Here's a picture from Nadir (posted on the Axishistory forums) showing some Persian armour outside a military museum in Teheran:
First in line a Czech light tank, behind in the distance to the left a Bofors 75mm mountain gun!
Enjoy,
Nuyt
This message has been edited by nuyt on Feb 26, 2007 9:18 PM This message has been edited by nuyt on Aug 26, 2006 3:35 PM
its a TNH wich is nearly the same as LT 40 but not quite.
After examining the "gun" and its mount and comparing to other photos its clear that they have turned the turret a bit and mounted what I think is a "dummy" gun in the turretmachineguns ballmount.
Some pictures of Persian Praga TNH in the factory yard in 1936 shortly before their delivery to Iran, scanned from the book 'Praga" near MBI edition. Sent by Patrice, Liège Belgium.
In the mid 1930s the Marmon-Herrington company designed and built on the request of the Persian Army these 12 armoured cars fitted with a Landsverk type turret and Bofors 37mm gun. Yhis ad can be found on:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Marmon-Herrington
No its not a Praga AH-VI, not even a AH-IV, its the same as on the other photos, a Praga TNH. According to the polish booklet Militaria 116 Persia bought 26 of these (other users were Peru, Switzerland and Slovakia). Persia also bought 48 Praga AH-IV (other users were Sweden, Rumania and Ethiopia).
Erik
Sweden
This message has been edited by nuyt on Aug 26, 2006 3:35 PM
No, They bought them after WW II!!! In 1948 Ethiopia bought 20 AH-IV-Hb. This is most intertesting when one consider the huge amount of cheap AFVs for sale after WW II. One reason for Ethiopia buying these "tankettes" may have been their close ties with Sweden and since we used the AH-IV Sthis may have helped....
This batch of heavy cargo trucks/artillery tractors were built in 1934 and delivered in 1935. Looks like 24 trucks in this pic.
Does anybody know if this was the total order?
And what guns were these supposed to tow?
Below is what I believe to be a Marmon-Herrington 6x6 ammunition truck (perhaps one of the TH310 series) in service with Iran circa 1940. Unfortunately I don't have any data/information to go with the photo.
Hi Dave, I reposted your message to this thread to keep everything in one place.
Vanderveen mentions the trucks I think in his pre-1940 directory, showing a picture of the A30 trucks in my earlier post.
"Other Marmon-Herrington 6x6 trucks for Iran included heavy DSD400-6 and DSD800-6 artillery tractors, etc., delivered in 1940."
No further data.
According to the actual MH brochure, only one A& was built as a prototype. I cannot verify that anywhers else.
According to Bart Vanderveen, "some" 30 of the A30-6 cargo/gun-tractor vehicles were delivered to Iran. Based on the size of the vehicles, I cannot think the towed artillery would be less than 100mm and maybe they were supplied with ex-US 155mm weapons.
Seems that for the moment this whole question of materiel supplied to Persia/Iran is a bit of a puzzle. Not a lot of hard information out there, although I have not searched that much either so maybe it is there.
Bill
simple question, are ther any other photos of these tanks at the museum from other angles? there are two in the above photo' and what about the 50 or so smaller tankettes? any info.
A few days ago I received some information via orbats.com about the Persian Army in 1941, written by Gordon A. MacKinlay.
In August 1941 the Persian Army had a "Mechanized Brigade" organized as follows:
HQ section with 4 staff cars and 16 Harley Davidson MCL
1st Regiment (345 men) with one battery of 16 ZB vz/60 15mm machineguns on unknown trucks with 6-man crews; six batteries each of 4 x 75mm Bofors AA, towed by M-H gun tractors.
2nd Regiment (650 men) with one battalion each of 50 AH-IV or TNH tanks, and one battalion with 19 M-H TK-5 4x4 and 14 La Salle or ALF TK-6 6x6 armored cars, together with 4 Rolls Royce armored cars
3rd Regiment (1100-plus men) with 50 armored lorries each with 3 crew plus 20 troops, and 50 Belgian motorcycle combinations.
There was also a horsedrawn artillery regiment with six 4-gun batteries of 105mm Bofors M27.
One gets the impression that the brigade was simply an aggregation of all the motorized assets, rather than a tactical formation.
Susan
This message has been edited by nuyt on Aug 26, 2006 3:37 PM
It would be very interesting to know if this unit ever met any of the joint Soviet-British forces during the invasion/intervention during 1941.
I know preciuos little about this operation, the best sources Ive found so far is "Military Chronicle" 1-2002 about "Krim". This booklet has a chapter devoted to the "Persian campaign" sadly all text except captions is in russian
Anyone here that can point me in the right direction and tell me about good sources?
I have obtained a copy of Richard A. Stewart's book, Sunrise at Abadan: the British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941, which has a fairly detailed account of the campaign. It's pricey, but probably could be gotten through interlibrary loan.
The text mentions that the 6. Division defending Khorramshahr, Abadan and other ports had eight medium tanks, eight light tanks, and ten armored cars attached, and that four of the armored cars were captured by the British forces.
Thanks Susan, for posting this.
Now we know what the M-H tractors were for.
The number of M-H armoured cars is actually higher than the 12 found in various publications.
The high number and use anyway of the TK 6 is even more intriguing because it has been said to be rejected at prototype stage by the Persians. It was actually 4x4, unless... we are talking here about a completely different vehicle...?
Wonder what those 50 armoured lorries were, Persian Overvalwagens?
So many questions, so little time...
Nuyt
It never ceases to amaze me how much "better" the propaganda films of the 1930's and 1940's are than the ones we see today.
I suppose we are jaded by 60 years of television and 20 years of instant connection on the Internet to current events.
Back in the "old days", these events were elaborately staged and mainly shown in cinemas/movie theatres.
I must say at the not so tender age of 67 soon to be 68, I used to really enjoy these glimpses of the world outside of my rather provincial small town where I lived.
Bill
