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Tanks in the Spanish Army have over 90 years of history, from the French Renault FTs first delivered in 1919 to the Leopard 2 and B1 Centauro models of the early 21st century. The FT took part in combat during the Rif War and participated in the first amphibious landing with tanks in history, at Alhucemas. In 1925, the Spanish Army began to undertake a program to develop and produce a Spanish tank, heavily based on the Renault FT, called the Trubia A4. Although the prototype performed well during testing, the tank was never put into mass production. Spain also experimented with the Italian Fiat 3000, acquiring one tank in 1925, and with another indigenous tank program called the Landesa. However, none of these evolved into a major armor program, and as a result the FT remained the most important tank, in numbers, in the Spanish Army until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Between July 1936 and April 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the two opposing armies received large quantities of tanks from foreign powers. Spain's Second Republic received tanks from the Soviet Union, many of which were captured by the Nationalists and pressed into service against their former masters, while the Nationalists were aided by the Germans and Italians. The Spanish Civil War, although the testing grounds for the nations which would ultimately take part in World War II, proved inconclusive with regard to the proof of mechanized warfare. Despite attempts by Soviet, German and Italian advisers and soldiers to use newly devised mechanized theories, the lack of quality crews and the tanks, and the insufficient amount of tanks provided bad impressions on the usefulness of tanks on their own. The Spanish Army ended the Spanish Civil War with a fleet of light tanks. Looking to field more modern and capable tanks, the Spanish government and army approved a venture to design and manufacture a better light tank, known as the Verdeja. Although the tank proved extremely capable, a lack of raw materials and incentives doomed the program to failure. Furthermore, the army's requirements were temporarily satisfied by the procurement of Panzer IVs in late 1943. However, the failure to acquire more Panzer IVs led Spain to field a largely antiquated collection of light tanks and an insufficient amount of medium tanks. In 1953, the United States and Spain signed a military aid program agreement which led to the supply of M47 Patton and M48 Patton tanks. The American decision to not allow Spain to deploy the new equipment during the war with Morocco caused Spain to look elsewhere for a supplement to their fleet of Patton tanks, ending with the procurement of the AMX-30E, based on the French AMX-30. Almost immediately after, the Spanish Army and the Spanish Ministry of Defense began to look for a future Spanish tank. This turned into the Lince tank program. Despite numerous bids the Lince program failed, both for financial reasons and because of the decision to instead modernize the existing fleet of AMX-30Es, and to procure a large number of American M60 Patton tanks to replace the fleet of older Patton tanks. Over half of the AMX-30Es were upgraded to a standard known as the AMX-30EM2, while the rest suffered a more finite modification known as the AMX-30EM1. However, the M60s and modernized AMX-30Es did not provide Spain with a sufficiently modern tank for the next century. In 1994, the Spanish Ministry of Defense began to negotiate with the German government over the purchase of the Leopard 2. Ultimately, 108 Leopard 2A4s were procured and integrated into the Spanish Army, while 219 Leopard 2Es were built in Spain, based on the German Leopard 2A6. The Leopard 2E and Leopard 2A4 replaced the fleet of M60 Patton tanks, while Spain's AMX-30EM2s were replaced by Italian B1 Centauro anti-tank cavalry vehicles. Presently, the Spanish Army possesses 108 Leopard 2A4s and 219 Leopard 2Es. == Birth of the Spanish tank force: 1919–1926 == The Spanish army's interest in the tank began near the end of World War I, when a formal petition for one Renault FT light tank was made to the French government on 28 October 1918.〔García (July 2004), p. 3〕 This purchase, however, was not processed until 15 January 1919. Spain's ''Comisión de Experiencias, Proyectos y Comprobación del Material de Guerra'' (Experiences, Projects and Confirmation Commission) issued a formal order for an FT, armed with a cannon, and days later extended the order to include another three cannon armed tanks, and another FT armed with a machine gun. On 5 March the order was authorized and then extended further to include two more FTs, armed with the cannon.〔García (July 2004), pp. 3–4〕 On 20 March the French government declared that they could not process the sale, and on 12 April the process to acquire these vehicles began anew.〔García (July 2004), p. 4〕 In May 1919, the French acceded to the sale of a single FT light tank to the Spanish Army, delivered the next month.〔de Mazarrasa (1998), p. 69〕 This particular FT was armed with an Hotchkiss machine gun, and was later re-armed with a Spanish machine gun. Upon inspection by the Spanish government, it was decided to procure another ten—including eight armed with machine guns and two armed with cannons. The French government declared that there were no vehicles available for sale, and later added that under no circumstances would they allow Spain to rearm these vehicles with the Spanish machine gun, and consequently denied the sale. As a result, Spain began to approach other governments, including Great Britain and the United States, but with no success.〔García (July 2004), pp. 4–5〕 Following Spain's colonial defeat at the Battle of Annual, on 22 July 1921,〔Francisco (2005), pp. 38–54〕 another military envoy was sent to France to petition for more tanks. This time, the French government consented and agreed to the sale of ten machine gun armed FTs and a single command tank.〔García (July 2004), pp. 5–9〕 The command tank was an FT chassis, with the turret replaced by a superstructure, carrying a single communications radio.〔Miller, p. 46〕 These were presented to the third section of the ''Escuela Central de Tiro'', or the Central Shooting School, on 12 January 1922,〔 and organized into a company of twelve light tanks.〔Alvarez (1997), p. 27〕 In September 1921, the Spanish government also procured six Schneider CA1 tanks and deployed these to Morocco as early as 28 February 1922.〔de Mazarrasa (1998), pp. 43–44〕 On 13 March 1922, six FTs were unloaded at Melilla, as well.〔García (July 2004), pp. 9–12〕 On 18 March 1922, the company of FT light tanks took part in its first combat operation, during the Rif War. Ordered to operate with the Spanish Legion, the force was to capture the town of Tunguntz, in Northern Morocco.〔 Surprising the defenders with their appearance, the armored company advanced, and the legionnaires behind, and captured the town of Anvar.〔García (July 2004), p. 13〕 Advancing towards Tunguntz, the tanks began to come under heavy fire, as their advance had isolated them from the legionnaires due to the speed.〔García (July 2004), pp. 13–14〕 As a result, the tanks were forced to withdraw to Anvar to fall back on the protection of the infantry.〔 Two FTs were abandoned by their crew because of mechanical problems〔García (July 2004), p. 14〕 and were later destroyed by the Moroccan defenders with dynamite.〔 A post-action analysis of the action decided that the poor performance of the tanks company was a direct result of poor cooperation with the infantry, the lack of reliability of the tanks' machine guns and the lack of prior training before being rushed to the front.〔Alvarez (1997), pp. 27–28〕 Thereafter, Spain's armored company was used almost continuously〔García (July 2004), p. 15〕 in small-scale operations between late 1922 and September 1925.〔Alvarez (1997), p. 28〕 On 8 September 1925, Spain's armor would take part in the first amphibious landing with tanks in history.〔García (July 2004), p. 19〕 After being refitted with brand new FTs to replace losses incurred during the three years of operations in Morocco, the tank company was transferred to Ceuta to prepare for the amphibious operations planned to place in and around Al Hoceima Bay.〔García (July 2004), pp. 19–21〕 In the days previous to the Alhucemas landing, the armored company took part in a number of training exercises, with four K-type landing craft,〔, procured from the British in 1922 and used during the Gallipoli Campaignduring World War I; Alvarez (1999), p. 86〕 specially modified to allow them to carry three tanks each.〔García (July 2004), pp. 21–22〕 However, on the day of the landings the landing craft hit a shoal from the beach;〔Alvarez (1999), p. 91〕 as a result, the armored company was not able to land until the next day, on 9 September 1925.〔García (2000), p. 52〕 Upon landing, the vehicles were used to support the left flank of the Spanish attack and aided in the capture of the heights surrounding the beaches and controlling the exit points towards the inland.〔 The Rif War came to an end in May 1926,〔Pennell (1982), p. 20〕 and the armored company was relocated to the Spanish mainland in July of that year.〔García (July 2004), p. 24〕〔de Mazarrasa (1998), p. 71〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tanks in the Spanish Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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