AMR 33

The Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance Renault Modèle 1933, known as the AMR 33 or Renault VM, was a French light cavalry tank developed between the wars and used in the Second World War. Renault developed it from 1932, the French Cavalry ordered it in 1933, and 123 were built until 1935. It was lightly armed and armoured and very fast for its day, but mechanically unreliable, with a suspension that was too weak, so the improved AMR 35 succeeded it. Despite its name it was not a scout vehicle and mostly had no radio. The AMR 33s were meant to form a large mass of light tanks preceding the medium types into battle, but in practice they served in the Cavalry Divisions and, in 1940, the Cavalry Light Divisions, giving fire support to motorised infantry. It is a very small vehicle, 3.5 metres long, 1.64 wide and 1.73 tall, and weighs 5.5 tonnes, with a crew of two and an eight-cylinder 84 horsepower Renault Nervasport engine. They were quickly lost in the Battle of France, and Germany used some captured ones.