Investigation: Juan José Martin

Historical references

The Chaco War (1932-1935) was a war between Bolivia and Paraguay by the control of the region of the Great Chaco. The object of the litigation was the territory of the Great Chaco, that assumed rich in petroleum. On the paper, the pretext was the Bolivian pretension to have a port in the Paraguay river to gain therefore an access to the Atlantic Ocean, but the underlying reality was the fight of oil interests between the Standard Oil, North American, and the english-holland company Royal Dutch Shell, for that reason the United States tried military and financial aid to Paraguay, whereas Great Britain supported to Bolivia. The hostilities began in June of 1932, and did not stop until the agreement of a peace protocol the 12 of June of 1935. In 1938 was signed a treaty of peace and friendship by virtue of that Paraguay gained 120,000 square kilometers of territory. The price that was payed in human lives was high: in round numbers, 65,000 losses of Bolivian side and 35,000 of the Paraguayan were counted. It is possible to clarify that great part of the Bolivians losses was by dehydration. Paraguay, that then was one of the poorest nations of the planet, as soon as it could equip to his army with modern weapons, did not have airplanes nor artillery, and was unthinkable something as exotic as advanced tanks or airplanes. Bolivia, on the other hand, had considerably better credits to the outside and it was possible to be allowed such luxuries. Therefore it was Bolivia the one that dominated the skies on the Great Chaco, and went to this nation to which it touched the doubtful honor of being the first (and until today the only one) South American country in using tanks in a battle in declared open warfare against another South American ground nation.

The Vickers light tanks

The Vickers light tanks series was one of the most successful in the generation previous to World War II. They played an important role of education of the tank crewmen of the Soviet army and into the hands of the troops of the Kuomintang, in China and Burma. The Vickers light ones continued being specially an effective battle vehicle in 1942, when they were operated by experienced crew and taught equipment affluent, in their Soviet version, that was probably the most powerful and most numerous version of the Vickers light tanks . Therefore is surprising to discover that this vehicle eminently guessed right was inadequate for the service in the British army. This probably did not surprise Vickers, that had developed the vehicle like a private initiative and that did not have any illusion on the mental opening of the traditionalistic minds which determined the equipment of the British army before the war. The Vickers light tanks were thought mainly for export, which it became a demolishing success. The most important operators included the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Nationalist China, Finland and a great number of countries smaller than bought limited amounts.

These units had an innovating suspension system made up of sets of bogies with small wheels, this was denominated "Vickers suspension system", that was adopted and copied by several countries. This was a good system for low speeds but does not not for high ones, by its maintenance.

There was a great number of slight variants of the Vickers, but the used by the Bolivians were solely the Mk.A and Mk.B variants, that only differ in the type of turret which they mounted. The Mk.A was with twin turrets and armed with machine guns. The small turrets were mounted side to side and each one covered 120° to each side with the longitudinal axis with its Vickers heavy machine gun water-cooled. The Mk.B was a tank armed with cannon, placed in an only turret. It was armed with a short 47mm cannon of low speed and a coaxial machine gun, apparently a Vickers LMG of a variant that had its cannon inserted in a heavy protection. The turret was a coarse cylindrical design with circular horizontal section and a trapezial vertical section. This turret lodge only two members of the crew, the commander and an artilleryman, who also work as munition supplier. The Vickers light tanks were good made military machines, but whereas their chassis was of an excellent design, the superstructure design and the turret was something coarse. This lead to two of its more important operators, Poland and the Soviet Union, to take the work of redesign the Mk.A extensively and specially the Mk.B. These efforts implied the redesign of the chassis upper part and specially the replace of the cylindrical small turrets by a more modern and efficient design. The Poles also redesigned the back part of the chassis. Poland and the Soviet Union also rearmed the Mk.B (T-26 in the Soviet service, 7TP in the Pole) to equip it with a high speed long cannon able to shoot projectiles AP (Armor-Piercing) and HE (High-Explosives), that made of the Mk.B variant a useful vehicle like antitank and for close support.

The first armored vehicles of the Bolivian army

In preparation for the war with Paraguay, Bolivia signed a monstrous (for the contemporary standards) agreement of 3 million sterling pounds with the Vickers English corporation of armaments in 1926. Although this agreement was reduced later to only £1,25 million, still it include a small amount of tanks and light tanks. There are no proofs of this, but probably there were originally more tanks in the list that were victims of the reduction in the distribution of Vickers to maximize the amount of artillery, machine guns and airplanes that could be acquired. Of which it was requested originally is a fact that to the Bolivians was delivery three tanks and two light tanks. The tanks were one of the type A of double turret with machine guns, factory matriculation VAE532, and two units of the Mk.B type, armed with a 47 mm cannon, registration numbers VAE446 and VAE447. Whereas the two light tanks were Carden Lloyd, apparently of the Mk.IV variant, practically similar to the ones bought by the Canadian army for training purposes. These vehicles were the first tanks operated by the Bolivian army, and is natural that were bought so few since the Bolivians were not sure of the utility of the armored vehicles in their mountainous country. There are information of which also there were French tanks Renault FT-17 in Bolivia, and they have left speculations there which these could have taken part in the Chaco War, but almost surely are false.

Combat record

The Bolivian Army had a great amount of German instructors, who comprised the missions promoted by the German Army to elude the clauses of the Versailles treaty. In addition to the Germans, several Chilean officials were united to the Bolivian army, and later a Czechoslovakian military mission. The members of the armored crews were voluntary, and its instruction lasted 8 weeks. Two dowries for each vehicle formed, but before the great amount of losses, it was necessary to train more personnel. The knowledge of the battle record of the Bolivian tanks in this war lamentably is limited. Possibly they conducted to fight for the first time in the battle of "Kilometer 7 to Saavedra". The Bolivian group of tanks was sent to the battle the 4 of July of 1933, during the second attacks against Nanawa, flanked by soldiers armed with flamethrowers and with support offered by an airplane. The second attacks against Nanawa was part of an important offensive mounted by the commander-in-chief Hans Kundt, of the Bolivian army. The tanks were apparently a source of considerable irritation for the Bolivians. This is remarkable by a number of reasons; in the first place due to the difficulty of operation with effectiveness in the difficult Chaco lands, which did that the operation of the tanks was a great logistic profit. Secondly the Bolivians suffered of a total deficiency of experience in tanks operations, and finally because the tanks had to be operated with all ports opened by the heat that blistered the Great Chaco, that made it very vulnerable. The Mk.B, with its 47mm low speed cannon, was specially effective, and its equipment soon began to specialize in exploding specially the nests of Paraguayan machine guns and "quebracho" bunkers. The Paraguayans possibly developed a special assault squadron and went to the hunt of the Bolivian tanks, captured two of them and destroyed a third (reported during the fight near Saavedra, in December of 1933). If the Carden Lloyd light tanks also they lost in the Chaco is something that cannot be known with certainty, since its service archives or its last destiny is not counted on.

The Bolivians did not let use the armored vehicles during the war and used them in several occasions, mainly like mobile reserve during the Paraguayan counterattacks. Although the conditions for use of the armored vehicles were very bad, not only by the land, but also by the heat, that arrived to 40°C in the shade and that caused frequent malfunctions of the machine guns by the expansion of the cartridges. The occasions were not rare either in that the ammunition stocks exploded by the heat, and the metallic parts could not be touched because they burned to the tact. These armored vehicles had a two channels radio, but they were of very little use because the high humidity of the zone made them unusable. 

Action of the Bolivian army with a Vickers Mk.A.
Camouflaged Vickers Mk.B in the Gran Chaco plain.
Photo of the Bolivian Vickers destroyed in the war, supposedly of the Mk.A type.
Paraguayan soldiers posing on one of the captured armored vehicles.

Final destiny

The final destiny of the Bolivian tanks Vickers has been discussed extensively. In a certain point, according to the decipher above, the Bolivian tanks were attacked and destroyed or captured by the Paraguayans. At least one of the Vickers tanks was destroyed, it knows because there are photos of the destroyed rests. Both remaining tanks Vickers were both captured. One of the captured vehicles was a Mk.A with machine guns called "Ina", that was photographed with a seated Paraguayan official upon him. This vehicle was turned more ahead a monument by the Paraguayans, and survived until years ' 70, when it was given back again to Bolivia like test of peace, and where soon its sign disappears. The other Bolivian tank captured by the Paraguayans seems to have been the Mk.B, which means that the rests of the photography previously mentioned have been of the second tank  Mk.A, with machine guns. It has been rumored during long time that a Vickers tank was sold to the Spanish republic in 1937 along with a collection of arms of diverse calibers and some artillery pieces. The sources differ on if this purchase is a myth or not. In a book of the historian Gerald Howson he affirms that the sale of a Vickers tank on the part of Paraguay to the Spanish Republicans is not a myth but a fact, the certain thing is that to the date there are no tests that credit this.

The Vickers Mk.A turned into monument in Asunción, Paraguay.
One of the last photos of the vehicle turned into monument , before their give back to Bolivia.

Bibliography

- www.brushfirewars.org Internet web page, article by Kristjan Runarsson.

- www.mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/bolivia/bolivia.html  Internet web page.

- "Blindados de Argentina, Uruguay y Paraguay", by Ricardo Sigal Fogliani.