The French "cavalry" tank Somua S35 can be attributed to not the most famous tanks of the Second World War period. Although it was produced in a fairly large series (427 tanks), its active use in combat for natural reasons was extremely limited. Considered the most advanced tank of the Third Republic, it did not save France from defeat in the war.
The Somua S35 is also known as the Char 1935 S, S35 and S-35. This is a French-made medium tank, developed in the 30s of the last century. The combat vehicle was created by the designers of the Somua company in 1934-1935 as the main tank of armored cavalry units. It is for this reason that in the literature this tank is very often classified as "cavalry" or "cruising". The first tanks of this type were assembled in 1936, and mass production was launched in France already in 1938, the tank was mass-produced until the defeat of France in World War II in June 1940. During this time, 427 tanks of this type left the factory workshops.
By the beginning of World War II, the Somua S35 medium tank was considered one of the best in the French army, being the most efficient and modern vehicle. Despite its not very strong armor, the tank was distinguished by good mobility (it could accelerate to 37 km / h on the highway) and powerful armament, represented by a 47-mm rifled semi-automatic cannon with a 32-caliber barrel length. This weapon provided the French tankers with a guaranteed defeat of any German tanks of that time, even in the frontal projection. However, on the battlefields, it is not the figures from the performance characteristics of this or that technology that collide with each other, but the living people who sit inside the tanks. German tankmen were better trained and more experienced, as were the commanders of German tank and mechanized formations, which predetermined the fate of France.
After the end of the First World War, the French military, like the military of other countries, began to implement the concept of mechanizing their own armed forces. This process also affected the cavalry - the main mobile strike force of the ground forces of those years. Already in the early 1930s, French cavalrymen formed the tactical and technical requirements for a new tank designed specifically for arming mobile mechanized units. The development of the combat vehicle was entrusted to the Somua company, which was a subsidiary of the large arms company Shneider.
The contract for the development and construction of a new 13-ton tank with an armor thickness of at least 40 mm and a maximum speed of at least 30 km / h was signed in October 1934. At the same time, the designers of the Somua company took only seven months to complete the construction of the first prototype of the future tank. Already in April 1935, a prototype of the combat vehicle was ready. Foreign experience helped the French designers meet in such a short time frame. The company's engineers, who were involved in the creation of the transmission and suspension for the new French tank, previously worked for the famous Czech company Skoda. Therefore, the above units turned out to be largely borrowed from a fairly good light Czech tank Lt.35. At the same time, the gearbox and the engine also had Czech roots.
The speed and power reserve of the presented tank fully met the requests of the French cavalrymen, but the company's engineers still had to carry out serious work to correct numerous shortcomings. At the same time, the need of the French army for a new tank was so great that they ordered the car, without even waiting for the completion of the process of its final "polishing". The first serial tank was assembled in 1936, at the same time it was transferred to the troops, where it received the designation Char 1935 S, but the name Somua S35 became more famous and familiar to everyone.
Due to the fact that the tank was taken into service in a hurry, the vehicle had obvious problems with reliability. At the same time, the not very successful layout of the internal modules of a medium tank created serious problems for repairmen. Because of this, for another two years, various improvements were made to the design of the tank, only after all the shortcomings were officially eliminated, the cavalrymen took the car into service, starting active purchases of a new tank.
Despite the classic layout with a front-mounted control compartment and fighting compartment and a rear-mounted engine compartment, the S35 tank was quite distinctive, to say the least. The tank's crew, consisting of three people, was located in the bow of the combat vehicle, since about 2/3 of the tank's length was occupied by its engine and the equipment necessary for its operation. The embarkation and disembarkation of the crew was carried out through a fairly large hatch located on the left side of the hull. The driver and radio operator were located in the control compartment, behind them in the fighting compartment in a single tower was the tank commander, who, in addition to the command, was responsible for servicing all the weapons of the combat vehicle. In battle, a radio operator could help him, who could perform the function of a loader, but for this he had to leave his workplace.
The controls of the Somua S35 tank were executed "in an automobile way". On the left side of the front part of the tank hull, a steering column with a steering wheel, pedals and a gear lever were installed. There was also a mechanic chair and a dashboard. To the right of the driver was a place for a radio station and a radio operator. In the frontal sheet of the hull there were two hatches with observation devices installed in them.
The armor of the tank was projectile, differentiated. The body was made by casting from homogeneous armor steel. The thickness of the frontal armor reached 36 mm, the sides of the hull from 25 to 35 mm, the stern - 25 mm, the bottom - 20 mm. The armor was positioned at rational angles of inclination, which increased its effectiveness. The frontal armor of the turret was 56 mm, the armor of the sides of the turret was 46 mm.
The tank commander was located in a single turret, which had both electric and manual guidance drives. A small domed commander's cupola was located on the roof of the tower with an offset to the left. The commander's cupola had a special hatch with a viewing slot and two viewing holes, which could be closed by armored shields. The commander's turret could rotate independently of the main turret of the tank.
The main armament of the French Somua S35 tank was the SA 35 U34 semi-automatic 47-mm rifled gun with a 32-caliber barrel length (1504 mm). An armor-piercing projectile fired from this gun developed an initial speed of 671 m / s. According to French data, an armor-piercing projectile with a protective tip penetrated 35-mm armor set at an angle of 30 degrees from a distance of 400 meters. German tests showed even better results. In general, this was enough to hit all German tanks of that period head-on, the armor of which did not exceed 30 mm. The auxiliary armament of the tank was the 7.5 mm mle. 1931 machine gun.
The cannon and the machine gun were installed in the frontal part of the tower - on the right and left, respectively, they were located in independent installations on a common rolling axis. The gun was distinguished by very good vertical aiming indicators - from -18 to +20 degrees. Although the vertical guidance of the cannon and the machine gun could be carried out separately from each other, for firing from the gun it was necessary to connect them together using a linkage system, since both types of weapons had only one means of guidance - a telescopic sight with a magnification of 4x, which was installed above the machine gun. As an additional weapon on the roof of the tower above the aft hatch, another machine gun could be installed on the turret. The tank's ammunition consisted of 118 unitary rounds with armor-piercing and fragmentation shells, as well as 2,200 rounds for a machine gun.
The heart of the tank was an 8-cylinder V-type liquid-cooled carburetor engine - SOMUA 190CV V8, which developed a maximum power of 190 hp. at 2000 rpm. The engine was installed in the engine compartment along the longitudinal axis of the combat vehicle. An innovation for those years was the placement of an automatic fire extinguishing system in the engine compartment of the tank. Two sealed fuel tanks (main - with a capacity of 300 liters and a reserve - 100 liters) were located on the right side of the engine. Also, up to four external fuel tanks could be installed on the starboard side of the tank. A relatively weak engine accelerated a tank with a combat weight of 19.5 tons to a speed of 37 km / h (when driving on a highway), some sources indicate that the speed of the tank could exceed 40 km / h. At the same time, the cruising range on the highway was enough for 260 kilometers.
The undercarriage of the Somua S35 medium tank, applied to each side, consisted of 9 single non-rubberized road wheels of small diameter, a drive wheel, a sloth, two support rollers and two guide skids that supported the upper branch of the tank track. Of the nine road wheels, eight were interlocked, four in two bogies. In fact, the design of the interlocked suspension of the tank was inherited by him from the English "Vickers-six-ton" and was rather poorly suited for such a fast vehicle. Another drawback of the undercarriage was the low location of the sloth, which significantly impaired the S35's cross-country ability, especially in terms of overcoming various kinds of vertical obstacles. In the modified version, indexed S40, this problem was successfully solved, but the tank was never put into production. An additional problem for the tank was its relatively high center of gravity, despite the fact that the tank itself was narrow, which significantly increased the chances of overturning, especially under the control of an inexperienced driver.
The most significant design flaw of the "cavalry" Somua S35 tank (as well as a large number of other French tanks) was the functional overload of the commander, which was due to the use of a single turret. If the radio operator was busy performing his direct duties, the commander of the combat vehicle was forced to single-handedly assess the combat situation, search for targets, reload and direct the gun, coordinating the actions of the entire crew. All this led to both a decrease in the tank's firepower and a decrease in its ability to respond promptly to a change in the combat situation. Even if the radio operator took over the duties of a loader, this only slightly improved the situation, since the tank commander could only do one thing - either observe the terrain through the commander's cupola, or aim the gun at the target.
Realizing all the shortcomings of their vehicle, in the spring of 1939, the French formulated new technical requirements for the modernization of the Somua S35 tank. The updated tank was supposed to receive a more powerful engine - 220 hp. and an improved chassis. But the main innovation was to be the hull and turret. Instead of casting, the French expected to switch to welding rolled armor plates. The new tank received the designation Somua S40. It was planned to start production in October 1940, but the war forced to speed up work on the project. French enterprises were ready to master its serial production by July 1940, but by that time France had already surrendered.
The first truly large tank battle of World War II can be considered the battle that unfolded around the Belgian city of Annu. It began on May 12, 1940. The French Somua S35 tanks that took part in the battle spoiled a lot of blood for the Germans here. Near the settlement of Crean, which was located west of the indicated city, one of the S35 tank units chalked up 4 German tanks and a battery of anti-tank guns. Another French detachment, among other enemy vehicles, destroyed the tank of Colonel Eberbach near the town of Tin. The colonel himself, however, survived, but the offensive in this direction was halted. The Germans, who tried to strike again, were forced to retreat due to counterattacks by French tanks. The S35 tanks got out of this battle, having received 20-40 direct hits from 20-37 mm guns, without receiving a single hole.
There were some local successes, but general failures in other sectors of the front forced the French troops to retreat to new lines of defense. Medium tanks Somua S35 were actively used throughout the French campaign of 1940, however, in general, their use could only be characterized by local successes, which faded against the background of the general setbacks that befell the French and British troops.
After the defeat and surrender of France, the German troops got 297 S35 tanks. They were captured and used in the Wehrmacht until 1944, but mainly only in secondary theaters of military operations, in particular, during anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia. Also, the Germans used them as training vehicles. A small number of Somua S35 tanks were delivered to the allies of Germany. Some of these tanks were also used by the troops of the Vichy government in North Africa, and later by the Free French troops, including in 1944-1945. All the S35 tanks that survived in the millstones of World War II were removed from service everywhere in the first years after its completion.
The performance characteristics of the Somua S35 tank:
Overall dimensions: body length - 5380 mm, width - 2120 mm, height - 2630 mm, ground clearance - 420 mm.
Combat weight - 19, 5 tons.
The power plant is an 8-cylinder V-type carburetor SOMUA 190CV V8 engine with 190 hp.
The maximum speed is 37 km / h (on the highway).
Cruising in store - 260 km (highway), 128 km (cross country).
Armament - 47-mm cannon SA 35 U34 and 7.5-mm machine gun mle. 1931.
Ammunition - 118 shells and 2200 rounds for the machine gun.
Crew - 3 people.
