Gran Chaco War

An Introduction

by Neil Patterson

If you want to do a "serious" study then most of the source material is in Spanish and published in S. America! For us lesser mortals who have to rely on English language sources, the "standard" book on the Chaco in English until recently was: "The Conduct of the Chaco War" by David Zook 1960. Never seen it myself, have considered ordering it via inter-loan library service but never got around to it.

A more recent study is: "The Chaco War" by Bruce Farcau 1998/9. Excellent if expensive with an extensive (mostly Spanish) bibliography.

Also useful is: "Armed Forces of Latin America" Adrian English. Alas, out of print and much sought after. Excellent.

For the Air War: "Aircraft of The Chaco War 1928-1934(?)" Hagedon & Sapienza. Exhaustive study of the weird and wonderful machines and men who flew them.

There is also a translation of the Paraguyan CinC's memoires available in English, title and details escape me.

On the internet, the only site I'm aware of (apart from lists of books on the subject) is one done by the online aviation magazine Chandelle. This is now hosted by someone else, but I cannot recal URLs etc. Concentrated mostly on aviation aspects, it did have a useful summary of the war and ground fighting.

There are some geographical sites describing the Chaco itself and some propaganda stuff (ownership is STILL disputed.....).

Magazines and other stuff:

I'm not aware of the S&T game. There is an excellent game/article/source in Command Magazine no 12. All by the same Bruce Farcau above. Hard to find now, but there are copies out there.

For organisation/TOEs etc:

There are lists for both sides in the Micromark series (now on Magweb.com). As with all these no source shown.

An old magazine from the 1960s "War Monthly" (IIRC) had an article on the Chaco. Danny can probably supply more details.

By far the most useful magazine is a copy of Military Modelling which had a piece on the Chaco by Terry Hooker. Superb. Illustrations, photos and complete OOB and TOE for both sides. I discovered my copy by accident as I didn't know it existed!

The aforementioned Terry Hooker may one day produce a booklet along the lines of many of his others. He got hold of numerous books on the Chaco a while back and is passionate on things Latin American. Check out the magazine of the South and Central American Military Historians (SACAMHS) on Magweb.com

Uniforms

Bolivia

Green-brown khaki uniform, either shirt and trousers or one-piece overall. Soft peaked cap like WW1 British. Webbing mostly brown, some black IIRC. Supply problems meant a range of uniform and equipment, some may have had tunics for instance, and webbing replaced by canvas bag. Officers smarter in almost British uniform (tunic, shirt and tie) with jodphur style riding trousers and jackboots (seen with black webbing/boots).

Paraguay

Less well equipped/uniformed. Again shirt/trousers or one-piece overall, this time in light olive green through sand shades. Headgear soft floppy sunhat/jungle hat (seen photo with mix of jungle hat and soft peaked cap like Bolivians......but suspect latter may be POWs as all sitting in front of Jungle hat types........caption labels all Paraguyans). Equipment usually canvas bag, water bottle/container and machete. Often bearfoot. Famously Officer cadets had full-dress uniform modelled on Prussian WW1. in dark blue complete with Pickelhaube........suspect never worn active service but as this is Tintin.

Wargaming

I'd suggest looking at Spanish Civil War figures, Asaltos in mono are perfect for Bolivians and "Thaelman" International Brigade figs for Paraguayans. WW1 Brits or similar (Russians etc) can expand Bolivians and maybe ACW Rebs for Paraguay.

In 15mm look at Peter Pig and 20mm look at Bandera miniatures SCW range. Their ( Peter Pig ) SCW range contains lots of useful figs, as does their WW1. They also do separate heads, including a couple of jungle type hats and a soft peaked cap.


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