Between 600 and 800 Hotchkiss H35 and H39 light tanks were available to French warplanners by the time of the German invasion of France in May of 1940. However, many H39s were tied to the slow and cumbersome Char B1 Heavy Tanks and largely misallocated throughout the French response. Useful coordinated attacks by French armor divisions proved few and far between and this worsened the expected defense of France to irrecoverable levels. When utilized properly, H39s proved a more-than-capable foe for German armor in turn but such offensives were scarce. One of the key threats to H39 systems lay in the skillful deployment and operation of German anti-tank guns which showcased the H39's light armor protection as a true weakness on the modern battlefield.
Rather than risk the complete destruction of Paris proper, the French government surrendered after just 1.5 months of fighting. This signaled the end of the governing Third French Republic and proved a disastrous historical military loss and humiliation for the French Army. The allied British (along with some French forces) had no choice but to evacuate through the north across the Channel while Italian forces allied to the Axis helped to secure a small portion of southeastern France. The capture of Paris brought with it the official German occupation of neighboring Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium that would last for most of the war. The Vichy French government, allied to Hitler's Germany, would rise in place of the former French government.
With the French Army now defeated, the Germans moved in to claim stocks of French material to bolster their own ranks. This included the hundreds of H39 tanks available by battle's end. Panzer divisions made use of many French war goods in this fashion, usually utilized for local defense, as second-line units or to replace lost front-line systems from the earlier campaigns. Under German direction, the H39 was given the designation of PzKpfW 39-H 735(f), the "f" to showcase its French origins. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, the H39 was transported by rail to the Eastern Front due to a mass shortage of capable armor. It proved rather common for the Germans to also replace the given French turrets and armament with more potent German designs in an effort to create better anti-tank stopping measures to counter the heavy use of armor unleashed by the Soviets. The Germans created the 75mm-armed "Marder I" tank destroyer in this fashion as the "7.5cm PaK40(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen 39H(f) Marder I". Similarly the "10.5cm leFH18(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen 39H(f)" was fitted with a 105mm gun platform, both retaining much of the H39 chassis in place. Other logistically-minded developments included the "Atillerieschlepper 38H(f)" artillery tractor and the "Panzerbeobachtungswagen 38H(f)" artillery observation vehicle.
Some stocks of H39s eventually found their way to French colonial holdings in the Middle East and were taken under the control of either Free French forces or Vichy French units. Vichy-held H39s were used in anger during the Syrian/Lebanon Campaign of June-July 1941. However, by 1945, the H39 was more or less an obsolete machine by World War 2 standards and few remained in serviceable numbers. After the war, some H39s fell to the growing Israeli Army who still operated the type into 1956 during the Suez Crisis against Egypt. At least a dozen were operated in their original light, fast reconnaissance role.
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