The AMC 35 (from Automitrailleuse de Combat Renault modèle 1935), also known under a manufacturer’s designation Renault ACG-1, was a French medium cavalry tank of the later Interwar era that served in the Second World War. It was developed as a result of the change of the specification that had led to the design of the AMC 34, calling for a vehicle that was not only well-armed and mobile but also well-armoured. Due to technological and financial problems production was delayed and limited. The AMC 35 was one of the few French tanks of the period featuring a two-man turret.
Renault had developed the AMC 34 according to the specifications of the Plan 1931. On 26 June 1934 these were changed: it was now demanded that the vehicle attain a maximum speed of 50 km/h (31 mph) and be immune to anti-tank guns. On 7 March 1936 a changed prototype was delivered by Renault, who requested that the vehicle would be accepted if it met the new specifications; after all the AMC 34 had already been accepted for production and this was nothing but a slightly changed variant.
The French materiel commission, the Commission de Vincennes, became suspicious however by the fact that the factory designation had been changed from Renault YR to Renault ACG. When the commission inspected the prototype on 9 March it transpired that it was actually a completely new design. Accordingly, a complete test programme was ordered, which was finished on 27 November. At that date the commission judged that despite many changes the type was still unfit for service due to its mechanical unreliability.
However already in the spring the Cavalry, worried by the German remilitarization of the Rhineland, had first ordered seventeen vehicles and later expanded that order to fifty. For political reasons the commission did not dare to cancel the order; it accepted the type, noting that it would be highly advisable to test types in future before ordering them. The first vehicle was received by the Cavalry on 1 November 1938.
Manufacturers: Renault, AMX
