"Bohler 47/32 Gun in Spain?" Topic

Is there any good evidence that the Italians sent the license built Bohler 47/32 gun to Spain from '36-'39?

Not just an OOB for the CTV from the wargame book "Spain in Flames", but another source?

Thanks!

According to Wikipedia, it was not used in Spain. Of course one could dig deeper. I also checked Bob Cordery's La Ultimate Cruzada. Not mentioned there either. Here is the Wikipedia article -

link

Thank you, Nick!

I wondered if the Spanish authors of the Spain in Flames sourcebook for FoW had some info we lacked in the UK or US.

Jeff

Jeff,
I would tend to think that the FOW authors went for cool looking weapons.

@jhancock: Join the Spanish Civil Wargaming Facebook group, and ask Robert-Jan Maycock. He usually has the detail, if it isn't in Cordery.

Thanks, Trebian, but I'm not on Facebook.

So far, I've seen nothing to support the use of the 47/32 support gun in Spain.

I read somewhere that the Germans supplied the Italians some Pak36 37mm ATGs, but that might have been later in North Africa or Albania/Greece.

I appreciate all the replies!

I just started a book on armored combat in SCW.

"Tank Combat in Spain" by Anthony Candil (he was a Spanish armor officer)

link

I can't remember where, but I think it was in this book while the author was exploring foreign aid during the conflict that he mentions in passing that the 47mm AT gun was used, BUT ONLY by the CTV.

I'll look to see if I can find where I saw that.

I don't know a great deal about the conflict but am currently reading up on it rapidly. Got a bunch of Empress figures that I can't wait to see on the table.

Oddball,
I'm selling off all of my Spanish Civil War reference material, books and dvds. Take a look at my Marketplace ads.

I'm also reading Tank Combat in Spain. The 47mm is mentioned in the chapter on the organization of Nationalist armored forces. I don't recall the exact context, but they were used alongside the 65mm infantry gun. The 65 was pressed into service as a stopgap ATG when nothing else was available.

I found a Spanish website reporting 7 Bohler 47/32 guns were in Spain with the Italian forces. No reference or citation for the source, so…?

If you game 15mm SCW, the Peter Pig Scheider-Cannet 75mm gun from the WW1 Serb line is nearly identical to the gun the Spanish army adopted in 1907 and used until the 1940s.

Until now, we all used the French 75s, which were provided during the war, but now there is a better model for the Spanish gun.

Tank Combat in Spain does indeed confirm the Bohler gun was used in Spain but by the CTV only. It was the standard antitank gun of the Italian army at the time and there seems no logical reason why the CTV would not take it with them.
The Wikipedia article referred to doesn't actually say the gun wasn't used in Spain, it says the gun wasn't used by the Spanish (which is exactly what Candil says in his book).

Thank you, Mac!

Speaking of the 47mm Bohler, I recently found a pack of 3 15mm models of this gun from Old Glory/Command Decision. They are nice 1-piece castings. I ended up painting one grey, one khaki, and the third in a dark olive green. I'm too incompetent to provide phots, but I can recommend then if you like 15mm.

Jeff, I think the problem is that a lot of these interwar weapons resembled each other. Also people tended to use generic names, a machine gun was a maxim or a Vickers, rather than the correct name.

i read about 47/32 AT guns being employed by "armoured" italian troops against republicans' T-26, they often were towed by CV33, and deployed by the crew in the eventuality of an encounter with such tanks, pratically the crew had to dismount and fire the gun against the enemy tank. A really fool tactict, but given that they had only two LMG against a more heavier tank….