Tanks of the Spanish Civil War - Introduction and Overview

When the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, Spain had few tanks and little experience with them. A dozen Renault FTs, a handful of Schneider CAs, and four Trubia A4s (a domestic derivative of the FT) constituted the entire tank force of Spain. Of those tanks, the Republicans would start the war with 5 FTs, 4 CAs, and 1 A4, while the Nationalists had 5 FTs and 3 A4s. The only domestic production during the war would be a dozen Trubia Naval tanks. Both versions of the Trubia tank were armed solely with machine guns.

The vast majority of the tanks in the war came from three nations that ignored the arms embargo on both sides - the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy. The Soviet Union would supply 281 T-26 tanks and 50 BT-5 fast tanks to the Republicans, while the two fascist nations would provide 122 Panzer I tanks and 155 L3/33 and L3/35 tankettes.

Per Stephen Zaloga's research, the deliveries of Soviet tanks were as follows:
12 Oct 1936 - 50 T-26
25 Nov 1936 - 37 T-26
30 Nov 1936 - 19 T-26
06 Mar 1937 - 60 T-26
08 Mar 1937 - 40 T-26
07 May 1937 - 50 T-26
10 Aug 1937 - 50 BT-5
13 Mar 1938 - 25 T-26

Meanwhile, the Nationalists received the following deliveries:
August 1936 - 5 L3
October 1936 - 41 PzKpfw I, 10 L3
December 1936 - 21 PzKpfw I, 20 L3
Jan/Feb 1937 - 24 L3
March 1937 - 24 L3
April 1937 - 12 L3
August 1937 - 30 PzKpfw I
September 1937 - 16 L3
December 1937 - 10 PzKpfw I
April 1938 - 12 L3
Nov/Dec 1938 - 32 L3
January 1939 - 30 PzKpfw I

These would be the primary armored fighting vehicles of the Spanish Civil War.

Field Artillery of the American Civil War

The data below are for some of the most common field artillery of the American Civil War. Some explanation of ammunition types is needed.

Shell is a hollow round filled with gunpowder. It uses a timed fuse to detonate (ideally) just over a target, maximizing the concussive force. It was used primarily against fortifications and enemy artillery. Shell causes both concussion and fragmentation damage.

Shot is a solid round, primarily used by smoothbores against cavalry, infantry in column formation, or infantry taken by enfilade. This would (if fired properly) bounce through the formation like a bowling ball, shattering everything in its way. Rifled guns rarely used solid rounds ("bolt") in ground combat, since they couldn't be bounced. At sea, solid shot was more common for its increased penetration against ships. By the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, Union rifled artillery no longer carried bolts as a standard ammunition type.

Canister is essentially a giant shotgun round, generally with one-inch diameter shot packed into a thin sheet metal can. It would split upon firing, creating a spray immediately in front of the barrel and extending from the barrel per the standard burst rules. It inflicts only fragmentation damage.

Case is a hollow round filled with shot and a small bursting charge. It would be time fused (like shell) and was intended to burst about 5 yards above an enemy formation, scattering the shot. It has no concussive effect, but creates a fragmentation burst as per the standard rules.

Three gun carriages were used during the Civil War, all designed pre-war. The lightest carriage was for the M1841 6-pdr, and massed 409 kilograms. This carriage was used for all of the rifled pieces listed below. The second was for the M1841 12-pdr, and it massed 534 kilograms. The last was for the M1857 12-pdr, which massed 513 kilograms.

Smoothbore guns

M1841 6-pdr (9.3 cm)
Tube Weight: 402 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 137 Crew:8
Shell: C: 3 B: 11 Pen: 2C
Shot: D: 21 Pen: 2/1/1/1
Canister: D: 2/1 B: 69 Pen: 1-Nil
Case: D: 2/1 B: 24 Pen: 1-Nil

M1841 12-pdr (11.7 cm)
Tube Weight: 818 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 150 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 4 B: 14 Pen: 5C
Shot: D: 26 Pen: 3/3/2/1
Canister: D: 2/1 B: 75 Pen: 1-Nil
Case: D: 2/1 B: 30 Pen: 1-Nil

M1857 12-pdr "Napoleon" (11.7 cm)
Tube Weight: 558 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 138 Crew:8
Shell: D: 4 B: 14 Pen: 5C
Shot: D: 26 Pen: 3/3/2/1
Canister: D: 2/1 B: 69 Pen: 1-Nil
Case: D: 2/1 B: 30 Pen: 1-Nil



Rifled guns

6-pdr Wiard Rifle (6.6 cm)
Tube Weight: 330 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 211 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 2 B: 8 Pen: Nil
Shot: D: 15 Pen: 1/1/1/1
Case: D: 2/1 B: 17 Pen: 1-Nil

10-pdr Parrott Rifle (7.62 cm)
Tube Weight: 405 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 241 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 3 B: 9 Pen: 1C
Shot: D: 17 Pen: 2/2/2/1
Case: D: 2/1 B: 20 Pen: 1-Nil

10-pdr Ordnance Rifle (7.62 cm)
Tube Weight: 371 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 234 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 3 B: 9 Pen: 1C
Shot: D: 17 Pen: 2/2/2/1
Case: D: 2/1 B: 20 Pen: 1-Nil

12-pdr Whitworth Rifle (7 cm)
Tube Weight: 496 kg
Rld: 2 Rng: 292 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 2 B: 8 Pen: Nil
Shot: D: 15 Pen: 2/1/1/1
Case: D: 2/1 B: 18 Pen: 1-Nil

12-pdr Blakely Rifle (8.89 cm)
Tube Weight: 364 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 206 Crew: 8
Shell: D: 4 B: 11 Pen: 2C
Shot: D: 20 Pen: 3/2/2/1
Case: D: 2/1 B: 23 Pen: 1-Nil

14-pdr James Rifle (9.7 cm)
Tube Weight: 416 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 220 Crew: 10
Shell: D: 5 B: 12 Pen: 3C
Shot: D: 21 Pen: 4/3/3/2
Case: D: 2/1 B: 25 Pen: 1-Nil

20-pdr Parrott Rifle (9.3 cm)
Tube Weight: 795 kg
Rld: 3 Rng: 241 Crew: 10
Shell: D: 4 B: 15 Pen: 2C
Shot: D: 21 Pen: 4/4/3/2
Case: D: 2/1 B: 31 Pen: 1-Nil

Tanks That Almost Were - Peugeot Char 1918

As French Army orders for the Renault FT increased, other builders began designing armored vehicles as well. Peugeot worked on a request from an artillery captain for a vehicle with a high-caliber gun but no turret.

Master Index

American Civil War
Field Artillery

World War I
Tanks
Vehicles
Tanks That Almost Were
Anti-Tank Rifle - T-Gewehr
Obscure Small Arms
Small Arms Index 

Spanish Civil War
Introduction

World War II
Australian Sentinel Tank

Rules
Armor Penetration
Small Arms Actions and Magazines
Tank Guns

Other Games
Silhouette Character Conversion
Silhouette Skill Conversion

Vehicles of World War I Index

Motorcycles 

United States
Standard B Liberty Truck 

Russia
Putilov-Garford Armored Truck

Austria-Hungary
Austro-Daimler Panzerwagen 

Tanks of World War I Index

France
Schneider CA
Saint-Chamond
Renault FT

Germany
Sturmpanzerwagen A7V

United Kingdom
Tank Mark I
Tank Mark IV
Tank Mark V
Tank Mark VIII
Medium A Whippet
Medium B

United States
M1918 3-Ton Tank
Tank Mark VIII
Renault FT 

Tanks That Almost Were Index

Germany
Leichter Kampfwagen I
Leichter Kampfwagen II
Oberschlesien

France
Peugeot Char 1918
Schneider CA 3 

LK I - the Leichter Kampfwagen

The German A7V had obvious flaws when it entered service. It had poor off-road mobility, it required an absurd number of crew, and it was so large that its armor couldn't be properly hardened with the equipment available to Germany. Joseph Vollmer began designing a light tank, called the "light combat car" (Leichter Kampfwagen).

Motorcycles of the Great War

One of the vehicles used heavily in the First World War was the motorcycle, which was a replacement for the horse for scouts and couriers. American soldiers used Indian and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which produced around 15 horsepower and had 2.5 gallon fuel tanks.

The tank that wasn't - the Saint-Chamond

The Saint-Chamond was France's second vehicle considered to be a tank, though to modern eyes it's closer to a self-propelled gun. With a long 75mm in a fixed-forward mount, it bears even less resemblance to a modern tank than the British rhomboidal tanks.

Hauling freight - the Standard B Liberty Truck

In 1911, an article was published in the Infantry Journal urging the U.S. Army to mechanize and replace horse-drawn wagons with trucks. The Army's response was that they already had 12 trucks, and that was quite enough. Of the twelve, three were at the quartermaster depot in San Francisco, one at Fort Sam Houston (Texas), one at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and seven in the Philippines.

The first tankette - Ford 3-Ton M1918

As the United States tooled up for production of the licensed version of the Renault FT, they also decided they wanted a lighter, cheaper vehicle as well.

The Medium Mark B

The Medium Mark B was the result of Sir William Tritton, one of the designers of the Mark I, not including the other lead designer, Lt. Walter Wilson, in the development of the Medium Mark A. When it was felt that the Mark A was underpowered, Wilson, now a Major, began developing a replacement, the Medium Mark B. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the prototype wasn't completed until September 1918, it never had serious production - only 102 were built, and only 45 of those entered service.

War Truckin' - the Putilov-Garford Armored Truck

While the most enduring image of the Western Front is trench warfare, the Eastern Front was more open. Armored cars delivered valuable service. One of the more eye-catching ones is the Russian Putilov-Garford, built by the Russian Putilov factory on an American Garford truck body.

The Vespers War goes on a field trip

This weekend, I took a little trip to the Virginia War Museum, since I had seen on Surviving Panzers that they had some World War I era vehicles. So, here's a bit of a photo gallery post for everyone.

Adventures in joint ventures - the Tank Mark VIII

Known as the Liberty or the International, the Tank Mark VIII was intended to be a pan-Entente joint venture, primarily designed by England, built in France using machinery and parts supplied by the United States. The plan was to build at least 1,500 tanks during 1918 in preparation for the 1919 offensive, with production starting in April and building up to a rate of 300 per month, with the factory being capable of expanding to 1,200 per month. This was a very ambitious plan, given that Britain's total tank production was around 150 per month.

A digression about armor penetration

Over on the boards at Juhlin, I've been involved in a discussion of armor penetration, since I was encountering some odd effects when trying to emulate modern body armor. I figured I'd repost some of the information here.

Fighting armor with armor - Sturmpanzerwagen A7V

After the deployment of the Tank Mark I, Germany engaged in a crash development program of their own tread-laying armored vehicle. What they ended up building was a large, boxy vehicle with a crew of 18(!), armed with captured Cockerill-Nordenfelt 57mm cannon and MG08 machineguns.