Last time we talked about the participation of BT-5 tanks in the battle at Fuentes de Ebro. Today we will talk about the tanks of Spain itself, the history of which began in 1914 (and the first BAs began to be tested in Spain back in 1909), when 24 Schneider-Creusot armored vehicles were bought from France - a very impressive type of BA, which the resourceful French built on the chassis of their Parisian buses. These cars were powered by a 40 hp gasoline engine. and there was a cardan (not even a chain!) drive to the rear wheels. The latter were downright created for the war, that is, they were steel, with molded rubber tires, and the front were single, and the rear were double. True, the 5 mm armor was not good protection, but the roof armor plates had an A-shaped slope so that hand grenades would roll off it.
Tank "Trubia-Naval" 1936.
On a good road, these cars could travel at speeds up to 35 km / h, and the cruising range was 75 km. This armored car had no permanent armament, but it had six embrasure hatches on each side (they could also be used for ventilation), through which machine guns on swivels or arrows from their personal weapons fired. The crew consisted of 10 people, and it is clear why this is so. It is also clear that these machines were very primitive, but during the war in Spanish Morocco they showed themselves very well. Moreover, they were used even during the civil war!
One of the homemade Spanish BAs.
The first tanks were also supplied to the Spaniards by France. These were the "Schneider" CAI tanks, which entered Spain after the end of the First World War, and then the Renault FT-17, both with machine-gun and cannon armament, and in cast and riveted turrets. They were supplied with FT-17TSF tanks - "control tanks", equipped with a radio station in a large wheelhouse on the hull.
Tank "Trubia" Mod. A.
It makes no sense to describe this technique in more detail, since it is well known. It is only important to emphasize that the Spaniards took care of their tanks, therefore, even such outdated machines as "Schneiders" survived before the start of the fatal battle between the nationalists and the republicans.
In the 1920s, the Spanish military decided to purchase in France experienced wheeled-tracked tanks "Saint-Chamon", and in addition to them, wheeled-tracked armored vehicles "Citroen-Kegresse-Schneider" R-16 mod. 1929, experimental Carden-Lloyd tankettes in England and Fiat 3000 light tanks in Italy. After that, in 1926, at the state enterprise Trubia, under the command of Captain Ruiz de Toledo, work began on its own Spanish tank, officially called the "fast infantry tank", or "Model Trubia". Series A ".
The tank was planned to be produced according to the Renault model in both machine-gun and cannon versions, and to put on it a 40-mm cannon of its own design, capable of shooting at 2060 m with a projectile speed of 294 m / s. But the option with a cannon for some reason did not work out, and they decided to arm the tank with three 7-mm Hotchkiss machine guns for the Mauser cartridges used in Spain.
Tank "Trumpet" in battle.
Externally, the tank came out a little like Renault, but had a lot of rather incomprehensible and strange, purely "national" features. Here's how, for example, in a rather cramped conical tower, you can install as many as three machine guns? And here's how - to make it two-tier, and so that each tier rotates independently of each other, and each tier would have its own machine gun in a ball mount,which theoretically would allow changing the firing sector without turning each tier! A very "tricky" and complex scheme, isn't it? Then a stroboscope was placed on the roof of the tower. Yes, again it was convenient: after all, the armor that surrounded the observer seemed to “melt” when the device was rotated, a 360 ° view is obtained, but a special drive is needed for it. And the Trubia tower was already very cramped. The stroboscope itself was connected to the tower fan, for which an armored hood was provided above it. Another machine gun was located in the frontal armor plate, as on the T-34. In the hull there were two more embrasures on the side armor plates. Another feature of the tank was the nose protruding beyond the track. His Spanish designers equipped it with a narrow skating rink to overcome vertical obstacles. The traditional tail was attached at the back. They decided to fully book the chassis, and even close them with beveled fenders. The design of the track was too original: some of the tracks slid along the runners that were inside its armored bypass, but a special protrusion on every second track covered it from the outside and also slid along it!
Trubia-Naval in a combat situation.
"Trubia-Naval" Republicans.
Such a device protected the chassis from both dirt and stones, but due to the lack of suspension, the tank's movement was very shaking. There were no lugs on the tracks, so the Trubia's cross-country ability was poor. In battles in Spain, these machines were used during the defense of Oviedo and near Extremadura. It turned out that they had enough machine-gun armament for a battle in the city. But these tanks were so few that they did not play any significant role: we can say that the Spaniards just as well could not have them at all.
As for the total number of Spanish tanks, there were very few of them. Spanish historian Christian Abad Tretera wrote that in July 1936 there were 10 FT-17s - they were armed with a tank regiment in Madrid (Regimiento de Carros de Combate No. 1) and five more tanks were in Zaragoza (Regimiento de Carros de Combate No. 2). Four Schneider tanks remained in Madrid. Tanks "Trubia" (three prototypes) were in the infantry regiment "Milan" in Oviedo. Two Landes tanks were made at the Trubia plant in Asturias. BA "Bilbao" was in stock the most - 48 vehicles, of which the Republicans had 41 armored vehicles, and only seven went to the nationalists.
Spanish armored tractor Trubia-Landes.
During the war, the Landes tractor-tractor with a chassis similar to Trubia was converted into a "tank". The Republicans tried to make the "Trubia" mod. 1936. Or as it was also called "Trubia-Naval", by the name of the plant, however, the republicans also called it like this: "Euskadi's machine." Well, the tank came out just very small and very light, although its crew consisted of three people. Armament - two machine guns "Lewis" caliber 7, 7-mm, one in the turret and the other in the body, both in ball mountings. According to the project, a 47-mm cannon was supposed to be in the tower, but they did not manage to deliver it. This tank was used in battles, and even quite widely, but it was not possible to establish its mass production.
In turn, the nationalists also constantly dreamed of tanks, and their own, Spanish, so in 1937 they decided to create an infantry tank superior to both the Soviet and the vehicles of their allies, the Germans and Italians. The armor was supposed to protect it from armor-piercing bullets of 7, 92-mm caliber, and the armament was supposed to work well both for infantry and enemy tanks. They designated it as C. C. I. "Type 1937" - "infantry battle tank", and ordered a series of 30 vehicles.
Tank C. C. I. "Type 1937".
The designers followed the principle of a "children's designer" and took the chassis from the Italian tankette CV З / 35, a pair of 7, 92-mm Hotchkiss machine guns were installed, as on this machine, but only to the right of the driver, and on top - a turret armed with 20- mm automatic cannon Breda mod. 35-20 / 65, which was already installed on the converted German Pz. IA tanks, instead of two machine guns. The tank showed a speed of 36 km / h, and as a vehicle for supporting the infantry, it turned out to be quite convenient. In addition, it even had a diesel engine, which in some way reduced its fire hazard.
Tank "Verdekha" on trials.
It was followed by the "Verdekha infantry tank", named after its creator, artillery captain of the Nationalist army, Felix Verdech. Work on it began in October 1938, and in the spring of 1939 it was sent for testing. some were copied from the T-26 tank, but the engine compartment was placed in front, and the driver was seated behind him, like on a Merkava tank.
Tank "Verdekha" overcomes a steep slope.
ACS with a 75-mm gun on the chassis of the "Verdekha" tank. Back view.
ACS with a 75-mm gun on the chassis of the "Verdekha" tank. Front view.
The cannon on it was Soviet, 45 mm, and on the sides of the gun were two machine guns - German Draize MG-13. The tank had a turret similar to the turret from the German Pz. I tank, but with an oversized armored mask, in which the cannon trunnions were installed. There is a photograph in which this tank shows a turret with double doors on its sides. The tank turned out to be a quarter lower than the Soviet T-26 was. The turret armor was 16 mm, and the frontal hull armor was 30 mm. It was planned to release an SPG with a 75-mm gun on the chassis of this vehicle. But the economic situation in Spain was such that it could not produce either tanks or self-propelled guns based on them and was content with Soviet captured T-26 and BT-5.
Tank "Verdekha" and T-26.
Tanks "Vickers-6t" also fought in Spain. In 1937 they entered Spain from … Paraguay, because its president sold to the Republicans a lot of all kinds of weapons and tanks of this type, which became Paraguay's trophies in the war with Bolivia. Three tanks belonged to type "A" - that is, they were machine-gun vehicles, one tank was of type "B" - cannon. It is interesting that among the Soviet T-26s delivered to Spain, judging by the photographs, several vehicles belonged to the two-turret type.
"Trubia-Naval" nationalists.
(Fig. A. Sheps)
