The Somua S-35 was a French cavalry tank of the Second World War. The metre, or meter (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 2526 wine gallons, which holds approximately 21000 pounds of water. ... A picture of a destroyed M113 armoured personnel carrier showing a section of the armour. ... Gasoline, as it is known in North America, or petrol, in many Commonwealth countries (sometimes also called motor spirit) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

History

The design of the S-35 comes from the specifications for a Automitrailleuse de Combat (AMC) issued for cavalry use in the 1930s. They were built by a subsidiary of the Schneider company - the Société d'Outillage Mécanique et d'Usinage d'Artillerie ( or SOMUA) based at Saint Ouen giving rise to its service name of AMC SOMUA AC-3. It was taken on as the standard medium tank of the Army with the new name Char S-35 (S for SOMUA and 35 from 1935 the year of introduction). Schneider (tailor in English; literally someone who cuts, from the verb schneiden to cut) is a very common family name in German. ... Saint-Ouen is the name of several communes in France: Saint-Ouen, in the Charente-Maritime d partement Saint-Ouen, in the Loir-et-Cher d partement Saint-Ouen, in the Somme d partement Saint-Ouen, in the Seine-Saint-Denis d partement It is also part of the name...

The hull and turret were castings - the former of several parts. The turret was the same as used on the Char B1 and as such the S-35 suffered as the B1 did from having a vehicle commander who was expected to direct the tank while aiming loading and firing the main gun - though the radio could be left to another crewmember. Radios were to be part of the standard equipment but a shortage meant that many tanks were never fitted with them.

In the rear of the tank the engine sat side by side with the fuel tank separated from the fighting compartment by a firewall bulkhead.

Production

The S-35 entered service in 1936 and some 500 had been produced by mid 1940. Of these about 250 were in front-line service during the Battle of France. In World War II, Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed 10 May 1940 which ended the Phony War. ...

After the fall of France a number of the S-35s were taken into service with the Wehrmacht as the PzKpfw 35-S 739(f). Wehrmacht   listen? was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ...

See also