Hotchkiss H35 - Rejection By The Infantry and Adoption By The Cavalry

Rejection By The Infantry and Adoption By The Cavalry

The first series vehicle was again extensively and intensively tested until 4 December 1936. This showed that its handling qualities in terrain were unacceptably poor. It was simply impossible to safely steer the vehicle on a somewhat bumpy surface, posing an extreme danger to nearby friendly infantry. The Infantry therefore decided to accept only the first hundred tanks to equip just two battalions with the type: the 13e and 38e Bataillon de Chars de Combat and reject any further procurement. For political reasons however stopping production of the tank was not acceptable. And so the other 300 vehicles of the production run were offered to the Cavalry, which was forced to accept them because it would not have been granted a budget for other tanks anyway. As the cavalry units would be making more use of the road network and of mounted infantry, its cross-country handling problem was of less consequence. The H 35 was - at 28 km/h (17 mph) - also somewhat faster than the Renault R35, which was capable of 20 km/h, although in practice its average speed was lower than that of the R 35 because of its inferior gear box.