Just finished the new Osprey Vanguard 170 'Spanish Civil War Tanks' by that No.1 tankie, Steven Zaloga.
He gives a good overview of tanks and the operations they supported throughout the war on both sides. Italian tankettes and Pkw1 for the Nationalists and largely Soviet T26 for the Republicans. There were also a number of home produced tanks that I hadn't seen before.
As always with this series this book has many excellent photies and colour plates by Tony Bryan. I need to touch up my collection after looking at these plates.
The author concludes that the conflict was not really the proving ground for Blitzkrieg. Similarly the Russians did not really learn the lessons. This was mainly due to the small scale of tank deployment in Spain, together with poor tactics.
I also re-read an earlier article by this author on Soviet tank operations in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies (Sept 1999). He reached similar conclusions whilst recognising that the war did have important consequences for tank technology. In particular the need for gun armed tanks and better armour to counter the contemporary anti-tank guns.
Altogether a good read and helpful in developing my SCW project.
Sounds interesting. I can't imagine that the tank technology during the Spanish Civil War would not have had any influence at all.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't actually considered tank deployment in the Spanish Civil War. This could be quite an eye opener.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
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