1:72 Attack on Duck French AMX40 Cavalry Tank

When the first SOMUA S35 rolled off the production line, senior French military staff began considering what vehicle to replace the S35 with. At the end of 1936, the French army began soliciting bids for future cruiser tanks, with requirements including: weight not exceeding 20 tons, a crew of 3,

armor no less than 50mm, combat radius no less than 200 kilometers, armament including one 47mm cannon and two 7.5mm machine guns, as well as communication and internal communication systems.

However, it was impossible for the designers to modify the S35 to meet those requirements. Even the SOMUA S40, at the cost of a 5km/h reduction in top speed, could only increase its armor to 40mm. Thus, the requirements were ignored for three years.

In early 1940, AMX began designing this new cruiser tank. The design team was led by French designer Joseph Molini, who would also be the chief designer of AMX after the war. However, due to those strange standards, this project was clearly very difficult to realize, so the resulting tank was also very complex. On March 4, 1940, AMX drew up blueprint 0-387, named Char Cavalerie AMX40.

The tank used Christie suspension, and both the turret and hull were cast. Moreover, its layout was more like the R35 than the SOMUA, and the turret was a two-man turret. The front armor thickness was 60mm. To ensure the entire vehicle did not exceed weight while maintaining armor thickness, the tank's body was very small and narrow, with a turret ring of only one meter wide, and a turret width of only 1.26m.

The entire vehicle weighed 16 tons, powered by a 160 hp Aster engine (same as the AMX38). Power was transmitted through a 6-speed gearbox to the last pair of road wheels. This strange design was clearly a remnant of Christie suspension, leading many to believe that this tank could actually operate without tracks, but Christie had actually abandoned the wheel-and-track dual-use design in 1936 (the confidence of the BT series). Another legacy of Christie's design was the very narrow tracks, so the vehicle's terrain adaptability might not be good. However, from another perspective, for a French tank, the power-to-weight ratio was not too bad (10 hp/ton), and the mobility should be similar to the S35, with a designed top speed of 45-50km/h.

The main armament was a 47mm SA35 cannon, accompanied by a pair of 7.5mm machine guns. There were 176 rounds of ammunition stored on the side of the turret. The turret was also equipped with a rangefinder and gunner's optical device (2-in-1). The turret was almost full; theoretically, there should be a hatch at the rear of the turret. As for how the driver got in... God knows how he got in. Everyone knows the meme in the picture below, right~