Vânătorul De Care R-35 is a Romanian Anti-tank unit in Steel Division II.
Background[ | ]
Char léger Modèle 1935 R was a light infantry tank designed in 1933, in a bid to provide non-motorized infantry units with a cheap, readily available armored unit for combined arms infiltration tactics. Renault competed with Hotchkiss for French Army contracts and was the first to deliver a working prototype. As tensions rose, the future R-35 was pressed into production in 1936 to accelerate the modernization of the French tank fleet.
Designed from the ground up as an infantry support tank, it was slow, well armored, and equipped with a short barreled SA18 37mm gun paired with a Reibel MAC 31 7.5mm machine gun. Intended for distribution among infantry divisions, it was the most numerous tank in French service in 1939. A superior model with a 37mm gun more suited for tank-to-tank combat was developed and entered production in April 1940, shortly before the Fall of France. Surviving models were quickly pressed into service by Germans as Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731(f), used for training and policing duties. A number were converted as prime movers, ammunition carriers, and even as tank destroyers.
Vânătorul de care R-35 was an upgrade of the antiquated R 35s ordered after the Battle of Stalingrad demonstrated their ineffectiveness against modern Soviet tanks. Designed to act as a tank hunter, the R 35s wwere refurbished at the Army Arsenal in Târgoviște. The new tank was armed with a 45 mm gun salvaged from captured Soviet T-26 and BT series tanks, mounted in a turret modified at the Concordia Works in Ploiești (although with no secondary weapons of any sort). About 30 tanks were modernized in such a manner and refurbished with superior Romanian replacement parks, and served until Romania's defection from the Axis.