#26
Post
by alcantur » 20 Feb 2009, 21:29
Hi coconut,
This list has been ellaborated by myself. It is the result of a 3 month research. I gathered the info from the web and bolivian sources, confirmed it with Bolivian military personnel and former Chaco War soldiers (the few ones that are still alive), visiting an armory kept at Viacha's military unit with guns and weapons of that time, visiting the Bolivian Military Museum at La Paz city and reviewing data from the military inventory kept at the Ministry of Defense.
Some of the mauser rifles and LMG are still being used by the ceremonial units of the Bolivan Army and at the military instruction centers like the 'Escuela Militar de Ejercito', 'Colegio Militar de Aviacion', 'Liceo Militar' and 'Escuela de Sargentos', or are being used for the training of the conscripts of the pre-military service. Some of the ZB-26 LMG with the bolivian seal has appeared on the hands of drug lords in Brazil or some of the local aymara militias (ponchos rojos); mostly because many weapons disappeared from military units or were distributed to civilian militias during the Revolution of 1952. The 1" Vickers HMG was not listed before, but at least 3 of them with the anti-aircraft frame are still in use for training at the Colegio Militar de Ejercito.
Some of the weapon types (rifle models mostly) were not officially listed but they do exist. As an instance, I do own one of the CSZ Brno Vz.26 short mauser rifles with the bolivian seal on it (in perfect operational conditions and including the bayonet), but that rifle type is not in the inventory officially kept in Bolivian Army, it seems that it has been listed as the standard Vz.24 as it happened with the earlyer Vz.23's that I've seen kept in storage at Viacha's armory. A friend of mine owns a cavalry carabine version of the CSZ Brno Vz.12/33 that is also not listed in the official inventory, but the bolivian seal on the gun confirms it has been supplied to Bolivian Army, It may have been listed as the Vz.16/33. The ZB-26 and ZB-30 are both listed in the official inventory as just a 'Brno LMG', but samples of both are on display in the military museum. One of the less know guns in use during the Chaco War was the Nordenfeldt 4-barrel machine gun, that dated from the Pacific War (1879), but was still in use in 1933 as an anti-aircraft gun, there is even a photo of the gun in use during the defense of Villamontes (1935).