Category: WW2 Bolivian Armor

Bolivia (1932-1933)
Tankette – 2 Purchased

Introduced in 1928, the Carden-Loyd Mark VI tankette was one of the most influential designs of its time, serving as an inspiration for the French Renault UE, the Polish TK3, the Japanese Type 94, the Italian CV series, the Soviet T-27 and the Czech Tančík vz.33. More famously, the British Universal Carrier was a direct evolution of this vehicle.
Its ridiculously cheap price and the Vickers company’s global reach meant that the Carden-Loyd became a success story on the international market, serving in many armies worldwide and becoming the most extensively used tank in the world for a few years in the late 20’s and early 30’s. This period, marked by the 1929 Stock Exchange Crash, meant that smaller nations with limited military budgets were able to purchase tanks to equip their armed forces. One of these clients was the landlocked South American country of Bolivia.

One of the Bolivian Carden-Loyds somewhere in the Chaco 1932-33. Photo: SOURCE

Buying the Vickers

Bolivia’s reasons for wanting to purchase war materiel were the growing tensions with its neighbor Paraguay over the disputed Chaco region, territory claimed by both countries. In 1928, there had been border skirmishes, known as the Vanguardia Incident, but, with both sides recognizing neither was ready for a full-scale war, a peace settlement through the League of Nations was reached. Nevertheless, both nations remained bellicose and built up their forces in the region resulting in the outbreak of war in July 1932.
Acting upon the advice of Hans Kundt – a German who was Minister of Defense and Commander in Chief of the Bolivian forces and had who previously been a Lieutenant General in the German Army during WWI – a deal was sought with the British arms company Vickers to buy modern military equipment, aircraft and tanks. Originally, the contract valued at GB£3 million and was to include 12 tanks plus aircraft, though the financial crisis caused by the 1929 Stock Exchange Crash meant that a new, more austere deal had to be struck. In the end, this agreement, concluded in October 1932, was worth somewhere between GB£1.25 million and GB£1.87 million and included 196 artillery pieces, 36,000 rifles, 6,000 carbines, 750 machine-guns, 2.5 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000-20,000 shells, 12 warplanes and 5 tanks – 3 Mk. E’s and the 2 Vickers Carden-Loyd.
However, not all that was agreed to was sent and what was sent was of dubious quality. To make matters worse, Argentina and Chile, who supported Paraguay, blocked the shipments in their ports for some time.
On arrival, all tanks were then grouped together in the ‘Destacamento de Blindados’ under the command of a German mercenary, Major Adrim R. von Kries.

The Controversy Surrounding Dates

Scholarship on tank warfare of the Chaco War is limited and what has been written is prone to errors. Usually, no distinction is made between the tanks used and they are just referred to as ‘tanks’. Further complications arise as dates given are often contradictory.
The most widely accepted date for the Bolivia-Vickers contract is October 1932, however, several authors have claimed that the Carden-Loyds were first used at the Battle of Boquerón, in September 1932.
Unfortunately, no photographic evidence exists to clear up this discrepancy.
An explanation is as follows:
[Disclaimer: This is a speculative theory developed by the author.]:
What is known is that Bolivia and Vickers had been negotiating an arms sale since 1928, so it is possible that the October 1932 deal was only the final one and that in the previous years, other deals had been struck, including the purchase of the two Carden-Loyds. Since then, it may be the case that for the sake of simplicity, authors have amalgamated all the sales from Vickers to Bolivia in that final one. Other explanations are possible, including the alternative that they were indeed never sent until October 1932 and only first deployed at Nanawa in July 1933.
Whatever is the case, this article will continue based on the assumption that Bolivia had two Carden-Loyds ready to deploy in combat in the Chaco in September 1932, thus making them the first armed tracked vehicle to be deployed in the field of battle in South America.

Design

The Bolivian Carden-Loyds were of the Mark VIb variant. The main export version had been the Mark VI with head covers, but the Bolivian VIb differed in that it had a slightly peaked transverse roof hinged fore and aft for overhead protection. It also differed in that it had two upper track rollers and had a Meadows 40HP engine with the conventional four speeds transmission.
Apart from that, it had the same features as most Mk.VI’s, including the dismountable machine-gun, two-man crew and armored front.

The Bolivian Carden-Loyd, Illustrated by Tank Enyclopedia’s own David Bocquelet

Combat History

As stated previously, the Carden-Loyds allegedly made their combat debut for Bolivia at the Battle of Boquerón in September 1932, which was also the first battle of the Chaco War. One was used between the 24th and 25th in support of infantry units in the fight to defend the fort of Boquerón, which had been captured the previous week from Paraguayan forces. One of the tankettes was commanded by the American mercenary John Kenneth Lockhart, who was wounded in the battle. The vehicle’s poor frontal armor was unable to stop Paraguayan rifle and machine-gun fire, a problem aggravated by the fact that the high temperatures meant that some of the fighting was done with the hatches open, making it very dangerous for the two-man crew. The battle resulted in a major triumph for the Paraguayans and the Bolivians were forced to retreat.
The two Loyds would be used again in the next battle of the war, the Battle of Kilometer 7. One, commanded by the Bolivian Lieutenant José Quiroga, was used in early December to support the infantry in a counterattack to maintain the line.
Later in that battle, Bolivian forces had used a truce to retreat to the Kilometer 12 of the Saavedra-Alihuatá road. On the 27th, a major counterattack was planned by General Hans Kundt to exploit a Paraguayan defensive weakness, despite Air Force intelligence reports advising otherwise. One of the tankettes, commanded by the then recovered Lockhart, was used alongside the 3rd Infantry Regiment ‘Pérez’. The frontal assault on Paraguayan forces would be a disaster resulting in hundreds of Bolivian casualties. The Loyd’s role in the assault was minimal and due to the high temperatures inside the tank, it was forced to retreat. Its commander, Lockhart, not wanting to give up the fight, left the tank and continued to fight on foot, but, by the end of the day, he was another name on the Bolivian casualty list.

A side view of a Bolivian Carden-Loyd with its crewmembers. SOURCE:
The tanks would not be used again until the Second Battle of Nanawa in July 1933. Here they were used alongside the Vickers Mk.E’s. The Bolivian offensive was divided into three groups: north, center and south. The North group, under the Austrian Captain Walter Kohn, consisted of two Mk.E’s, whilst group South was led by Major Wilhelm ‘Wim’ Brandt and consisted of the other Type B plus the two Carden-Loyds.
The battle would be another disaster for the Bolivians, who lost 2,000 men. On the tank front, a Mk.E was lost and the two Loyds went out of action early in the battle; one was destroyed and the other got stuck in a trench.
Following the battle, the immobilized Carden-Loyd was recovered and redeployed during the later stages of fighting around Gondra in mid-August.
Following this, there is no recorded use of the vehicle and it was presumably destroyed there, or soon after that at Campo Grande.

Conclusion

The value of the Carden-Loyds during the Chaco War was minimal and should have been a forewarning of the serious failings of this type of tank as exemplified in the Spanish Civil War and early stages of World War II.
Often used as mobile machine-gun platforms, they suffered from poor armor, no proper tank doctrine and being used as individual infantry support vehicles, rather than a larger tank unit. Moreover, the heat in the region, rising to as high as 50ºC, made fighting difficult for several reasons. Tanks had to fight with open hatches creating vulnerable spots; the metallic body of the tank absorbed the heat and made it impossible to touch and machine-guns became jammed as cartridges expanded due to the heat. Neither was the low-lying, densely vegetated geography of the area conducive to tank warfare in general and especially the Loyds, which were unable to play to their strengths using their mobility to roam the battlefield exploiting weak points.

Carden-Loyd Mk.VI specifications
Dimensions	2.46 x 1.75 x 1.22 m (8.07 x 5.74 x 4 ft)
Total weight, battle ready	1.5 tons
Crew	2 (driver, machine-gunner)
Propulsion	Ford T 4-cyl petrol, 40 bhp
Speed (road)	25 mph (40 km/h)
Range	89 mi (144 km)
Armament	0.303 in (7.62 mm) Vickers machine-gun
Armor	6 to 9 mm (0.24-0.35 in)
Total Purchased	2

Links, Resources & Further Reading

A de Quesada and P. Jowett, Men-at-Arms #474 The Chaco War 1932-35 South America’s greatest modern conflict (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2011)
Coronel Gustavo Adolfo Tamaño, Historial Olvidadas: Tanques en la Guerra del Chaco
Matthew Hughes, “Logistics and Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932-35” The Journal of Military History vol. 69 No. 2 (April 2005), pp. 411-437
Michael Mcnerney, “Military innovations during war: Paradox or paradigm?” Defense & Security Analysis 21:2 (2005), pp. 201-212
Ricardo Sigal Fogliani, Blindados Argentinos, de Uruguay y Paraguay (Buenos Aires: Ayer y Hoy ediciones, 1997)
Robert J. Icks, Number 16. Carden Loyd Mk.VI (Profile Publications, 1967)
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quellasarmasdeguerra.wordpress.com

Bolivia (1932-1933)
Light Tank – 3 Purchased

Even though the Vickers 6-Ton (Mark E) was never adopted by the British armed forces, it was a very successful export, equipping the armies of China, Siam, Poland (where it influenced the design of the 7TP) and the USSR (influencing the T-26) among many others.

There were two main versions of the Mk.E: the Type A, which had two smaller turrets, each with a Vickers Mk.IVb class C/T 7.65 mm machine gun; and the Type B, with a single two-man-turret fitting a QFSA Mk.II L/23 47 mm gun.

Its modern design, for that time, made it the preferred alternative to the WWI-era Renault FT, its main competitor in the export market, which, by this point, was showing its age. The Mk.E was faster, more durable and more versatile than the French tank.

This article will deal with another customer of this tank, Bolivia, which became the third nation on the continent of South America to acquire armored fighting vehicles after Brazil (12 Renault FT’s bought in 1921) and Argentina (6 Vickers Crossley Armoured Cars).

Buying the Vickers

Bolivia’s reasons for wanting to purchase war materiel were the growing tensions with its neighbor Paraguay over the disputed Chaco region, territory claimed by both countries. In 1928, there were border skirmishes, known as the Vanguardia Incident, but, with both sides recognizing neither was ready for a full-scale war, a peace settlement through the League of Nations was reached. Nevertheless, both nations remained bellicose and built up their forces in the region resulting in the outbreak of war in July 1932.

Acting upon the advice of Hans Kundt a deal was sought with the British arms company Vickers to buy modern military equipment, aircraft and tanks. Kundt was a German who was Minister of Defense and Commander in Chief of the Bolivian forces having previously been a Lieutenant General in the German Army during WWI. Originally, the contract was going to be worth GB £3 million and included 12 tanks plus aircraft. However, the financial crisis caused by the 1929 Stock Exchange Crash meant that a new, more austere deal had to be struck. In the end, this agreement, concluded in October 1932, was worth somewhere between GB £1.25 million and GB £1.87 million and included 196 artillery pieces, 36,000 rifles, 6,000 carbines, 750 machine-guns, 2.5 million rounds of ammunition, 10,000-20,000 shells, 12 warplanes, and 5 tanks – 3 Mk. E’s and 2 Vickers Carden-Loyd Mk. VI’s.

However, not all that was agreed to was sent and what was sent was of dubious quality. To make matters worse, Argentina and Chile, who supported Paraguay, blocked the shipments for some time and once they reached Bolivia, poor internal transport routes to the Chaco meant that the tanks did not arrive at the frontline until the 20th December 1932.

The E tanks were of both A and B versions. The A version vehicle had the serial number ‘VAE 532’ and the two B versions were ‘VAE 446’ and ‘VAE 447’. They were also slightly different to the normal Mk.E tanks. ‘VAE 532’ was up-armored to 17 mm from the original 13 mm and all three vehicles included a can for drinking water, two fire-extinguishers, wire cutters, a chainsaw, and two spades as non-standard additional equipment. On arrival, they only had dark green camouflage, but sand colored bands were later added. All tanks were then grouped together in the ‘Destacamento de Blindados’ under the command of the German mercenary, Major Adrim R. von Kries.

The Chaco War

First Blood

Their first action in the war took place in the 2nd Battle of Nanawa, in early July 1933. The accounts of this battle are patchy and there is some confusion regarding which tank was where at which point. Before the battle, they were divided up to support the two main advances in the north and the south. The North group, under the Austrian Captain Walter Kohn, consisted of, presumably, the one Type A and one Type B, most likely ‘VAE 447’, whilst group South was led by Major Wilhelm ‘Wim’ Brandt and consisted of the other Type B plus the two Carden-Loyds. They were all under orders to act independently of each other supporting the infantry’s advance.

Initially, the Mk. E tanks were very effective, being immune to Paraguayan infantry fire, and they advanced destroying machine gun nests and wooden emplacements along the way. To a point, they were too successful, when one tank, presumably ‘VAE 446’, under the command of the NCO Juan Saavedra Acha, broke the enemy line, but was forced to retreat for fear of being surrounded and was then captured due to lack of infantry support.

The other flank was far less successful. The tanks advanced without any artillery support and got pinned down. Disaster struck when the Type B (‘VAE 447’) was knocked out on either 4th or 5th July. There are several theories as to what happened: 1. the tank was destroyed after grenades were thrown in through its open hatches (open due to the overwhelming and suffocating heat); 2. a 81 mm mortar round penetrated the top of the tank; 3. the tank broke down and was then destroyed by Paraguayan artillery; or 4. it was hit by a 75 mm artillery round leaving it immobilized and that it was later destroyed by Bolivian troops to prevent it from being captured. What is clear is that Captain Kohn, its commander, and the gunner were killed, while the driver was left wounded, and that the turret was in good enough condition to be then taken by the Paraguayans, who were victorious in what would be one of the largest battles of the war.

The Type A on this flank was also damaged when enemy fire jammed one of the machine guns.

From this very first engagement, a few conclusions were drawn that would remain persistent throughout the rest of the war. The Vickers Mk. E engine and suspension proved to be good enough to fight in these harsh conditions and had enough armor to defend itself against Paraguayan small arms fire, whilst the armament, especially on the Type B, ripped through the Paraguayan fortifications. However, lack of availability meant they were not used in large enough numbers, and their tactical use as independent entities in support of infantry proved to be inefficient. Moreover, the heat, rising to as high as 50ºC made fighting difficult and affected the tanks in two ways: 1. it meant they had to fight with open hatches creating vulnerable spots; and 2. the heat affected the gun’s closing mechanism, which slowed down loading making it an arduous task.

From Gondra to the Second Battle of Alihuatá

The following month, the two remaining Mk. E’s were repaired and transported for deployment in the Battle of Gondra. This clash took place between March and December 1933, but the tanks, along with the only remaining Vickers Carden-Loyd Mk. VI, only fought between the 23rd and 26th of August. Here, they were deployed in conjunction against fortified Paraguayan infantry positions, where the 47 mm of the Type B proved to be particularly effective in destroying wooden fortifications.

Following the battle, they were assigned to the reserve of the 1st Army Corp and moved to the fort of Saavedra. In the subsequent months, they were employed individually as infantry support.
Even though their engagements were few, the Paraguayans were sufficiently concerned to create dedicated tank hunting groups and to set tank traps across the Chaco region. Lack of adequate anti-tank weaponry led these hunt squads to adopt unconventional methods. The tank hunting unit attached to the 7th Cavalry Regiment ‘San Martín’ would become renowned.

Beaten by Horses

The two remaining tanks were deployed together again in the Second Battle of Alihuatá in December 1933. In the last days of the battle (December 10th-11th), the two tanks were captured by the Paraguayan 7th Cavalry Regiment ‘San Martín’ at the 21st-22nd kilometer of the Zenteno-Saavedra road. Alerted by the rumble of the motors, the cavalrymen resolved to cut down trees to lay across the road in front and behind the tanks. With the road blocked and no way to escape, the tanks, commanded by the Germans Ernst Bertel and Fritz Stottuht, decided to defend themselves from the Paraguayan forces with machine-gun fire. After two hours of combat, with one of the commanders wounded, and with temperature inside reaching 50ºC, combined with fatigue and the lack of infantry support, the tanks had no option other than surrender.

Life in Paraguay

After being captured intact at Alihuatá, the tanks were taken back to the Paraguayan capital of Asunción to be exhibited as war trophies. Even though they were never put into service, they were the first and only tanks Paraguay had until the arrival of American M3 and M3A1 Stuart tanks more than a decade later.

Sometime during or after the war, the Type A (‘VAE 532’) was moved atop a pedestal in the grounds of the Military School in Asunción where it would remain until the 1990s. The Paraguayans named this tank ‘Ina’. The turret of the ‘VAE 447’, which was captured after the 2nd Battle of Nanawa, was exhibited in the Paraguayan Armed Forces Museum.

Tanks to the Second Spanish Republic?

For several years, in many books dedicated to the Spanish Civil War, there were claims that one of the captured Vickers, the ‘VAE 446’, was sent to Republican Spain as part of a weapons sale of excess and captured material in January 1937. There was a law in place (Decreto-Ley 8.406 signed on January 15th 1937) which authorized the sale of excess and non-necessary war materiel. Article 1 Point C refers to ‘VAE 446’ and puts the sale price at US $1040.

Records prove that Spain did indeed buy rifles and machine guns from Paraguay. However, there is no photographic evidence to prove the tank was part of a larger purchase and it cannot be confirmed. The story is that the Swiss arms trafficker Thorvald Elrich secured the tank for the Republic which arrived in Spain in September 1937. It is possible, that for the sake of cohesiveness, the turret was removed and replaced by that of a T-26 (a tank based on the Mk. E to start with).

To add to the confusion, some scholarship of the Spanish Civil War at times refers to the Soviet T-26 tanks as Vickers tanks. No trace of the tank can be found and if it was never sent to Spain, it is possible that it was scrapped. There are also claims that Portugal sent their two Vickers Mk. E’s, one Type A and one Type B, to fight on the Nationalist side, though these seems highly unlikely. The truth may never be known.

Final fate

In 1994, as a goodwill gesture, ‘Ina’ and the turret of ‘VAE 447’ were given back to Bolivia. Today they can both be found on display at the Colegio Militar del Ejercito in La Paz, with the turret being put on top of the rear of the Type A. A plaque on the tank’s front gives a brief history of it, with special emphasis on the 1994 gesture.

Sources

Antonio Luis Sapienza & José Luis Martínez Peláez, The Chaco War 1932-1935 Fighting in the Green Hell (Warwick: Hellion & Company Limited, 2020)

A de Quesada and P. Jowett, Men-at-Arms #474 The Chaco War 1932-35 South America’s greatest modern conflict (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2011)
Coronel Gustavo Adolfo Tamaño, Historial Olvidadas: Tanques en la Guerra del Chaco

Janusz Ledwoch, Tank Power vol.LXXXV Vickers 6-ton Mark E/F vol.II (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Militaria, 2009)

Matthew Hughes, “Logistics and Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932-35” The Journal of Military History vol. 69 No. 2 (April 2005), pp. 411-437

Michael Mcnerney, “Military innovations during war: Paradox or paradigm?” Defense & Security Analysis 21:2 (2005), pp. 201-212

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Specification
Dimensions (L-W-H)	4.55 m x 2.32 m x 2.21 m (14ft 11in x 7ft 7in x 7ft 3in)
Total weight, battle ready	7.3 tons
Crew	3
Propulsion	4-cyl gas flat air cooled Armstrong-Siddeley Puma petrol engine, 90 bhp
Speed (road/off-road)	31/16 km/h (19.3/9.9 mph)
Range (road/off road)	240/140 km (150/87 mi)
Armament	Type A: 2x Vickers Mk.IVb class C/T 7.65 mm machine gun Type B: Vickers QFSA Mk.II L/23 47 mm (1.85 in) gun
Armor	6 to 15 mm (0.24-0.59 in) The Type A had up to 17 mm (0.67 in)
Track width	28 cm (11 inches)
Track link length	12.5 cm (4.9 inches)
Total Purchased	3 (1 Type A and 2 Type B’s)