In the ten years after the end of World War I, the French Army's armored vehicles were almost not updated, and still used outdated World War I AM armored vehicles as the main force, and at the beginning of 1932, the French Army finally launched a new round of modern armored reconnaissance vehicle projects (AMR), in addition to Renault, Panhard and other well-known companies participated in the bidding, there was also a designer named Gendron came up with a design plan, which is the AMR 39 armored car.
Gendron believed that the French army would not accept too high a unit price for armored vehicles, so he focused on simple, The first prototype used a three-wheeled chassis, the second changed to a 4x4 chassis and was approved by the military, but it was required to be improved, the third prototype was launched in 1938, its performance in all aspects was excellent, and its comprehensive combat capability could compete with the light tanks before World War II, the car successfully passed the French army test and received the first batch of 150 orders in September 1939.
The AMR 39 is a car weighing 69-ton armored car, it has a 4x4 wheeled chassis with leaf spring suspension of the wheels, and another pair of suspension wheels with metal anti-slip chains installed on both sides of the waist of the body, which can assist in off-road and can also be used as a spare tire. Powered by a Soma 4-cylinder petrol engine with 79 hp, the AMR 39 can reach a maximum road speed of 69 km/h and a range of 400 km/h on on-board fuel.
The car is protected by 15 mm thick steel plates, the driver sits in the front of the hull, he has a rectangular viewing window in the front, and the commander and gunner is responsible for operating the APX 5 rotating turret, which is also used in the AMR ZT2 light tank, which is equipped with a Hatch Chase 25 mm anti-tank gun as the main gun, which is mounted on the right, and on the left side of the gun there is also a 75 mm machine gun as an auxiliary**.
The French were satisfied with the test results of the third prototype, giving it the official name Am Gendron Somua 39, and although the order was obtained, Gendron was not in a position to mass-produce armored vehicles, so he entered into a production cooperation with Soma, and according to the plan, the armored vehicles were expected to be delivered between July and December 1940. With the production capacity of Soma, it is possible to deliver on time or even ahead of schedule, but the progress of the APX factory in charge of the ** turret is too slow, which slows down the production of armored vehicles, especially the outbreak of the French campaign on May 10, 1940, which is a mess for the whole of France, and it is believed that France has completed the construction of 4 mass-produced AMR 39 armored vehicles, but they did not work.