South American Armies

[Hastings]

Looking for info on South american Armies inter War period, particularly Guatamala and Argentina- any leads?
Cheers

[Christian]

In Uruguay they started building a railway so that people could have a bit of work. No references for that one, but my Dad (who is from there) recalled something about a Dictator, Terra, who was in power.

I hear Argentina mentioned in some episodes of Marple so I assume it was relatively safe to go there However, they did have some coups and other political/military activity inside the country around 1930.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_National_Gendarmerie

Here's some info on the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_War

And a few other conflicts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia-Peru_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indian_labour_unrest_of_1934%E2%80%931939

And some tanks used in the Argentine Army (no idea where this link came from):
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/argentina/argentina.html

Just the results of a quick search. It looks like the Interwar period was a little bit quiet... but this could also be deceptive (as I have found out in the last few weeks).

[Hastings]

seems to be a great place for coups and dictators in the 30's- which offers some scope. Argentinians wore a German style uniform with Coal Scuttle in Dark brown-Green, but as yet I have been unable to find the colour of the uniform

[carlos marighela]

What sort of information are you after? I may be able to help with the Brazilian army but if you want an excellent reference I suggest you look for a copy of Frank McCann's Soldiers of the Patria/ Soldados da Patria, which deals with the Brazilian army from the 1890s to the late 1930s.

[Hastings]

Thanks for that Carlos, its more Argentina and Guatamala at the moment as they seem most likely to be pushing for territories given the weakness in the British Empire caused by the Civil War.
In particular organization and uniform details are what im really hunting for. I thought there may be a National History or Military Museum in Buenos Aires with a website, but as yet ive not found one.

[carlos marighela]

As it happens there is the excellent Museo de las Armas de la Nacion in Buenos Aires, don't know if they have a website  but it's a great place to wander about. Tons of interesting wepaons  great representation of the various uniforms of the army in  lots of model soldiers and some great little dioramas, including one depicting the British landings at Quilmes.

There's an Army Museum as well but I never got around to finding it and one military museum was as much as my wife could take, although, I did get to her to come with me to the old frigate President Sarmiento.

Argentina was of those countries where there was still a pronounced German influence on her army (Chile being another). In the thirties this even extended to the use of German coal scuttle helmets. Uniforms were rather Germanic in style but in a olive material. I've seen photos of Argentine soldiers in the period and with the exception of leather leggings rather than jackboots they look pretty much carbon copies of the Wehrmacht. This site has some photos:

http://www.german-helmets.com/FOREIGN%20USE%20HELMETS.htm

[carlos marighela]

Here are the contact details for the Armies Historical section archive:

http://www.dahe.ejercito.mil.ar/age/historia.html

Interwar Argentine armour:

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/

[Hastings]

Thanks Carlos, if you come up with anything else or Argentine or Guatamala please let us know
Cheers

[frontal assault]

Looking for info on South american Armies inter War period, particularly Guatamala and Argentina- any leads?
Cheers

I know its not quite what your looking for, but there's the Gran Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay between 1932 and 1935, and includes the only use of tanks (that I know of) by one South American country against another.  While I don't know all that much about the conflict, beyond the fact that the Gran Chaco is a desert, there was a German general who lived in Bolivia around then, till he had to leave for being involved in a coup.

Just looked it up on a tank site (http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/) and Bolivia used 5 tanks, two Carden-Lloyd Tankettes, and three Vickers 6 Ton tanks.