During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), alongside 362 tanks, the Soviet Union delivered 120 armoured cars as part of its military aid to the Spanish Republican Governmant. These cars were of two types, one light, the four-wheeled FA-I and one heavy, the six-wheeled BA-3/BA-6.

From late 1936 onwards, the Spaniards took several initiatives to manufacture their own armoured vehicles, with the aim of increasing their war potential and reducing their dependence on foreign supplies. With the Spanish automobile industry concentrated in Catalonia, and the assistance of Soviet military engineers, the Republican Government had all the trump cards in their hands to achieve this goal. But the Republican Government in Valencia had, at first, not much influence over the Generalided, the autonomous Catalonian Government, which was anxious to preserve its independence. As a result, while a Comisaria de Armamento y Municiones was set up in Valencie to oversee and coordinate the production, procurement and supply of weapons for the Popular Army, the Catalonian Government had already created its own Comision de Industrias de Guerre de Cataluna (IGC), or Commission of War Industries of Catelonia, in Barcelona. Headed by the anorchist Eugenio Vollejo, this body was placed under the direct control of the Generalidad.

By the end of 1936, the Republicans were already trying to produce armoured cars of better quality and performance than the early tiznaos which had flourished everywhere in the early days of the Nationalist uprising. The Union Naval de Levante (UNL) shipbuilding concern in Valencia had designed and built, with the help of the Russian military engineers N.N. Alymov and A. Vorobiov, the UNL-35, a four-wheeled armoured car based on imported Soviet ZiS-5 lorries. Production of this car commenced in January 1937.

It is quite likely that the same team of Soviet technicians were also involved in the design of a heavier armoured car to be built in Catalonia. Among the models produced by the General Motors Peninsular S.A. company, a Chevrolet SD, Model 1936, six-wheeled truck chassis with four driven rear wheels, was selected for this new war machine. Although a little roomier, the bodywork and turret of the Chevrolet armoured car were not very different of that of the UNL-35.

The design was ready in March 1937 and the final assembly of what was then named the Autoametralladora-Canon (Chevrolet), M.1937 (AAC-1937) was entrusted to another automobile concern in Barcelona, namely La Hispano Suiza, which began production in May.

Description

The Chevrolet M.1937 armoured car weighed 4.8 tonnes with crew of three or four. It was powered by an in-line six-cylinder engine which delivered 85 hp at 3,300 rpm. Associated with a four speed and reverse gearbox which transmitted the drive to the four rear wheels (6 x 4), this power plant gave the car a maximum road speed of 60 km/h and a range of 300 km on one filling of petrol. Like the UNL-35, the AAC-1937 had sheet armour 8mm thick and made use of chrome-nickel armour plates supplied by the Sagunto Alto Hornos steel works, in the province of Valencia.

The armament foreseen at first for this armoured car was only two 7.62mm machine guns, one in the one-man revolving turret, and one located beside the driving station. As such an armament was soon considered as too modest for a large-sized vehicle, Russian General D.G. Pavlov suggested that the French 37mm Puteaux guns would be taken over from the few and almost unserviceable Renault FT.17 light tanks still in existence in the Republican Army, to be fitted in the armoured car's turret.

The production rate of the AAC-1937 remained slow for the whole war and did not exceed four machines per month. This was even lowered after the Nationalist offensive in Aragon had cut the Republican territory into two parts, in April 1938, thus isolating Catelonia from its supply source for armour plates. By the time production ceased in January 1939, only 70-odd armourad cars of this type had been delivered to the Popular Army. When the Nationalists occupied Barcelona they discovered a few almost completed examples in the factory and they took them over.

Armoured Car Units

Very little is known about the use of wheeled armoured vehicles in the Spanish Civil War. Things were made confusing bacause the Spaniards called all armoured vehicles tanks, whether wheeled or tracked, and whether armed with machine guns or cannon. This is confirmed in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls: "Robert Jordan had gone back to look for the tank which Montero said he thought might have stopped behind the apartment building on the corner of the tram-line. It was there all-right. But it was not a tank. Spaniards called anything a tank in those days. It was an old armoured car."

In May 1937, the Republicans created a 2a Brigada Blindata, or Brigada de Blindados, in charge of the armoured cars of the Popular Army. Despite of what its title suggests, this was not a combat unit, only a mere administrative and maintenance structure. Its nominal headquarters was located in Cuart de Poblet, near Valencia; it controlled around one hundred armoured cars in three battalions, some workshops and depots and a school. The battalions were split into three companies, made up of three-car sections. Late in July 1937, this body was re-christened Brigada de Autos Blindados and, in September, the paper establishment of its component sections was raised from three to five cars. In April 1938, the paper organization of the Republican Mixed Brigades was also modified to include a section of five armoured cars but, evidently, there were too few machines made available to implement this dream.

During the war, the Nationalists captured and made serviceable for themselves some AAC-1937 armoured cars, re-arming a few of these with the larger, two-man turret housing a 45mm gun and a co-axial machine gun salvaged from disabled Russian T-26 tanks and BA-3/BA-6 armoured cars. Thus fitted, the Chevrolet M.1937 looked a little like the Soviet six-wheeled amoured car, although it differentiated itself in the lack of spare wheels mounted on the hull sides and freely revolving on idler hub to provide assistance in crossing obstacles and prevent bellying between the front and rear wheels. Also the hull layout around the driver's position and the mudguards were distinctively different from the Soviet BA-3/BA-6.

The Nationalists used their AAC-1937 armoured cars in the northern zone, in Andalucia eno in Extremadura. Towards the end of 1938, the Nationalist General G. Queipo de Llano ordered to form in Seville an armoured unit gathering all the armoured vehicles his Army had captured from the Republicans. It fought as Agrupacion de Carros de Combate del Ejercito del Sur (Group of Armoured Vehicles of the Southern Army) against the last Republican diversionary effort in Andalucia in January 1938. This unit included about fifteen heavy armoured cars, a mixture of BA-3/BA-6s and AAC-1937s.

When the Popular Army was defeated in Catalonia, early in 1999, some Republican armoured cars of various types were driven over the French border. A few of these vehicles were AAC-1937s amongst which at least two undoubtedly had the strongest fate of any Spanish-built armoured vehicles. Stored in a French Army's depot in Montlhery, they were found and taken over by the Germans in 1940. When they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the latter turned up these cars into their own service under the names of Jaguar and Leopard". "Leopard" was still armed with the French 37mm Puteaux gun but, later on, it was stripped of both its turret and cannon which were replaced by a shielded machine gun. Likely the Germans used these two armoured cars in anti-guerilla operations, after which they were re-taken by the Soviets.

Technical Data

Weight; 4800 KG
Crew; 3
Length; 5.4 M
Width; 2.25 M
Height; 2.4 M
Wheelbase; 3.99M
Armament; 27.62MM or 1, 37MM PUTEAUX AND 1 MG.NATIONALISTS Replaced The 7.62S with German MG13 7.92MMS.
Max Speed; 60 KM/H