The Hotchkiss H35 or Char léger modèle 1935 H was a French cavalry tank developed prior to World War II.

It was intended to make this improved variant the standard light tank, with at least four thousand produced to equip new armoured divisions of both the Cavalry and the Infantry arms, but due to the defeat of France in June 1940, total production of both subtypes was limited to about 1200 vehicles.

Three prototypes were ordered from Hotchkiss, but the French industry as a whole was also invited to provide alternative proposals for a nouveau char léger.

On 18 January 1935, the first Hotchkiss prototype, not yet made of armour steel, was presented to the Commission d'Expérience du Matériel Automobile (CEMA) at Vincennes; it was a machine gun-armed tankette without turret.

On 19 August the third prototype was delivered, equipped with a cast APX turret and featuring a redesigned hull; it was tested until 20 September and accepted.

The testing soon showed that its cross-country handling qualities were unacceptably poor; it proved impossible to safely steer the vehicle on a uneven surface, posing an extreme danger to nearby friendly infantry.

As a result the first three hundred 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.

[1] The casting allowed for sloped armour, avoiding shot traps, to optimise the chance of deflection but the protection levels did not satisfy the Infantry.

There were persistent quality problems, worsened by the fact that many subcontractors had to be used: at first the armour was made much too soft; when hardness was increased it became brittle and full of bubbles and hence weak spots.

No less troublesome was the gearbox: it was difficult to engage the highest fifth gear and so the theoretical top speed of 28 km/h (17 mph) was rarely reached.

A 160-litre fuel tank on the right, combined with a twenty litres reserve reservoir, gave a range of 129 km (80 mi) or eight hours on a varied terrain.

As the Cavalry wanted an even higher top speed, it was decided to bring to fruition experiments already conducted from October 1936 to install a more powerful engine.

As this removed one of the objections of the Infantry, it was first presented to the Commission d'Expérimentations de l'Infanterie on 31 January 1939 to see whether the original negative decision could be changed.

The commission indeed accepted the type, the Char léger modèle 1935 H modifié 39; and it was decided on 18 February to let it succeed the original version from the 401st vehicle onwards, which was just as well as both in 1937 and 1938 an order had been made of two hundred vehicles and production had already started, the total orders of the improved type thereafter being expanded to nine hundred.

The factory designation has caused much confusion; this was still officially the same tank as the H35, only in a later variant; even at the time, many began to refer to it as the 38 H or the 39 H. The new subtype differed from the original one in having a raised and more angular engine deck (in later production vehicles with crosswise instead of longitudinal ventilation slits on the right side); a range decreased to 120 km (75 mi); closed idler wheels; tracks 2 cm (0.79 in) wider at 27 cm (11 in); metal instead of rubber wheel treads; a new exhaust silencer directed to the back and larger, more reliable and effective ventilators.

[citation needed] Parallel to the development of a R40 it was, for a time, considered to create an H40 by adopting the improved AMX suspension of the other vehicle; but this option was ultimately rejected.

As the new medium SOMUA S35 was initially produced in very limited numbers, until early 1939 the Hotchkiss equipped three of the four divisional tank regiments.

According to the official army acceptance lists, at the start of World War II 640 Hotchkiss tanks had been delivered.

[1] Of the hundred used by the Infantry, ninety were fielded by the two tank battalions equipped with the type, six were in matériel reserve and two used for driving training.

[1] In May deliveries peaked at 122; a recently discovered picture of a Hotchkiss tank with series number 41200 indicates that in June at least 121 were produced for a total of at least 1,200 vehicles, not including prototypes.

[8][page needed] Additional vehicles were sent to Finland as part of the independent Panzerkampfwagenzüge (tank platoons) 217, 218 and 219, which were attached to the 20th Mountain Army in February 1942.

[12] In 1942 a project was launched to make use of French equipment as carrier platforms for heavier guns, directed by Major Alfred Becker, an artillery officer who was a mechanical engineer by trade.

Some vehicles were modified into munition carriers or artillery tractors (Artillerieschlepper 38H(f)) or rocket-launchers (Panzerkampfwagen 35H(f) mit 28/32 cm Wurfrahmen).

The unit joined the "Dubno" task force and lost all of its tanks during the marches and fighting against German and Soviet armies, largely due to fuel shortages.

In 1943 the Germans, against objections, delivered nineteen H39s to Bulgaria for training purposes, when it proved to be impossible to find 25 unmodified Panzer I light tanks, the type the Bulgarians really desired.

The unit operated in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland and was finally disbanded after losing 30% of its tanks to enemy action and having to destroy the rest due to lack of fuel and spares.

[14] In North Africa, 27 vehicles (thirteen H35 and fourteen H39) were officially serving in the 1e Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique and were allowed to remain there under the armistice conditions; another five were hidden in Morocco.

[16] 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.

[17] The Musée des Blindés at Saumur plans to recover this tank for display in the museum, but its recovery has proved very difficult and costly.

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.