Hotchkiss H35 - Surviving Vehicles

Surviving Vehicles

One Hotchkiss H35 and nine Hotchkiss H35s modifié 39 have survived until today, all of the modifié 39 were modified again by the Germans during World War II.

The sole surviving unmodified Hotchkiss H35 was discovered in December 2008, 200 meters off the coast, at Sainte-Cecile beach, Camiers, Pas-de-Calais, France. It is a turretless chassis, which is most probably a remain of the Dunkerque gap fightings, which happened in May–June 1940. The tank was dredged in late 2008 thanks to the tide. The Musée des Blindés at Saumur plans to recover this tank in order to display it in the museum, but its recovery proved to be very difficult and costly.

One Hotchkiss H35 modifié 39 tank is on display in the city square in Narvik as a memorial of Battle of Narvik in 1940. A second vehicle in Norway is part of the collection of the Panserparken at the camp Rena leir. In England the private Kevin Wheatcroft Collection has bought an exemplar from the Norwegian Arquebus Krigshistoriske Museum at Rogaland. In France itself the Musée des Blindés at Saumur has a vehicle in a running condition; at the base of 501/503e RCC at Mourmelon-le-Grand a Hotchkiss serves as a monument restored with a Renault R35 turret, fitted with a dummy gun. Another tank is displayed at Uzice, in Serbia. The Bulgarian National Museum of Military History displays one of the vehicles used by the Bulgarian police forces. At Latrun in Israel the Yad la-Shiryon Museum shows one of the tanks used by the IDF. In Russia the tank museum of Kubinka has a Hotchkiss tank, captured from 211. Panzerabteilung in the summer of 1944.