Post by volkssturm on Aug 22, 2009 19:34:10 GMT -5
Here's and interesting South American war. The Gran Chaco War of the late 1920's-early 1930's, between Boloivia and Paraguay.
worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n3/chaco.html
The ultimate cause of the war was sloppy map drawing by the Spanish colonial administration. The Chaco Boreal is a low, arid, hot, brushy and generally nasty piece of land between Bolivia and Paraguay. The Spanish colonial administrators included it as part of what became Bolivia, even though hardly any Bolivians lived there, because it was such a nasty, worthless place. Paraquay, on the other hand, was actively trying to settle it and considered it part of Paraguay. The Bolivians didn't care, until it looked like there was oil in the Gran Chaco. Then they went to war for it.
Several things are particularly interesting about the conduct of the war. The Bolivias were much better supplied, having money from their mines and loans from Standard Oil of Bolivia. Paraguay was extremely poor. This actually turned out to the Paraguayian favor, since they could only afford light weapons, like the Madsen light machinegun, mortars, and grenades. The Bolivians were wasting money on tanks, heavy machineguns and heavy artillery, which were ill-suited to the terrain.
The Bolivians also hired a former German general to advise and then become their chief of staff. He had commanded a regiment on the Eastern Front and apparently missed the memo about the new stosstruppen tactics. The Paraguayians had a number of officers who had served as volunteers in the French army in WWI and had absorbed the lessons of the 1918 Spring Offensive.
worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n3/chaco.html
The ultimate cause of the war was sloppy map drawing by the Spanish colonial administration. The Chaco Boreal is a low, arid, hot, brushy and generally nasty piece of land between Bolivia and Paraguay. The Spanish colonial administrators included it as part of what became Bolivia, even though hardly any Bolivians lived there, because it was such a nasty, worthless place. Paraquay, on the other hand, was actively trying to settle it and considered it part of Paraguay. The Bolivians didn't care, until it looked like there was oil in the Gran Chaco. Then they went to war for it.
Several things are particularly interesting about the conduct of the war. The Bolivias were much better supplied, having money from their mines and loans from Standard Oil of Bolivia. Paraguay was extremely poor. This actually turned out to the Paraguayian favor, since they could only afford light weapons, like the Madsen light machinegun, mortars, and grenades. The Bolivians were wasting money on tanks, heavy machineguns and heavy artillery, which were ill-suited to the terrain.
The Bolivians also hired a former German general to advise and then become their chief of staff. He had commanded a regiment on the Eastern Front and apparently missed the memo about the new stosstruppen tactics. The Paraguayians had a number of officers who had served as volunteers in the French army in WWI and had absorbed the lessons of the 1918 Spring Offensive.