In previous episodes we’ve ventured to the far east to discuss tanks from Japan, a region
often overlooked in comparison to their European counterparts.
Something that many people forget though is that the axis did not just consist of Germany,
Italy, and Japan.
Although they made up a smaller percentage of the forces and an even smaller percentage
of the tanks fielded during the war, countries like Romania and Hungary were still heavily
involved in the conflict.
With that being said it's really no surprise the tanks of these nations are so easily overlooked
due to the fairly insignificant number they fielded.
In future videos I plan to look into many of these vehicles such as the Turán and Mareșal
but for today we’re going to consider one of the Romanian attempts to upgrade some of
their vastly outdated tanks they had received earlier in
the war.
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Now that we’ve discussed some brand new features, let's go back and take a look at
some outdated vehicles used by Romania.
The R35 was a tank originally designed by the French alongside the H35 and FCM.36 as
part of a competition for a new light tank.
All three of these tanks would eventually see a trial by combat as tensions became conflict
between the French and Germans but unlike its cousins the R35 was not just produced
for domestic use and saw a limited amount of production for the export market.
One of these buyers as you can already tell was Romania.
Interestingly this would cause the R35 to be one of the longest serving tanks during
the entire war.
Originally discussions were had in 1938 for Romania to purchase the license to produce
200 R35s in their own factory, but this never occurred.
I’m not sure the exact reason behind this since France instead opted to sell them a
total of 200 tanks.
Clearly some information must be missing regarding why the license was not given considering
France themselves were ramping up production as the Germans became more and more aggressive
so the reasoning behind exporting domestically built tanks rather than allow Romania to build
their own seems confusing.
Granted this is far from the strangest thing the French leadership would have done prior
to WW2 so who knows.
Of these 200 tanks it was planned to deliver 50 in September of 1939 followed by 25 in
January, 25 in May, 50 in September and the final order of 50 in September of 1941.
However only 41 were actually delivered before the fall of France.
This number was somewhat increased during the invasion of Poland by the Germans when
in September an additional 34 tanks were snagged from a Polish tank battalion that escaped
to Romania.
This brought the total R35s in the Romanian arsenal to 75 tanks.
These were redesignated as Carul de Luptă R35 and would see use following Romania joining
the Axis in late 1940.
The reason for them joining the Axis was clear due to their fear of the Soviets who had already
been causing issues along their border.
This was further reinforced with the Romanians having seen firsthand what happened to Poland
despite the promises of France and Britain to support them against the neighboring threats.
The R35s were assigned to the 2nd Armored Regiment and when the additional tanks were
confiscated from the Polish this grew their forces allowing two battalions of tanks.
These would first see action against the Iron Guard in January of 1941 within the city of
Bucharest.
This resulted in the loss of one R35 which is reported to have been burned out during
the rioting.
As the Romanians had joined the Axis it should be no surprise that the tanks were next used
during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June.
For this the tanks were sent to support the 4th Army Corp in July 1941.
This was primarily due to the slower speed of the tanks as they would have lagged behind
the 1st Armored Regiment who were equipped with faster R2 tanks.
The R35s would go on to see action in the so-called liberation of Bessarabia as well
as the assault on Odessa.
During this latter assault one source notes that the armor of the R35s performed well
against the Soviet anti-tank rifles although their 37mm guns proved only useful as infantry
support weapons.
Following this attack 15 tanks had been lost leaving 60 in inventory seemingly indicating
that the one lost during the earlier rioting was later repaired.
It was clear by this point that the tanks were no longer suitable for frontline service
due to their weak armament.
With the Romanian industry being fairly small this meant that the tanks were relegated to
anti partisan duties aside from 8 which were used for training.
During this time several improvements were made to the tanks including metal trimmed
road wheels replacing the original rubber ones which were found to be fragile.
Some Romanian manufactured components also replaced the original French made ones within
the drivetrain and engine, such as new drive sprockets and cylinder heads.
These were reported to somewhat improve the reliability although it is unknown if all
the tanks received these upgrades.
The main issue was still the armament though and this is where the solutions to the problem
become much more interesting.
The first was a prototype created by the 2nd Armored Regiment by replacing the original
turret with the one from a Soviet T-26.
This increased the tanks firepower to that of the 45mm 20k gun which was far superior
to that of the SA18.
This served as a proof of concept showing that it could be done, but the decision was
not made on a final design yet.
Along with this proposed upgrade it was suggested that the 45mm could alternatively be swapped
to the French 47mm Schneider model 1936 which was manufactured in Romania.
I did not see anything directly stating the reason behind this additional swap but if
I had to guess it was likely due to the availability of ammo for the 47mm as opposed to relying
on captured Soviet ammunition.
This is supported by the fact that the coaxial mg was to potentially be swapped from the
original Soviet 7.62 DT machine gun to the 7.92mm ZB-53 machine gun.
Alternatively it was put forward to keep the original turret and modify it to accept the
previously mentioned 47mm or 45, as well as the ZB-53 machine gun replacing the original
french coax.
The latter option was the one that would catch the eye of the Romanian Ministry of Supply
with a study into the best way to fit the 45mm into the R35 turret being started.
This would allow the use of the numerous 45mm guns in the T-26s and BT tanks that had been
captured during the fighting.
As you can see from photos of the original SA18 cannon it was incredibly short so even
the relatively short 45mm was like trying to cram a pool stick into a backpack.
In the end it was decided to use the same method the Soviets had used for their tanks
and extend the turret front to accommodate the increased length and recoil mechanism.
Plans for the coaxial machine gun ended in a dead end when it was found that there just
wasn't enough space for it alongside the larger breech and recoil mechanisms.
The supply of ammunition was also reduced significantly from 90 37mm shells to 30-35
for the 45mm.
I’d still say that it was a worthwhile sacrifice though considering it at least gave the crew
a slightly better chance in tank engagements especially against lighter armor.
The modified mantlet also changed the armor layout of the turret slightly with the front
being made from two cast armor plates.
The exact thickness of the external plate is not known but one turret does remain which
allowed an estimate of around 10mms for the internal mantlet to be made.
The original prototype had a more rounded mantlet unlike the flat one on the final production
vehicle.
The first prototype of the upgunned Carul de Luptă R35 was completed towards the end
of February 1943.
Trials that followed found it to be an improvement over the tank which to be frank isn’t saying
much.
Nevertheless 30 of these conversions were ordered although one source claims it to be
a slightly higher number at 33.
These completed conversions were reassigned to the 2nd armored regiment in June of 1944
just prior to the Romanians switching to the side of the Soviets, but we’ll talk more
about that in a little bit.
The first use of these tanks was immediately following their return to the regiment facing
off against the rapidly approaching Soviet forces.
Around this time the designation for the tank was changed from Carul de Luptă R35 to “Vânătorul
de Care R35'' meaning tank hunter R35, a bit of wishful thinking if you ask me considering
what was being fielded by 1944.
The designation doesn't seem to have been used very much during the war but is common
in post war sources.
Conversion of the entire inventory of tanks was originally planned however when Romania
signed the truce with the Soviets in August following the Fascist leadership being dismantled
this was not done.
With the Red Army now essentially in control of the Romanian forces this also put them
in charge of what was and what was not to be produced and the upgraded R35s were not
chosen.
With further upgrades blocked both the upgunned and original R35s turned their guns on their
former allies as they assisted the Soviets in driving the Germans back.
Exact combat reports for the upgraded R35s do not exist due to the Romanians not differentiating
between the two types of R35s in service within their documents.
Although ammunition deliveries help somewhat since the tanks would have used either 37mm
or 45mm depending on the armament I was unable to find these reports so I cannot use them.
Regardless of what the tanks had in their turrets though we know for sure that the crews
had balls of steel as these tanks were used in numerous engagements against the Germans
up until the end of the war.
The following is what I could find regarding their use in battle but keep in mind that
I don’t know which tanks were used where.
9 R35s were used within a mixed battalion to stop the Germans in the capital.
In August of 1944 an armored force was created using a platoon of R35s as well as tanks from
training schools which saw use in the Ploesti sector.
During later battles in the Hron valley 8 R35s were lost with an additional 2 damaged.
R35s were also used to support naval troops to free Fagaras as well as supporting other
Romanian troops as they pushed back against the Germans.
By February of 1945 only 14 tanks were still in use with this number quickly falling after
use alongside the Soviets in Czechoslovakia and Austria.
None of these tanks remained in service by the end of the war however the fact that they
survived till nearly the end is remarkable.
The bravery of the 2 man crews of these small tanks was even recognized by the Soviets they
fought alongside.
Reportedly some of the R35s were even repaired and placed back into service following the
end of the war although if any of these were armed with the 45mm gun is unknown.
A single original R35 remains on display at the Bucharest military museum as well as one
mostly intact Vânătorul de Care R35 turret which is located somewhere near the Hron river
in modern day Slovakia.
Although the concept of the Vânătorul de Care R35 isn’t inherently bad it was certainly
far from ideal.
Only the lack of replacement tanks created a need for such an outdated design to remain
in service.
When you think about the fact that the tank was being used a decade after it was originally
accepted for service with virtually no upgrades during that time it's almost laughable to
consider.
However this did really occur and the chance one of these small light tanks could have
encountered something like a Panther or Tiger tank was very real although statistically
unlikely.
One photo of an abandoned Vânătorul de Care R35 near an abandoned Tiger 2 does show the
possibility as well as the difference between early and late war tank technology.
As I mentioned before there is a single turret remaining of this tank somewhere in Slovakia.
If any of you live in the area perhaps you can find out more about this oddity from whoever
is in possession of it now.
As for the rest of you who stuck through to the end, let me know what you think of this
design in the comments down below.
Do you think it was a waste of resources or was it the best of a bad situation?
Whatever your answer, if you enjoyed this video you should check out the video I voiced
for the tank encyclopedias youtube channel about another use of French ww2 tech long
after it was outdated by Israel.
This video would not have been possible without the fantastic article posted on their site
so I’ll drop a link in the description for that video.
Thanks so much for watching and to Wondershare filmora X for making this video possible.
I’ll see you in the next one.