Tank battles in the interwar years ?

What about the Spanish Civil War ? And I have heard about at least one engagement between tanks in the Russian Civil War.

 

I know that the 'Red' Russians used captured armour, and that they produced their own improved version of the FT-17.

I think that armoured cars were more common than tanks in this conflict, for obvious reasons (reliability, the distances involved, the respective numbers of both available at the time, etc)

 

The War of the Gran Chaco- 1934-35 and the Hungarian -Czech wars in the early 30's involved armored warfare as well. The Polish Invasion of the Ukraine during the Ukrainian uprising ustilised FT-17's . the Defense of warsaw during the russian counteroffensive also. the FT performed darn well. during the mid 30's czech armor was called to fight german uprisings in the sudentland. and the Invasion of Ethiopia by italy in 1936 involved tanks. there was armored warfare in china and also in mongolia during the 30's as well as limted armored warfare during the russian revolution. There were numerous small scale engagements througout the balkans and eastern europe, but im not sure how much armor was involved.

 

If by tank battles we are referring to battles between tanks-none occurred in the Chaco War-(1932-35) mainly because only one the belligerants posessed tanks" Bolivia ( Vickers 6-tons, in both A and B models, and two Vickers Carden Lloyd Mk. VIb tankettes. . On 4 Juy 1933, the Bolivians mounted the largest frontal assalt in the war. Following the explosion of a mine, 7000 men charged, while Bolivian planes bombed the enemy and 32 guns shelled his fortifications,while the tank group followed, on close supprt missions. After heavy losses, the Bolivians retreated During the battle of Campo Via (23 ct-11 December 1933) the Bolivian army deployed one Vickers 6-ton model A and a model B, but both of these were captured by the Paraguayans, by a simple expedient. In the tropial heat of the Chaco, the Vickers tanks were literally ovens in which their unfortunate crews virtually fried...Hemce, while advancing, the hatchets were left open open for ventilation.Alerted to the roar of tank engines in the shrub, a Paraguayan patrol from the 7th Division, climbed on a nearby tree. When the tanks passed underneath the tree branch in which they were hidden, the Paraguayans lassoed the tank commanders, pulled them off their turrets and dispatched them with machete blows...The remaining crew members simply surrendered...

 

The "Republicans" began to receive Russian military asistance from the onset, , including large numbers of the ultra-modern T-26 tanks, and Polikarkov I-15 "Chato" fighters. On November 29 1936, while the National Forces wera approaching Madrid, about forty T-26s , manned by Russian "volunteers" and led by gral. Pavlov, a Russian tank specialist clashed with National cavalry. The tanks, according to Hugh Thomas (The Spanish Civil War. Harper Books, New York, 1963) "were used in the new blitzkrieg style evoved in Germany by conlonel Guderian and admired in Russia by Tukhachevsky., rather as favoured by the French, in suppoirt of the infantry" Thomad describes it as a "quixotic battle between tanks and hosemen " in the narrow streets of Esquivas, but since the supporting infantry could not avance fast enough, the tanks were forced wto withdraw..On March 1937 , the airport of Barajas, near the provincial capital of Guadalajara became the HQ of Russian air units operating on behalf of the "Republicans" Formations of the Italian Commando Truppe Volontarie (CTV) launched an offensive against Guadalajara on 8 March. the front, held by two Spanish divisions was broken by an assault of the "Black Flames" Division compossed entirely of motorized infantry supported by Ansaldo CV 33 tankettes, while Spanish National forces under General Moscardo broke through the road at Soria. On the following morning, the temperature fell, and heavy rains followed by sleet and ice prevented National aircraft from taking off. Russian fighter bombers from Barajas however were able to pound National airfield and Italian troop concentrations unimpeeded, while the Republicans rushed reinforcements to the front. These reinforceents brought Republican strenght to three divisions, supported by 54 tanks (a figure recent Spanish authorship on the civil war considers far too low).The Italians broke through lgeneral Lister's division at Torija, employing their tankettes, but Lister counterattacked, supported by gral. Pavlov's T-26 tanks. Under heavy air and artillery bombardment, the Italians withdrew. There is a recurring story about the battle of Guadalajara, and one which l heard many times from National and well as Republican veterans...Accoring to these old timers, a Russian T-26, damaged by artillery fire held off attacks by several Ansaldo CV 33 tankettes with its 45 mm gun, destroying several of them until a support vehicle was able to ow it back behind its own lines. I'm enclosing two photos of Fiat Ansaldo L3/35 tankettes. The first, manned by Italian crews at the time of the battle of Guadalajara, and tee second in a post-civil war parade, manned by Spanish crews.

 

Thanks for those two excellent, informative and very interesting reports. I truly enjoyed reading them.

 

Yes, thank you scaramouche!

Concerning the first picture, did the inter-war Tankette units still use the male-female formations concieved in WW1? There's clearly an MG-armed (female) tankette next to a gun-armed (male) one.

 

Top of the morning gentlemen! Actually l am not sure-as all the CV.33s I've seen in photohgraphs of the CV. 3in Spanish service, post civil war carried the twin m.g. armament. Perhaps the one in the photo was a command variant? Another point about the battle of Guadalajara, although the Italian forces were forced to withdraw, their losses (and indeed he importance of the battle) were greatly exagerated by the leftist media . At Guadalajara, in spite of the fact that the Republicans employed about 70 T-26 tanks, led by Pavlov, and 80 aircraft. Due to bad weather, which turned their airfields into quagmnire, the Nationals had no air support. Both sides sides suffered about the same number of cassualties; about 3000 dead and wounded, but whereas the National forces took few Republican prisonners, in a sort of a civil war of their own, Italians from the International Brigades fought Italians of the CTV. The Republicans captured less than 300 Italians. Equipment losses by the Italian CV were also greatly exagerated. In his memoirs, gral. Lister gives these as 65 pieces of artillery,500 machine gun,3000 riles, 10 tankettes, (aside from those which were destroyed in the battle) 200 motor vhiles , 5 million rounds of ammunition and 30.000 artillery shells. Modern Spanish authorshio considers even these figures to be exagerated. Here's a pic of an Italian CV.33 captured at the woods, near Brihuega.

 

For your interest..two photographs pf Bolivian armor in the Chaco War; a Vickers 6ton tank Mk. E "Type B", ( 1 x 47 mm 3 pdr, 1 x 7,65mm Vickers m.g. and a Vickers Carden Llloyd Mk.VIb tankette-note the Vickers 7,65 mm with armored sleeve and shield...