Chaco War (1932-35)

[Rolf]

"I was thinking more in terms of attracting players".

I see.

Without overreaching, I think its fair to say that the Chaco War would only interest those into interwar infantry heavy clashes. It does have a certain imagination quality to it and is 'different', sitting squarely between WW1 and WW2. I think one of its main attractions as a 'side period' is that the buy in is pretty small. A couple of platoons and you're done. You can use most terrain from any other period from WW1 and WW2 and it's not building intensive or anything like that. Really the most you 'd need would be some entrenchment, a few out buildings, etc...In some respects it is close to jungle warfare in WW2 and more open clashes as well as the terrain did definitely vary in density and type.

Tactically, its appeal is the interaction of changing infantry quality and organisations as the war progresses and off course the conflict itself...it’s a contained conflict with lots of scenario opportunities without having to 'make stuff up'.

Cavalry...well, yes at the scale of CoC there is most definitely cavalry present...you can have a whole mounted platoon. In theatre most cavalry fought dismounted due to issues of massed cavalry forces and limited water supply but there were always mounted elements for rapid movement so cavalry it certainly has...and should have.

..one could mount a Beersheba type ' get to the water' cavalry charge if you were so inclined!

Bottom line is it has all the moving parts of a typical CoC game with armies, doctrine, tactics and the familiar suite of support weapons...all the WW2 stuff...it just has less 'sexy kit'...but frankly, in most CoC games there is usually only one or two of those anyway.



PS..speaking of infantry and SCW (well, it is my thread)...I had a very nice line of Asaltos go at some Regulares just a few days ago...not a tank in sight!

...now that is an infantry line

[Rolf]

So to the cavalry.

Cavalry in the Chaco War often fought dismounted due the problem of supplying horses with large quantities of water - this applied to both sides. Trucks often replaced horses for strategic mobility. However, there were not unlimited motor vehicles, particularly early on, and they came with some restriction typical of all motor transport so cavalry forces still played a large part in the war, at least from the point of view of having largish mounted contingents in the field.

So fielding cavalry forces is entirely appropriate for the Chaco War.

Paraguayan cavalry is a little easier to determine than Bolivian organisation so here are the Paraguayans. They pretty much look like infantry with riding boots. In my CoC lists they are depicted as mobile cavalry that is dismounted. More permanently dismounted cavalry can be represented with the Paraguayan infantry list.

Paraguayan Cavalry


1932-33

Sqn. HQ (1 Officer, 3 NCOs & 9 ORs – Total: 13)
3 Troops (27 men) - Dismounted
Troop. HQ (1 Sargento/Cabo + OR + trumpeter – Total: 3)
1 LMG Sections: (M1926 Madsen LMG plus 2 crew and 4 ORs – Total: 6)
3 Sections: (NCO + 5 ORs – Total: 6)
2 men in each section are tasked as horseholders.


3 Troops (35 men) - Mounted
Troop. HQ (1 Sargento/Cabo + OR + trumpeter – Total: 3)
1 LMG Sections: (M1926 Madsen LMG plus 2 crew and 6 ORs – Total: 8)
3 Sections: (NCO + 7 ORs – Total: 8)


Cavalry, in line with the infantry changes, adopted a 2 LMG and 2 Rifle Section organization from 1934 onwards, with many captured Bolivian weapons being integrated into the cavalry forces.


1934-35

Sqn. HQ (1 Officer, 3 NCOs & 9 ORs – Total: 13)
3 Troops (27 men) - Dismounted
Troop. HQ (1 Sargento/Cabo + OR + trumpeter – Total: 3)
2 LMG Sections: (M1926 Madsen LMG plus 2 crew and 4 ORs – Total: 6)
2 Sections: (NCO + 5 ORs – Total: 6)
2 men in each section are tasked as horseholders.

3 Troops (35 men) - Mounted
Troop. HQ (1 Sargento/Cabo + OR + trumpeter – Total: 3)
2 LMG Sections: (M1926 Madsen LMG plus 2 crew and 6 ORs – Total: 8)
2 Sections: (NCO + 7 ORs – Total: 8)

[Rolf]

So the last list of four for the Chaco War will be the Bolivian Cavalry. This has proved harder to nail down than the other three. However the organisation is based on known information that Adrian has been able to pass on to me from his sources.

Cavalry Regiment (Nominally 350), c.1932 at reduced strength based on the Dillon Read force reduction for the Bolivian army:

HQ 35
Three Sqns @ 88 each (HQ 7 + 3 troops @ 27 each) 264
MG Sqn @ 45 (HQ 7 + 2 troops @ 19 each) 45
-----
344


To judge by the single Cavalry Regiment of a typical Division, cavalry probably consisted of an HQ element of 36/37 and two squadrons of only 64/65 men each (HQ 7 + two troops at 28/29 each) to give a total of 166/167.

Taking the above as our guide we get Bolivian cavalry at full strength;

Bolivian Cavalry
Sqn. HQ (1 Officer, 3 NCOs & 5 ORs – Total: 8)
2 Troops (27 men)
Troop. HQ (1 Sargento/Cabo + OR + trumpeter – Total: 3)
2 Sections: (made up of two squads each of 6 ORs – Total: 12)


...so with the cavalry done we have the four army lists that would cover the Chaco War. Obviously the info in this thread is only for the TOE and the specifics of the support lists and special notes are in the lists themselves.

...all very doable in a CoC sense and the forces are the right size and force mix for a typical CoC game.

R