Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Paraguay keeping M3 Stuart, M4 Sherman tanks in service
IHS Janes 360 ^ | 12-29-2015 | Erwan de Cherisey

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 Caballería 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 ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: m3; paraguay; stuart; tank; ww2
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-89 next last
To: tumblindice

“Ronsons”, that was it. Now I have to remember where I read that. As I recall, it was because they would burst into flames after taking a hit. At least according to the Brits.


41 posted on 12/30/2015 10:24:47 AM PST by W.Lee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: hoosierham
Stuart beats AK47

Won't fit in my gun cabinet and my wife has this thing about tanks in the yard.

42 posted on 12/30/2015 10:24:52 AM PST by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: tumblindice

I used to love that comic about a Stuart called “J.E.B.” from back in the early ‘60s.


43 posted on 12/30/2015 10:26:59 AM PST by W.Lee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound; 2ndDivisionVet; SandRat; Old Sarge; xzins

Thank you for the really ancient “Dino-Tanker” ping.


44 posted on 12/30/2015 10:27:23 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: W.Lee

Achtung Treadheads:
http://generalpatton.org/news/news.asp
They are restoring a Sherman as part of a new Korean war exhibit.


45 posted on 12/30/2015 10:28:34 AM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: yarddog

I don’t doubt that under the exigencies of combat and operations, coupled with the experience of doing dozens and dozens of them, along with having all the tools, parts and everything, that it could be done so much faster.

But, yes...our parents and grandparents were extremely capable people!


46 posted on 12/30/2015 10:28:57 AM PST by rlmorel ("Irrational violence against muslims" is a myth, but "Irrational violence against non-muslims" isn't)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Lion Den Dan

Depends what the no tank people have at their disposal. A good anti tank weapon can shift the odds dramatically.


47 posted on 12/30/2015 10:33:36 AM PST by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Parley Baer
I did not know that there were any M3’s in service anywhere. Same with the Sherman. They do have collector value.

As an Department of the Army civilian ordnance technician in the early 1980s, then switching over to the Navy, one of the projects I was involved in was an effort to develop 20 and 25mm gun mounts for the M3/M6 37mm main guns of the M3 and M5 light tanks and the M8 armored car, still very much in use in South and Central America and elsewhere. The 37mm high explosive round supply was was running very short and in the little 1.5-inch diameter 37mm, there wasn't much of a charge anyway; about like a hand grenade. So prototype mounts and feed mechanisms for the tank guns were rigged for 20mm and 25mm automatic cannons, really more useful for crowd control and putting down palace insurrections anyway.

And then the bright idea hit: why not rework the 37mm to take the 30x173mm round of the A10 Warthog's GAU-8 rotary-barrel cannon. It was tried and tested, first in a single-shot fixed testbed gun, and to their horror, Army testing found out it would zip right through the armor of an M113 personnel carrier. Or an M2/M3 Bradley-both sides, front to back, whatever. Or most anything else they tried it against, including several friendly foreign vehicles, save the front armor of an Abrams tank and I don't think they wanted to know the answer to that one.

Even better: the WWII 57mm M1A1 antitank gun known as *the six-pounder* to the Brits.

By the way, the Brazilians reworked some of their old M3/M5 chassis, and they too still have some small military value, though now less desirable to collectors. But even the X1 and its cousins are now museum pieces.

The X1A1 was the tank version, fitrted with a nothing-to-sneeze-at 90mm main gun. And their upgrades to the WWII American M41 tank have brought it right into the XXI Century as well:


48 posted on 12/30/2015 10:40:57 AM PST by archy (Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except bears, they'll kill you a little, and eat you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: tumblindice
I could spend all day with a comic book, `Haunted Tank (?)', many, many years ago.

OMG, you remember that, too??

49 posted on 12/30/2015 10:42:50 AM PST by Old Sarge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Robert A. Cook, PE

I am sure Paraguay’s view on it is it works just fine against its own citizens and other third world creatures.

I’m sure they don’t think they’re going to hold back an invasion from a real army.


50 posted on 12/30/2015 10:44:54 AM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Hope the holland tunnel gets the makeover I suggested.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound

No matter how mighty the WWII AFV, they all fell to the humble rocket-propelled shaped-charge of the panzerschreck, the panzerfaust, and the bazooka.

Tanks attract fire from anti-tank guns, anti-tank rockets, artillery, other tanks, and aircraft. Tanks needed a crowd of infantry ahead of and around them to survive in WWII.

You often see film of Red Army soldiers riding into combat hanging on to the sides of a T-34. They needed to do that on the open Steppes for a number of reasons, but it was very often suicidal for the troops. Russian soldiers were expendable.

Allied soldiers learned early on not to ride on tanks in combat. They would walk behind them but that was extremely dangerous work as well.


51 posted on 12/30/2015 10:45:11 AM PST by TTFlyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: archy
Makes me want to milk a Serbian cow!

Everybody knows that Serbian Donkey Cheese, aka "Pule", is a hot item right now. Why'd he want to milk a cow instead of a donkey?

While Pule is better selling, it still doesn't get the same respect as Venezuelan Beaver Cheese though.

52 posted on 12/30/2015 10:47:25 AM PST by Calvin Locke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: W.Lee

The Germans called them “Tommy cookers.”


53 posted on 12/30/2015 10:50:38 AM PST by forgotten man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: skeeter
In other news Boliva is closing a deal on the purchase of a half dozen Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Bs.

Not hardly. And try not to get in a tank fight with the Bolivian tankers; they run the SK-105 Kürassier introduced to the South American arena by Paraguay, and sporting a 105mm main gun.


54 posted on 12/30/2015 10:50:47 AM PST by archy (Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except bears, they'll kill you a little, and eat you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: W.Lee; tumblindice
They had gasoline engines, not diesels.

The IJN "Betty" bomber was called the "Type 1 Lighter" by its crews, iirc.

55 posted on 12/30/2015 10:52:30 AM PST by Calvin Locke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Old Sarge

That and Sgt. Rock: Budda budda budda!


56 posted on 12/30/2015 10:53:21 AM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Oberon
Do we still sell them parts for these things?

We do. New tracks are being made, both here and on the international market. As new light fighting vehicle designs come and go, some of their parts have been adapted to earlier vehicles. And weapons systems and fire control upgrades are a part of the picture in which my fingers occasionally dip into the pie.

57 posted on 12/30/2015 10:53:26 AM PST by archy (Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except bears, they'll kill you a little, and eat you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Old Sarge; tumblindice

Haunted Tank was a classic.

Particularly since it was haunted by the ghost of Jeb Stuart. The tank’s commander was a descendent of Stuart, and Jeb’s ghost would dispense tactical advice to keep the crew alive.


58 posted on 12/30/2015 10:55:48 AM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound

To me what’s interesting is that they have M3 Stuarts and not the later M5 Stuart.


59 posted on 12/30/2015 10:57:09 AM PST by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Starstruck; hoosierham
Stuart beats AK47

Won't fit in my gun cabinet and my wife has this thing about tanks in the yard.

You could move to Zimbabwe?

Former Rhodesian Army Stuart at the Zimbabwe Military Museum, Gweru

60 posted on 12/30/2015 10:57:13 AM PST by archy (Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except bears, they'll kill you a little, and eat you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-89 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson