French AMC Schneider P16 (M29) Halftrack - 1st Infantry Reconnaissance Group

The AMC Schneider P 16, also known as the AMC Citron-Kgresse Modle 1929 or the Panhard-Schneider P16, was a half-track that was designed for the French Army before World War II.

The P 16 was developed in 1924 by Citron from the earlier Citron-Kgresse Modle 1923. It was very similar in conception but had an enlarged armored hull, built by Schneider, and a stronger 60 hp Panhard engine. In June 1925 an order was obtained for a pre-series of four vehicles. In October that year a first production series of ten is ordered. Citron found itself unable to produce the vehicles and the order was delegated to Schneider. Citron would supply the chassis, Kgresse the suspension and Schneider, responsible for the final assembly, the armor plates.

The pre-series vehicles get the company designation Modle 1928 or M 28 after the year they were delivered; the production vehicles are likewise named Modle 1929 or M 29, though the actual delivery was in 1930 and 1931. The official name however, assigned in 1931, is the AMC Schneider P 16. The P 16 was thus accepted as conforming to the specifications for a wheeled AMC, or a AMC N1, as stated by the Supreme Command on April 12th, 1923, although the vehicle was not specifically designed to meet them, and partially fulfilling the requirements of an AMC N2 stated in August 1924, which asked for a tracked vehicle- as a half-track it was indeed in between. "AMC" stands for Automitrailleuse de Combat. Although automitrailleuse is today a synonym for "armored car", in those days it was the codename for any Cavalry armored vehicle as the Cavalry was in 1922 forbidden by law to employ tanks. In fact, their rle was pretty much that of a main battle tank as the Cavalry would not acquire real modern gun tanks until 1935; in the twenties fully tracked vehicles were, given the state of technological development, considered by the Cavalry as being either to slow or not reliable enough. "P 16" refers to the Panhard 16 engine. Confusingly, the pre-series vehicles only were fitted with it, while the production vehicles have the Panhard 17. In total 96 vehicles of the main series were produced, serial numbers from the range 37002 - 37168, resulting in a total of 100 vehicles.

Pictured here is a 1:43 scale replica of a French AMC Schneider P16 (M29) Halftrack that was attached to 1er Groupe de Reconnaissance de Division D'Infanterie, then deployed to Mettet, Belgium, during May 1940.