https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=iCX1Aor3cpg - Known as beekeeper units Germans sent tanks and anti-tank guns Training and combat units 1 battalion and 3 tank companies Train the Spanish in tanks and anti-tank guns Called for unmarried officers and about 160 experienced trainers and crew members 41 Panzer 1 tanks at first Transport company, maintenance platoon and anti-tank group aswell Officially Germany couldn’t intervene in Civil War Everyone left the army Shipped as tourists accompanied by tourist guides Shipped agricultural equipment with tanks Started training Spanish troops immediately Tanks moved with trucks T26 had a cannon while panzer had machine guns Caused problems initially - Spanish troops were not properly trained and Germans weren’t allowed to fight to avoid being captured Germany wanted to avoid official engagement Germans unhappy with Spanish during battle of madrid Requested approval to advance all forces After defeat training was increased for all Panzers often lost tracks Visual Slits not safe against infantry fire Terrain limited speed Could not combat the t-26s machine gun Germans noted infantry tank and Luftwaffe tank cooperation was essential - https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/spain/Interwar_Spanish_Tanks.php - Russia interested in securing a satellite state in Europe before SCW Republicans desperately needed arms Agreement of non-intervention with Britain and France Soviets wanted to stop spread of fascism Spain received around 731 tanks and 300 armoured cars from soviet and Comintern sources Most Soviet vehicles crewed by Soviets - Estimated 281 T26s were sent to Spain Paid for in gold by republic 45mm 20kl gun that was much deadlier than any other vehicle of war Operated by soviet crews only but often fell into the hands of nationalists 50 bt5s sent to spain - Faster but limited by shit terrain 45mm 20kl gun was again very deadly Again nationalists captured and used them https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2015/08/26/spanish-republican-t-26s/ - - First conflict in which the t26 participated At republican request, soviets sold weapons and equipment and provided military advisers First shipment delivered October 1936 80 volunteers under the command of colonel S. Krivoshein First German delivery of armoured vehicles to Franco’s insurgent Nationalist forces was of Panzer I light tanks, which arrived only a week later Italians had begun to provide Nationalists with CV-33 tankettes even earlier Republican and Nationalist tanks saw their first combat during the advance of Franco’s forces towards Madrid Panzer I and CV-33 tankettes suffered heavy losses from Republican tanks armed with 45 mm gun First Soviet T-26 tanks delivered to Cartagena were intended for Republican tankers training in the Archena training center Situation around Madrid became complicated and fifteen tanks formed a tank company under the command of Soviet captain Paul Arman Panzer 1a’s proved to have insufficient armament when pitted against the T-26 The Soviet volunteer tank commanders and drivers sent to Spain were from the best tank units of the Red Army The tank gunners were usually Spanish Around 70 T-26s in the Republican Army in the beginning of 1937 “In summer 1938, the Republican Army had two armoured divisions, formed with Soviet help. Turrets from irreparable T-26 and BT-5 tanks and from BA-6 armoured cars were mounted on Chevrolet 1937s and other armoured cars developed and produced by the Republicans.” Soviet Union provided a total of 281 T-26 tanks Used by the Republicans in almost all the battles of the Spanish Civil War Approximately 40 percent of T-26s fell into Nationalist hands by the end of the war Nationalists prized the Soviet tanks Offered a bounty of 500 pesetas for each tank captured intact T-26 was most widely used tank of the war in both armies Referred to as “the tank of the Spanish Civil War” in the title of one of Lucas Molina Franco’s articles “Out-gunned, out-manoeuvred, and hard-pressed, the Spanish had no effective answer to the tank” No other tank in the field able to knock the t26 out T26 had weak armor Frontal armour of the T-26 was easily penetrated by German and Italian anti-tank guns http://bobrowen.com/nymas/soviet_tank_operations_in_the_sp.htm - - Historians of armored warfare have often misinterpreted the role of armor in the Spanish Civil War War was just a “laboratory” Conflict was not a demonstration of brilliant tactics and great battles Each nation had own views about how to employ tanks in operations Germans were still developing their thinking “Soviets had already embraced concepts stressing “deep battle” by offensive actions” Circumstances of war made it impossible for the nations ideas to be tested Tanks became tactical weapons used to support offensives or bolster defenses Neither Nationalists nor Republicans employed blitzkrieg tactics German blitzkrieg theory was embraced only after the campaign of France in 1940 Germany acquitted themselves well Tanks lacked the armor and armament necessary to successfully meet an enemy equipped with heavy machineguns and antitank weapons Liddell Hart stated that the tanks used in Spain were “obsolescent and of poor quality.” Tank models were the standard of the time Combined arms operations integrating infantry and armor “Italians considered cooperation between tanks and infantry an issue because they were never able to achieve simultaneous efforts when tanks and infantry were on the attack in Spain” Full cooperation was always lacking between tanks and infantry Light tanks considered useful for reconnaissance “Spanish conflict was a special kind of war, from which it would be a mistake to draw any major new conclusions or lessons” Captured Soviet tanks were prized on the Nationalist side T-26s that the Nationalists returned to action constituted the most potent component of Franco’s armored force Russian tanks considered excellent for defensive action Also a good offensive weapon http://bobrowen.com/nymas/soviet_tank_operations_in_the_sp.htm - Tanks in the Spanish Civil War provide intriguing example of the potential and problems of innovation in military technology First major employment of armor since the end of World War I Poor tactics employed Arranged for the creation of a training center near the town of Archene in Mursia Soviet government did not plan to provide crews for the tanks sent to Spain Rather to train Spanish personnel to operate them “Archene became the main training and technical center for the Republican tank force for much of the war.” T-26 tank was standard infantry tank in Red Army T-26 was the main type of tank sent to Spain T-26 was not ideal for infantry support Was thinly armored, and vulnerable to contemporary anti-tank guns T-26 had an advantage in firepower: armed with a dual-purpose 45mm gun - Arman is reported to have quipped "The situation is not so hopeless. They have fifteen thousand soldiers, we have fifteen tanks, so the strengths are equal!" Spanish infantry had no training to operate with tanks Arman had no patience to wait for them. So ordered his company forward without the accompanying infantry Tank units could not be employed non-stop “Co-operation between the tanks and the infantry they were supporting was almost uniformly abysmal” No training by the tanks and infantry in cooperative tactics before missions Poor coordination between the infantry and the tanks Calls for better training of tank crews went largely unheeded Greatest failure of the Red Army was in the area of tank-infantry cooperation
