The tank was crewed by four personnel that included the driver in a front-right position and a bow gunner to his left. The bow gunner operated a single ZB vz 35 (or ZB vz 37) series 7.92mm general purpose machine gun. The commander and the radio operator were situated in the two-man turret assembly. Main armament was fitted to the turret and consisted of a 37.2mm Skoda vz 34 series cannon that was coupled with a coaxially mounted ZB vz 35/37 series machine gun. The commander doubled as the gunner of the tank while the radio operator doubled as the loader. The main gun was afforded 72 rounds of 37.2mm projectiles while approximately 1,800 rounds of 7.92mm ammunition were stowed aboard the tank to feed the two machine guns.
In 1936, the first of five production tanks arrived from the Skoda Works for service in the Czech Army inventory. Once in practice, these tanks only served to amplify the shortcomings inherent in the prototypes, revealing more and more issues than previous noted. As such, the Army was forced to return these vehicles back to Skoda and engineers set about to refine their failing design. Upon completion of these revisions, the vehicle was offered up once more for service and another mass-batch was then ordered by the Czech Army, these to number 138 strong.
The Czech Army formally designated the tank system as the "LT vz 35". While its early issues were addressed, not all were completely corrected but operational service and upgrades soon brought the line up to speed, making for a much more effective end product. The Romanian Army became interested in the new Czech design and ordered 126 for their own ranks under the designation of "R-2".
After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany he set his sights on conquering interests across Europe. He annexed Austria in March of 1938 and moved to tackle Czechoslovakia next. After annexing the Sudetenland, and effectively rendering Czechoslovakia powerless, the German Army formally occupied Czechoslovakia proper - an occupation that would last until the end of the war in May of 1945.
With the loss of its national identity, Czech factories - and its available products - now came under the authority of the Third Reich. The LT vz 35, therefore, became one such product and manufacturing of the type continued for its new owners. In German Army service, the LT vz 35 was redesignated to Panzerkampfwagen 35(t) and appeared in its shortened form as the PzKpfW 35(t). Skoda Works completed a further 219 "new-build" PzKpfW 35(t) vehicles for direct use by the German Army to help shore up limitations in its armored inventory in preparation for more war. Manufacture of LT vz 35 / PzKpfW 35(t) led to a total of 434 of these light tanks being produced in whole.
The German 6th Panzer Division fielded their PzKpfW 35(t) light tanks during the invasion of France in May of 1940. However, by 1942, these light tank systems that originated in 1930s were beginning to show their limitations as the battlegrounds making up World War 2 spread and evolved. As such, the hulls of outmoded PzKpfW 35(t) tanks were often reconstituted for other required battlefield roles to include self-propelled prime movers, artillery tractors, maintenance vehicles.
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