Peruvian paratroopers boarding on the “Panchos”, the Caproni Ca.111 purchased in Italy, twelve aircraft, in the 1930s. The Peruvian Armed Forces had a small unit of paratroopers trained by the Italians. During the Zarumilla War of 1941 (Peruvian-Ecuador war), on 27 July, the Cuerpo Aeronáutico del Perú (Peruvian Air Corps) dropped a small number of paratroopers from his Ca.111 “Panchos” to seize the river port of Port Bolivar in the disputed territory. This operation was the first combat use of paratroopers in the Americas (as in Latin America much as in North America). Victor Sierra

First paratroopers combat mission in the Americas

Peruvian forces storm across the Zarumilla river at the outset of the Peruvian-Ecuadorian War of 1941 - '42.  The tank is a Czechoslovak Skoda-built LTP (or LTP-38), essentially the same as the PzKpfw 38t that fought in Operation Barbarossa at about the same time.

The borders of South America had come into existence as a result of a number of factors, including the somewhat piecemeal conquest of the continent by the Spaniards and Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, the vagueness of the delineation between the various Audiencias (administrative departments) of Spanish South America in the colonial period (it didn't really matter very much to Spain), all overlaid by the somewhat piecemeal process of liberation in the early years of the 19th century (which necessitated a much more determined effort to settle borders between the successor states).  The resulting borders were, if possible, inherently less logical or natural than European borders, and resulted in outbreaks of open border warfare into recent times.  In the particular case of Peru and Ecuador, the succession of wars stretched from the early 19th century until the 1990s.

As part of preparations for the anticipated next round of hostilities in this long and weary sequence, Peru sent a military mission to Europe in the mid-1930s and, among other things, ordered Czechoslovak artillery along with 24 of the projected replacement tank for the Czechoslovak LT-35 - the eventual LT-38.  As the LTP (or LTP-38), the Peruvian export version of the LT-38, the tanks arrived in time to be incorporated in a tank brigade before the 1941-'42 war.

The Peruvian Army may have been a bit backward by European standards, but it was both more numerous and very much better equipped than its Ecuadorian opponent, which lacked motor transport, modern aircraft and modern artillery and anti-tank weapons.  The Peruvians used their Czechoslovak tanks in an infantry support role, and the Ecuadorians had no answer to it.  Whether it can be assigned a decisive role of itself is doubtful, in view of the general inferiority of the Ecuadorian forces.  In any event, notwithstanding the interest of the Skoda firm in developing export variants of its products, this was the only significant employment in action of the LT-38 series of tanks, other than that of Germany and its allies.

One point to note - the main armament on this tank appears to be the Skoda 37mm/1.46 inch gun used on the Skoda LT-35 (PzKpfw 35t) tank and earlier models of the LT-38 (PzKpfw 38t).  Most of the PzKpfw 38t tanks used in WW2 carried upgraded 37mm cannon.  Best regards, JR.


On two continents ...

Three Caproni Ca.310 of the 11th Escuadron de Bombarderos (Bombers Squadron) of the Peruvian Air Corps flying over the Rio Guayas during the Peruvian-Ecuadorian War (the Zarumilla War) on 1941. The missions of the Peruvian Ca.310, sixteen planes purchased in Italy and delivered on 1938, included raid against the Ecuadorian town of Santa Rosa, Machala and Pasaje, the most important rearguard’s basis of the Ecuador’s Army. Inside a world shattered by the WW2, the conflict between the two Latin American countries (the first of a series of three wars) passed almost unnoticed and even now is almost forgotten. Victor Sierra 