Recently I have picked up an number of e-books on the Chaco War. It has always been a period of interest that has fascinated me but also one that I only had limited knowledge of.

The first book I wish to review is the Osprey Men-at-Arms Series the Chaco War.

However i should provide some background first.

The Gran Chaco is the most inhospitable part of the inhospitable Chaco Boreal, a largely uninhabited, 250,000 sq-mi region west of the Paraguay River and east of the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.

It is an arid, semi-desert, where some of the highest temperatures recorded in South America are encountered. In the west, near the mountains, the Gran Chaco is a flat, sparsely vegetated, waterless plain. Further east it is a thick, dry, almost impassable thornbrush jungle punctuated by dense stands of quebracho trees and grassy clearings. There are few people, but myriad biting, stinging insects and many tropical diseases. Prior to 1928, the region’s only real value was the tannin extracted from its quebrachos and the meager grazing it provided for cattle. Such was the unlikely bone of contention in South America’s bloodiest, twentieth-century war.

Bolivian Troops

“Often over-shadowed by contemporary events in China and Japan, the Chaco War (1932-1935) was a massive territorial war between Bolivia and Paraguay, which cost almost  100,000 lives. It was sparked by Bolivia’s attempts to capture a stretch of the Paraguay River to gain access to the Atlantic.

An old fashioned territorial dispute, the contested area was the Gran Chaco Boreal, a 100,000-square mile region of swamp, jungle and pampas with isolated fortified towns. The wilderness terrain made operations difficult and costly as the war see-sawed between the two sides. Bolivian troops, under the command of a German general, Hans von Kundt, had early successes, but these stalled in the face of a massive mobilization programme by the Paraguans which saw their force increase in size ten-fold to 60,000 men. Both sides acquired ‘modern’ technology including tanks and planes in an attempt to seize the initiative but by 1935 both sides were exhausted and a ceasefire concluded. “. From the publisher

Paraguayan troops

Like most of the Osprey Men-at-Arms series “The Chaco War” provides a good overview of the conflict for gamers, providing information on the beginnings of the conflict and reasonable detail on the various phases of the war.

As always there is plenty of information on the forces with the usual basic uniform and equipment information. Alas it also suffers from having good information on the higher OOB echelons, but minimal information on Battalion and lower organisation. This makes it less useful for gamers.

I think it is worth the money for an e-book on special at about AU$10.00. I would not pay full price for it.

For those interested in the period there is an excellent boardgame from Command Magazine just called Chaco. It is a complex game with an introductory version as well, but this suffers in comparison to the full version.

The World at War series has a better game “The Chaco War”.

Both are now difficult, but not impossible to get if you try eBay and Second Chance Games.

Many ranges are available to use as substitute figures especially for support weapons and artillery. The only AFV’s that were used are the Cardon Lloyd, FT17’s (allegedly, although I can find no evidence), and Vickers tanks.

Orinico Miniatures have a small range of 28mm figures and Khursan Miniatures have a larger range of 15mm figures including support machine guns and mortars.

Helion have a couple of excellent books in the Latin America @ War series that I will review in due course. There is also a definitive book on the war “The Green Hell” which is out of print and expensive if you can get it.