The AMR 33 is a light French tank, used in WWII.

To counter the threat posed by the massive Soviet arms build-up since 1928, the year Stalin took power, the French government in 1931 planned the transformation of a part of the cavalry into a mechanized projection force capable of assisting its allies in the Cordon Sanitair . The plan called for the introduction of many specialized vehicles, among which an Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance (AMR), specified on 16 January 1932. Automitrailleuse was then the generalized term for any light Armored fighting vehicle armed with a machinegun and was also used to indicate a cavalry tank, as by law tanks (chars) had to be part of the infantry. Though the name might suggest otherwise, an AMR was not a specialized reconnaissance vehicle but a skirmisher without a radio. The task to gather information was assigned to an AMD (Automitrailleuse de Découverte).

In anticipation Louis Renault had already manufactured five prototypes, each with a different suspension, but all generally based on the Carden-Loyd type that Renault had simply copied. In November and December 1932 the army tested these; the two most promising were uparmoured and retested in June 1933 and a production of 123 was ordered for prototype 79757 as the AMR 33. The Renault factory however called this materiel the Renault VM. The first vehicle was delivered on 1 June 1934. Two earlier vehicles were used as prototypes for the AMR 35, an improved model that was necessary because the much too fragile suspension of the AMR 33 was prone to breakdown (or even simply to break off). One chassis was used for the development of the Engin P, a project for a 37 mm tankdestroyer.

The AMR 33 was a very small vehicle, 3.5 meters long, 1.64 m wide and 1.73 m tall. Its weight was only 5.5 metric tons and the 84 hp engine allowed for a maximum speed of 54 km/h. The front armour was 13 mm, the side 8 mm. There was a crew of two: one driver in the left next to the engine, one commander/gunner behind him in the turret, armed with a 7.5 Reibel machinegun.

The 120 available vehicles were first assigned to the five cavalry divisions, a squadron of twenty for each. In 1935 it was decided to form an armoured division in case of war. As its sole tanks this division was to have had six squadrons equipped with AMR 33's. Its fighting power would thus have been very limited indeed. Both in 1936 and 1937 however a real armoured division was created. These 1 DML and 2 DML (Division Légère Mécanique) had three squadrons of AMR 33's each to accompany their motorized infantry (among many other types); the three remaining cavalry division still one. At that time however the AMR 33 had already been supplemented by the AMR 35.

In the Battle of France the materiel fared very badly. It was poorly armed and armoured - and very unreliable because of its one good point: its speed that had worn down the suspension units. It was faster than any German tank of the time. Some captured AMR 33's were used by the Germans as the Panzerspaehwagen VM 701 (f), probably mostly in France itself.

A single vehicle survives at the Saumur Tank Museum.