The Battle of Dunkirk that ran from May 26 to June 4, 1940 encompassed a series of engagements in which British and French forces battled the Germans with the goal to delay the Germans for as long as possible in order to allow as many troops to evacuate from the beaches of Dunkirk as possible. In fact, it was the French who battled to the end, permitting British forces to depart knowing they would be left behind. The hardest of the fighters was what remained of the 12e Division d'Infanterie Motorisée (DIM) whose lineage was traced back to the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815. Included in the combat was the 18e Régiment de Dragons (RD; Dragoon Armored Regiment) of the 1ère Division Légère Mécanique (DLM). The 1st. DLM was equipped with three main types of tanks, the Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance Renault Modèle 35 (AMR 35) light cavalry tank, the Char Léger Modèle 1935 H (better known as the Hotchkiss H35) cavalry tank, and the SOMUA S35 cavalry tank. The S35 was more of a medium tank in comparison to the AMR 35 and H35 and thus the SOMUA (which stood for Société d'Outillage Mécanique et d'Usinage d'Artillerie) was assigned to the 18e RD, the photograph showing two of them abandoned in Dunkirk.
The S35 stood up well to contemporary tanks of the day. It featured well sloped frontal armor with a maximum thickness of 47mm and had some 40mm thick armor around the sides and turret. It was armed with the potent 47mm SA 35 anti-tank gun that could penetrate 60mm of armor at 1,800ft. This was more than adequate to pierce the majority of German tanks in 1940, to include early makes of the Panzerkampfwagen IV. The S35 had a top off-road speed of 20mph which was good for a 19 ton tank (the lighter H35 at 11 tons could only muster 17mph off-road). A distinguishing feature of the S35 was the use of a methyl bromide automatic fire extinguishing system. The S35, though, was not devoid of problems. It was a difficult tank to maintain in the field due to a complex track and suspension system. The V-8 engine used was also mechanically unreliable and access to the engine was not conductive to ease of maintenance. Another issue was the fact that the cast upper hull was bolted down to the lower hull (chassis), leaving a clear seam between the two components. If an enemy round struck the seam, the result was that the S35 could literally be split in half due to the impact. Another flaw was the single-man turret in which the commander had to not only lead the tank but also act as loader and gunner for the SA 35 gun. Finally, the S35 carried a high price tag and the cast hull couldn't be produced rapidly and thus fewer S35 tanks were obtained. The S35 began to enter service in 1936. Despite the flaws, some consider the S35 to have been one of the best tanks in the world in the 1930s.
Following the French defeat, the German army captured a little under 300 S35 tanks and would issue them to various units under the designation Panzerkampfwagen 35-S 739(f). Others were shipped off to German allies such as Bulgaria, Hungary, and Italy. Some of these tanks did see front line combat but most were used for anti-partisan duties where the risk of facing enemy armor was low. Some of the tanks had the upper hull removed and used as tank driver trainers at German armor schools. Still other tanks served in security forces.
The gun seen in the foreground is a British Ordnance QF (Quick Firing) 25-pounder Mark I that entered service in 1940. Interestingly, this gun, in later makes, is still used today with the largest user being Pakistan with some 1,000 guns in service.
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