light tank squadron fielding the Hotchkiss H35. Its organic strength was 44 S35s and 43 H35s; also eight armoured command vehicles were present. The other brigade contained a reconnaissance regiment, equipped with 44 Panhard 178 armoured cars organised in two squadrons, and a mechanised infantry regiment equipped with 126 Laffly S20TL personnel carriers. Three organic AMR (Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance) squadrons of 22 tanks each were also included as were three armoured command vehicles. The 2e DLM used AMR 35 tanks for this rôle, but as the production of this light tank had been discontinued, 3e DLM employed H35s instead.

Each DLM thus had an organic strength of 240 tanks and 44 Panhards, for a total of 176 SOMUA S35s, 238 Hotchkiss H35s, 66 AMR 35s and 88 P 178s, including the organic matériel reserve.

The 3e DLM used modifié 39 versions, a swifter, improved of the H35s, that today is often referred to as the "H 39", but also had a single AMR squadron of 22 vehicles of the slower original batch of four hundred, that were exclusively present in 2e DLM. Most Hotchkiss tanks of both versions were fitted with the short, 37 mm 21 caliber SA 18 gun, which proved a poor antitank weapon. Some platoon and squadron commander's vehicles had been fitted with the more powerful 37 mm 35 caliber SA 38 gun, totalling about a fifth of the total number of Hotchkiss tanks.

The organisation of 2e DLM was: 3e BLM as a combat brigade, with 13e Dragons and 29e Dragon tank regiments; the second brigade was 4e BLM with 8e Cuirassiers reconnaissance regiment and 1er Dragons mechanised infantry regiment. The 3e DLM had 5e BLM with 1er Cuirassiers and 2e Cuirassiers tank regiments and 6e BLM with 12e Cuirassiers reconnaissance regiment and 11e Dragons mechanised infantry regiment.

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