Nationalist Reinforcements
Some more armour for my Spanish Civil War Rebel forces.
I have found an account of an interesting engagement where the Rebels used a Panzer I with the field conversion where they mounted a 20mm Breda into the turret. Now I`ve only ever owned one Minairons Pz I and I was sure I still have the extra turret (with Breda) in one of my bits box, but could I found it - could I fuck!! But a quick post begging on Facebook and The Wargamer`s Forum got a couple of guys to volunteer to give me a couple - people are very kind 😁These are now with the lads back in Wales but won`t be with me until the end of the month.
As it turns out Lluis of Minairons had also read my post on FB, now I`ve known Lluis for over 30yrs he was an Ebay trader long before he started his own business. He got in touch and offered me a box of Panzer Is, it seems he still has stock of the plastic kits even though he is retired and the business now closed; well I couldn`t resist and it gave a few Euros to a mate 😁
I couldn`t resist - so here they are:
Panzer I in early panzer grey
The rebels will need all the help they can get when they’re facing T26’s. Nice looking models 👏👏
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
The Russians only allowed Communist members to train as tankers which extremely limited the pool of potential crews. This led to bad usage, awful deployment and poor general maintenance. The T-26s broke down and were abandoned, some ran out of fuel which led to the Rebels capturing large numbers which eventually meant the Rebels had as many T-26s as the Republic.
DeleteFor some reason I thought more than four Pz were up gunned with 20mm cannon, but my memory may be at fault. 20mm autocannon weren't a bad AT weapon in the 1930s when most tanks were just designed to be bullet proof.
ReplyDeleteHi Martin how are you? Its been ages since we last communicated - when I edited The Journal!! Most sources seem to indicate this was just a field expedient and they used the Breda as it was available in numbers from the CTV. As I have written, then actually only converted four in the end as by then, the Rebels had a fair few T-26s to play with, so further conversions were not needed. Yes the 20mm Breda had a fair AT capability for this time period, the Russians were quite advanced mounting their 45mm into even their light tanks!
DeleteA wonderful tale of the generosity in the hobby and some fine looking tanks the result!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, James
Some people are very kind, our hobby is filled with such people generous with thier time and knowledge and spare bits too :)
DeleteExcellent as always and a great reflection on what a wonderful hobby we're part of 👍
ReplyDeleteCheers, credit where credit is due - we belong to a close nit group generally very nice people.
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