Posted on 12/30/2015 9:35:29 AM PST by Snickering Hound
The M3 Stuart light tank and M4 Sherman main battle tank, both nearly 75 years old, appear to be going back into service with the Paraguayan Army as operational trainers.
Although the Paraguayan Army made a brief use of Italian Ansaldo CV33s, the M3 and M3A1s were its first real tanks. A total of 15 M3s were delivered in 1970 in three successive lots as donations from neighbouring Brazil. Paraguay's Stuart tanks first served with Cavalry Regiment N°3 (Regimiento de CaballerÃa N°3: RC3), part of 1st Cavalry Division (División de Caballeria 1: DC1), headquartered at Campo Grande near Paraguay's capital, Asuncion.
Since then - and aside from their part in the 1989 coup d'état that ousted General Alfredo Stroessner, then President of Paraguay - M3s have occasionally participated in the country's 15 May military parade in Asuncion. For the most part the tanks were mainly out of action, having been stored following a threatened army coup in 1996, until the last several years in which efforts have been made to get a portion of the fleet back in operational condition.
(Excerpt) Read more at janes.com ...
I believe it was Ben Franklin who said “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
Those things were obsolete in 1938.
They are newer than some of the cars on the streets of Havana.
Well, that should make producers of movies about WW II happy.
I did not know that there were any M3’s in service anywhere. Same with the Sherman. They do have collector value.
They could probably make enough selling them to collectors to upgrade to cold-war era armor.
I would love to see one of those in working condition, just for the history sentiment.
In other news Boliva is closing a deal on the purchase of a half dozen Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Bs.
Tread head ping
In the movie Kelly’s Heros, there’s a scene with a column of Sherman tanks. They were all borrowed from the Yugoslavian Army, where the film was made.
Better then no tank
I saw a show on “The History Channel” where a group was restoring a WWII Sherman.
One thing they did was rebuild the engine and also the clutch. They actually found a brand new in the box replacement clutch.
The thing which struck me is it took them several days to take the engine out. One of them commented that during WWII they routinely replaced engines in the field in two hours.
Our parents and grandparents were very capable people.
There is a slight difference in motivation between the two scenarios...
No, they were quite viable till maybe mid-1941.
Most German tanks till mid 41 were worse in most ways.
Why does Paraguay need an army in the first place ?
Oh, you’re evil, evil, evil.
Serbia, actually! The ending scenes were Serbian villagers, not French as portrayed in the movie.
Yep, for one, probably not engaging union labor back in the day
Concur. On the way!
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