Inspired by a number of topics on here, I thought it would be interesting to start up a topic on what happened to all the tanks after WW2 ended. Obviously, a lot were scrapped/decommissioned/mothballed. Many were kept by the victorious nations. Many more were sold off to various countries. Please tell us what went where! Pictures if possible!
In 1948-49, the bulk of the israeli tank force consisted of Hotchkiss H39 tanks bought in France. Sorry, but all I could find was a picture of a scale model:
In 1947 armour was introduced into the Dutch army as an independent unit. The first tanks we recieved were Canadian Ram Mk.IIs.
Hello. A photo of the true H39, but this one was not bought from France, it was taken to the Syrians and was integrated into the "Russian" squadron of the 82°Tank Battalion Patrice.
Hi. After WWII captured japanese tanks were used by the nacionalist and the communist forces in China. The USA delivered also a lot of type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha and type 95 Ha-Go to the chinese nationalists. Several type 1 Chi-He and type 3 Chi-Nu tanks were used as school tanks by the Japanese Self Defence Force after establishing until modern US-tanks replaced them. Yours tom!
Weren't several captured/surrendered Japanese tanks used by 'Independance Fighters' in various Pacific Colonies - Indonesia springs readily to mind...
French army used captured japanese Ha Go tanks in 1946 when the figthing in Indochina started. "Uncle Ho's" forces reportedly used them too.
Many M-18 Hellcats went to Argentina or Brazil. Several M-24's were used by post-war Japan, Korea, and others. Sherman's were sent all over to almost everybody. Many M-26 Pershings were upgraded to M-46 Patton configuration during the Korean War.
Upgraded M18 Hellcats were used by Bosnia in the Yugoslav conflict as well as a fair few T34s. I think Taiwan and Honduras still have some M18s. Cromwell chasis with a 20pdr turret known as Charioteer were exported to Finland. From memory Israel started off with a hanfull of Hotchkiss, Renaults and Cromwells. Brazil kept her Stuarts servicable until the 1980s and then designed a new modernised version.
I remember during the yugoslav conflict when Albania was worried about being dragged into it, there was a news article where they showed the Albania army and border guards. They had T-34's and where proudly showing one in particular that had been repaired and still had visable an original WW2 shell hit! Besides there is no reason why a T-34 would not be useful in such a low tech, small scale conflict. FNG
Especially with such difficult grounds as the Balkans are. Then again, just about any modern weapon would wipe out a T34 if given the opportunity to get off a shot. Like I said before, the poorer countries of this world are a perfect source for working-order obsolete weaponry!
I don´t know about Honduras, and I believe Taiwan have retired all their M-18s by now, although some turrets might still be in service fitted to M42 chassis. But the M-18 might still be in service in Venezuela, even in an upgraded version. At least one example was rebuilt in 1995.
