I received this helpful letter from Alberto del Pino Menck, who lives in Montevideo: REF: El Dorado Vol.VI No.4. Following the interesting article "AFV's in Latin America" by Paul Walsh, I must include some more data and amendments to help clear some unclear data which might assist Paul and others who happen to research this subject.

P. 174: I have, so far, never heard about "armoured cars based upon commercial truck chasis, armed with a 37mm gun or Hotchkiss machine gun." During the last 20 years I have checked a considerable amount of original data from the Army Official Archives, numerous photographs of the Uruguayan Army and have also had contact with a lot of retired and active officers and NCOs (some of whom were on active service in the Army during the 20's and 30's) so I would be most interested in finding out where Adrian English found this data as used in his "Armed Forces of Latin America", page 427, which Paul has used as his source, in this way I could try and find out any relevent official data that is available to me here in Uruguay.

In my research I have found that the first AFV7s in the service of Uruguay were 3 Citroen Kegresse P-28 Auto Mitrailleuse de Reconnaissance} which were paradoxically on duty with the Montevidean Police (Grupo de Auto-ametralladoras de la Seccion Motorizoda de la Guardia Metropolitana de Montevideo} from 1934 to the early 50's, the exact date that they were not used on active service I dont't know.

P.178: The Uruguayan Army received between the years of 1944 and 1945 40 M3A1 Stuart tanks and not 18 or 28 as Paul has included, in 1946, the 2nd and 4th Cavalry Regiments were changed into Mechanized units with 20 Stuart tanks in each Regiment.

P.179: "AFV's supplied by the U.S. through MAP. The Uruguayan Army only recieved the 17 M-24 "Chaffee" light tanks from the list detailed, these being received during the years 1957 and 1958, one of which had been converted into a bulldozer ("pala lopadora"). In 1958 they were in service with the 13th Armoured Infantry Battalion and they are still in service with that unit except the first one No.1. (called "tanque madre"} which is in service with the CIBM (Armoured and Mechanized Instruction Centre).

The Uruguayan Army never received the M-3A1 Scout cars through MAP. The "lonely" M-3 "white" in service was a gift from the Brazilian Army in 1975 and is in service with the 5th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment. There is another M-3A1 which is out of service and was never on active duty, as such. It was placed as a "monument" in front of the Staff of the Army H.Q. (Calle Garibaldi, Montevideo).

Acquisition Timeline

As a brief resume I have listed below the AFVs in service in Uruguay and the historical record:

1933 or 1934: The Police of Montevideo recieved 3 Citroen Kegresse P-28 Reconaissance/Scout cars, bought by the Uruguayan Government.

1944 - 1945: Uruguayan Army obtained from the U.S.A., directly from the North African War front, 40 M-3A1 Stuarts, these were formed in 1946 into the 2nd and 4th Motomecanizados Cavalry Regiments.

1957 - 1958: Received 17 M-24 "Chaffee" light tanks, in service since then with the 13th Armoured Infantry Battalion.

1958: Received a Recovery Vehicle M-74 "Sherman" (some sources say by mistake?). It was initially in service with the 13th Armoured Infantry Battalion and later in the 80's was placed with the 4th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment, coming out of service in l988.

1969: Received 15 M-113 A1's from the U.S.A. before their use in Vietnam, this was the last material received via M.A.P., all 15 M-113's went into the 4th Cavalry Regiment to replace the M-3A1 Stuarts.

1974: With 9 M-3A1 Stuarts (Ex - 4th Mech. Cav. Regt.) the 5th Mechanized Cavalry Pegiment was formed.

1975: A M-3 "White" from the Brazilian Army was acquired and given to the newly raised 5th Mech. Cav. Regt.

1980: The Uruguayan Army received 22 M-41A1 "Walker Bulldog's" from Belgium, these were sent to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Mechanized) "Lt. General Pablo Galarza", renamed since that year into the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment "Lt. General Pablo Galarza". At the same time 5 M-3Al's (Ex - 2nd Cav. Regt.) were redistributed to the 5th Mech. Cav. Regt., while 15 M-3Al's (Ex - 2nd Mech. Cav. Regt.) were given to the 8th Cavalry Pegiment which became the 8th Mech. Cav. Regt. from this date.

1981 - 1982: The Uruguayan Army received:

15 EE-9 "Cascavel" from Engesa, Brazil, in serviceh the 4th Mech. Cav. Regt.

55 RPZ 4x4 "Condor", from Thyssen Henschel, West Germany, in service with the 13th Armoured Inf. Battalion, 4th, 5th and 8th Mech. Cav. Regts. and the 9th Motorized Cavalry Regiment.

16 EE-3 "Yararaca" from Engesa, Brazil, in service with the 4th, 5th and 8th regts. Cav. Regts. and the 9th Motorized Cav. Regt. As soon as the 4th Mech. Cav. Regt. received their new material they in turn sent their 15 M-113 A1's to the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment.

1984: The "Centre of Instruction for Armoured and Mechanized" (C.I.B.M.) was created using the 4th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment equipment, operating from that year with EE-9's, EE-3's and Condor's of the 4th Mech. Cav. Regt. plus 1 M-3A1 ex 8th Mech. Cav. Regt., 2 x M-41A1U and 1 x M-113A1 ex 2nd Armoured Cav. Regt. and recently with a M-24 "Chaffee", ex 13th Inf. Batt., 1 x Russian PTS-M and 1 x OT-64 SKOT.

1995: February, 60 OT-64 SKOT Armoured Personnel Carriers, from the Czech Republic were bought with the possibility to acquire a further 30.

That was a brief synthesis of the development of the A.F.Vs. in Uruguay, I do hope that some of the data will be of assistance to the society's readers.

Back to Table of Contents -- El Dorado Vol VII No. 2
Copyright 1996 by The South and Central Military Historians Society