Chaco War (Uniform) References?

[Maichus]

Hi guys and girls,

I'm thinking about doing a little chaco war projekt (15mm) and I've found the subject to be quite fascinating.

So far I've read the following books:
- The Chaco War (Osprey MAA 474, the newer one)
- The Green Hell by Adrian J. English
- Command Magazine #12
- Military History Quarterly Summer 2009
and also a couple of internet sources.

All the a.m. have a lot of Spanish books listed in the bibliographies. Unfortunately, I do not speak Spanish.  Is anybody aware of more English (or German) books on the subject he/she would recommend? Also Spanish books with pretty pictures as I'm mostly after pictures/photos/descriptions of uniforms and weapons used, not so much after the general story of the war? 

Any hints greatly appreciated!

[Arlequín]

To be honest there doesn't appear to have been great deal of diversity in uniform that isn't covered by the Osprey book. Even then there is more in than you probably need for the actual fighting men. There are a few photos available on Google and all og these show pretty much the same uniform, particularly for Paraguay.

 

[Maichus]

Seems so. 

What I was wondering in particular is, how the uniforms differed... 'only' by colour? Most photos show the Bolivian soldiers with a kind of peaked cap and the Paraguayans with a kind of brimed hat. But there are also photos showing the Paraguayans with pretty much the same caps than their Bolivan opponents...  Could I use the same miniatures for both sides just by painting them differently?

[Maichus]

Hi Scurv,

Do you have a link to the movie?

I couldn't find it using google and such. 

[Arlequín]

What I was wondering in particular is, how the uniforms differed... 'only' by colour? Most photos show the Bolivian soldiers with a kind of peaked cap and the Paraguayans with a kind of brimed hat. But there are also photos showing the Paraguayans with pretty much the same caps than their Bolivan opponents...  Could I use the same miniatures for both sides just by painting them differently?

I don't know that much about the war, but I do know that Paraguay was both very poor and had a very small regular army, which I wouldn't be surprised if it did wear a similar uniform to its neighbours, differenced mostly by colour. The bulk of the Paraguayans as a 'militia' army seem to wear the ubiquitous sun hat and cheap uniform which seems to appear in most of the photographs.

The Gran Chaco is reported to be extremely hot and I wonder how long the Bolivians would stick to their normal uniform before changing it to suit the climate.

So maybe they did wear similar uniforms differentiated by colour once things got going, I really don't know for sure. Whatever you find out though, please feel free to share it with the rest of us.

 

[Helen]

I do not have a link for 'the well' but my spanish speaking mate did mention it recently and he might be able to get a copy.

Make that two please if it's possible, thank you.

Cheers,

Helen

[Helen]

Hi guys and girls,

I'm thinking about doing a little chaco war projekt (15mm) and I've found the subject to be quite fascinating.

Any hints greatly appreciated!

Hello,
I've most of the references including "The Conduct of the Chaco War" by David Zook and "Aircraft of the Chaco War" by Hagedorn & Sapienza. Both are very good and cover areas that are not contained in English's book.

I was very excited when Khurasan Miniatures released their 15 mm range. I bought enough to do a company each side. Even managed to paint some miniatures including the new mortar team (for both sides) then realised that I wasn't happy with the miniatures. They are really designed with a blunt instrument. So I await news on another company who will embarked on releasing this unique conflict in miniature. I don't really care if its 15 mm or 28 mm. I just want them to do justice to the period and to provide quality over quanity.

Cheers,

Helen

[NickNascati]

I'd strongly suggest that you Google "Chandelle".  This is a now defunct online mag that focused on military aviation.  The articles are still available online, and there was at least one good piece on the Chaco War.  It focused on the aircraft used, but also went into some detail on the conduct of the war on the ground.

[predhead]

For books I have this list:

Books:
The Chaco War, 1932-1935 (Osprey)
Aircraft of the Chaco War (Schiffer)
The Conduct of the Chaco War by David H Zook, 1960.
The Chaco War: Bolivia and Paraguay, 1932-1935 by Bruce W. Farcau, 1996.
The Green Hell: A Concise History of the Chaco War Between Bolivia and Paraguay 1932-35 by Adrian J. English, 2008.
The Chaco War: Bolivia vs. Paraguay 1932-1935 by Adrian J. English, 2013 (an expanded edition of The Green Hell)

And there are more references on my blog:

http://ambushedinthealley.blogspot.com/p/chaco.html