Tanks Of Cuba
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Tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s have been utilized on the island of Cuba both within the military and within several conflicts, with their usage and origin after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
; the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
; and the modern era. This includes imported
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
tanks in the
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include ground forces, naval forces, air and air defence forces, and other paramilitary bodies including the Territorial Tro ...
today as well as American and British designs imported prior to the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
.


Overview

Cuba originally had tanks from Great Britain and the United States and armored vehicles but didn't manufacture any. From these beginnings the modern Cuban Armoured forces grew and procured modern armoured fighting vehicles from Russia and Soviet Bloc that served during the Cold War, and various operations. One of the main Cuban operations using armor was in Angola in Africa.


History

Cuba in 1942 received military aid through the Lend-Lease program, and received eight Marmon-Herrington tanks from the U.S. which became known in the Cuban army as the ‘3 Man Dutch’ as they had been the model of tank sent to the
Dutch East Indies campaign The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted u ...
against the Japanese invasion in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Cuba also got
M3 Stuart The M3 Stuart/Light Tank M3, was an American light tank of World War II. An improved version of the tank entered service as the M5 in 1942 to be supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. ...
tanks from the United States, as 24 of these light tanks arrived at Cuba under Lend Lease in 1942-1943 after the declaration of war to Germany. Later in 1957, 7
M4 Sherman } The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most widely used medium tank by the Military history of the United States during World War II, United States and Allies of World War II, Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman prove ...
tanks were received from the United States. They participated in the fights against the 26th of July Guerrilla Movement of Fidel Castro, fighting in Oriente (offensive of May 1958, Battle of Guise) and in the
Battle of Santa Clara The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara. The battle was a decisive victory for the rebels fighting ag ...
, in support of the Regiment "Leoncio Vidal" against Che Guevara. Some of these tanks were captured by the rebels, and the Shermans were displayed by the rebels riding the tanks when they triumphantly entered Havana, with Fidel on one of them. Here, on January 1, 1959, was taken the famous photo of Che next to a Sherman which also saw action in the
Battle of Santa Clara The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara. The battle was a decisive victory for the rebels fighting ag ...
, as Batista sent 10 tanks, 12 armored cars along with an armored train and air support. Just before the revolution, Great Britain had sent 15 A34 Comet tanks which were delivered to Cuba under Batista on 17 December 1958, and there are reports that some were used in the Battle of Santa Clara at the end of December 1959 by Batista's troops. Castro got these after he took over Cuba, and requested additional stocks of 77mm ammunition for the Comets as well as spare parts. When Fidel Castro seized power in January 1959, five of the eight Marmon-Herrington tanks were still operational. The new communist army, FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces), retained them and shortly thereafter these five tanks were modified the original 37mm cannon replaced by a Bofors QF 20mm gun. The development of a strong armored force that could react quickly to any threat, whether internal or otherwise was a concern even at that stage. In October 1960, the Cuban government needed tanks for which they could get ammunition not subject to US sanctions and turned to the Soviet Union for military aid from them and was supplied with
T-34/85 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The Chr ...
tanks which allowed them to build up their armored forces. So by the time of
Bay of Pigs The Bay of Pigs ( es, Bahía de los Cochinos) is an inlet of the Gulf of Cazones located on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910, it was included in Santa Clara Province, and then instead to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was reas ...
in April 1961, there were in Cuba 125 T-34-85 and also 41
IS-2M The IS-2 (russian: ИС-2, sometimes romanized as JS-2The series name is an abbreviation of the name Joseph Stalin (russian: Иосиф Сталин); IS-2 is a direct transliteration of the Russian abbreviation, while JS-2 is an abbreviation of ...
tanks that Cuba received. Some of the Sherman tanks also saw combat action against the anti-communist Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón) along with the militia, but the majority of the tanks and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) the Cuban Army used at the battle were Soviet, such as the T-34/85 and the SU-100. The IS-2M tanks were in two regiments sent to the battle and were used as a reserve firing artillery support, while there were at least a force of 20 of the T-34-85 tanks fighting in the Bay of Pigs conflict and aided in the Cuban victory over the Brigade 2506
M41 Walker Bulldog The M41 Walker Bulldog, officially 76-mm Gun Tank, M41, was an American light tank developed for armed reconnaissance purposes. It was produced by Cadillac between 1951 and 1954 and marketed successfully to the United States Army as a replaceme ...
tanks, although five T-34-85 tanks were destroyed and others severely damaged. Castro asked for more T-34-85 tanks after this to defend the island, and in September 1961 the request was up to 412 tanks, which began arriving just before the Missile Crisis. Soon after their own revolution, many Cubans identified with the fledgling groups fighting for their independence. In Algeria, when France gave their independence, Castro decided to support them in their struggle with Morocco in the
Sand War The Sand War or the Sands War () was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco in October 1963. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. The Sand War led to heightene ...
. Castro was determined to prevent American domination and formed the Grupo Especial de Instrucción to use whose forces included twenty-two T-34-85 tanks, eighteen 120-mm mortars, a battery of 57-mm recoilless rifles, anti-aircraft artillery with eighteen guns, and eighteen 122mm field guns with the crews to operate them. They were described as an advisory contingent to train the Algerian army, but Castro allowed deployment in combat actions. Castro tried keep Cuba's intervention covert, but word of their presence soon leaked out. In 1961 the
Cuban Military The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include ground forces, naval forces, air and air defence forces, and other paramilitary bodies including the Territorial Tro ...
began to provide support for the left wing
MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...
movement in a civil war. The
Angolan War of Independence The Angolan War of Independence (; 1961–1974), called in Angola the ("Armed Struggle of National Liberation"), began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal ...
was a struggle for control of
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
between guerilla movements and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
colonial authority. Castro had become familiar with the MPLA soon after it began, and after he came to power, Cuba had trained some of its guerrilla fighters, and Che Guevara had also made contact with its leaders. So when Portugal left, Cuba sent advisors to help the MPLA and they quickly found themselves in the conflict when they lost men in the Battle of Quifangondo on 10 November 1975, the day before the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (
MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...
) declared
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
's
independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
from
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. Cuba supplied the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (
MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...
) rebels with weapons and soldiers along with tanks to fight as the
Cuban military The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include ground forces, naval forces, air and air defence forces, and other paramilitary bodies including the Territorial Tro ...
would fight alongside the MPLA in major battles. The arrival of the
T-55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tanks ...
tanks in 1963 allowed Castro to send many of the older T-34-85 tanks to the conflict in Angola in 1975. All of the T-34s in Angola were armed with a ZiS-S-53 85mm main gun and two 7.62mm DT machine guns, with estimates as high as 200 T-34s used during the conflict. The T-34-85 tanks participated in Angola including the
Battle of Cassinga The Battle of Cassinga also known as the Cassinga Raid or Kassinga Massacre was a controversial South African airborne attack on a South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) military camp at the town of Cassinga, Angola on 4 May 1978. Cond ...
where a Cuban mechanized battalion with
T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...
tanks, and
BTR-152 The BTR-152 is a six-wheeled Soviet armored personnel carrier (БТР, from Бронетранспортер/'' Bronetransporter'', literally "armored transporter"), built on the chassis and drive train of a ZIS-151 utility truck. It entered servi ...
armoured personnel carriers were nearly destroyed, losing a half-dozen T-34s with another three heavily damaged. Cuba also received
T-54 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the World War II, Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Mai ...
s along with the T-55s, which formed the backbone of more than a thousand tanks that Russia would provide. Russian
T-62 The T-62 is a Soviet Union, Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced in 1961. As a further development of the T-54/T-55, T-55 series, the T-62 retained many similar design elements of its predecessor including low profile and thick ...
s arrived in Cuba in 1976, and by November 1987, shipments of T-54/55s were sent to Angola to replace the tanks lost. The assistance to the
MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...
escalated till Cuban military aid helped the
MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...
emerge victorious. Cuban T-62s along with T-55s and T-54Bs, were deployed to
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
during Havana's lengthy intervention in that country. The more ubiquitous T-55 was favoured for combat duty, and during the
Battle of Cuito Cuanavale The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was fought intermittently between 14 August 1987 and 23 March 1988, south and east of the town of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and advisors and soldie ...
only a single battalion of Cuban T-62s took part in the fighting. The Cuban tanks clashed with defending South African armoured units at Cuamato and again at
Calueque Calueque is a town next to a dam and pumping station of the same name on the Kunene River in the Kunene Province of southern Angola. The water project is linked to Ruacana, away in Namibia, where the Ruacana Power Station is. This dam is one of ...
without sustaining serious losses.


Organization of armored forces

Fidel Castro ousted Batista on 31 December 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. Castro set up the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR) to oversee the Communist Party of Cuba and the government, as well as the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias – FAR). In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castro's government began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed Cuba's economy and society. He also reformed many aspects of Cuba's military and political organizations along communist lines, such as the 26 July Movement becoming the Communist Party in October 1965, and making a people's militia called the National Revolutionary Militia (MNR) as well as building the military which had the armored forces. It was the MMR which first engaged the counter-revolutionary force at the Bay of Pigs, with the tanks being sent once the regular army was sent by Castro. As he consolidated his government, Castro built up the number of tanks for the army. Cuban armored forces were organized at first to defend the revolutionary socialist state, and later enable intervention in foreign military conflicts. Military schools were founded for infantry, tank, artillery and communications training as well as reorganizing and expanding the regular Army at the expense of the common people in the MNR militia. The best of the militia members were transferred to the regular Army and armored forces, and in 1963 the militia was changed to a new military reserve organization, the Popular Defense Forces. Then after the defeat of counter-revolutionary forces in the mountains in 1965, the Popular Defense Forces were made into the Civil Defense headed by Raúl Castro. Then in 1980 the Territorial Troops Militia was created, composed exclusively of civilian volunteers, which backed up the army while the Civil Defense focused on natural disasters relief. The regular army with its armored forces has been involved in training others or foreign intervention with considerable Soviet military assistance. It reached its peak in 1975, with three armored divisions with over a 1000 tanks, and 15 infantry divisions. In offensive action in these interventions, tanks, reconnaissance armored vehicles, armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces of the first echelon unit normally attack using Soviet military doctrine, which if defending the tanks are dug in with the armored units and soldiers, while the heavy artillery forms up behind to support them.


Overview of tanks


Light and medium tanks


Heavy tanks


Main battle tanks


See also

*
History of the tank The history of the tank begins with World War I, when armoured all-terrain fighting vehicles were introduced as a response to the problems of trench warfare, ushering in a new era of mechanized warfare. Though initially crude and unreliable, tan ...
*
Tanks in World War II Tanks were an important weapons system in World War II. Even though tanks in the inter-war years were the subject of widespread research, production was limited to relatively small numbers in a few countries. However, during World War II, mos ...
*
Tank classification Tank classification is a taxonomy of identifying either the intended role or weight class of tanks. The classification by role was used primarily during the developmental stage of the national armoured forces, and referred to the doctrinal an ...
*
List of military vehicles Military vehicles include all land combat and transport vehicles, excluding rail-based, which are designed for or are in significant use by military forces throughout the world. See also list of armoured fighting vehicles. # * 0-10 Light ta ...
* Cuban military ranks *
Cuban intervention in Angola The Cuban intervention in Angola (codenamed Operation Carlota) began on 5 November 1975, when Cuba sent combat troops in support of the communist-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against the pro-western National Uni ...
*
Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force The Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force ( es, Defensa Anti-Aérea y Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria) commonly abbreviated to DAAFAR in both Spanish and English, is the air force of Cuba. History Background The Cuban Army Air Force was ...
*
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include ground forces, naval forces, air and air defence forces, and other paramilitary bodies including the Territorial Tro ...
* List of wars involving Cuba * Military interventions of Cuba


References

{{Reflist


Further reading

* Jane's Intelligence Review, June 1993 * Defense Intelligence Agency
Handbook on the Cuban Armed Forces, DDB-2680-62-79, April 1979
Military equipment of Cuba Military history of Cuba