Carro Ligero de Infantería T-26B

With the Soviet Union coming forward as the principal supplier of the Spanish Republic, the arrival of Soviet tanks in the Republican arsenal gave the Loyalists considerable armoured superiority as the cannon bearing T-26 B’s greatly outclassed the Italian and German light tanks being supplied to the Nationalists. However, poor tactics led the Republic to squander most of these tanks in costly armoured assaults, unsupported by infantry, or to diffuse their offensive capability by allotting them to static defense or infantry support roles. Though most T-26 B’s were found in Republican service, the Nationalist troops resorted to a number of measures to capture these tanks as the only means of achieving armoured parity with the Republicans. Therefore, some Nationalist tank units actually utilized captured Soviet tanks, with appropriate Nationalist markings to protect them against mistaken air attacks. Republican T-26 B’s were shipped to Spain with radios and for game purposes have radio capability in the earlier scenarios when crewed by Soviets. As Republican Spanish crews took over, they ripped out the radios, desiring more room and being more comfortable with signal flags. Thus, later scenarios having mixed Russo-Spanish or Spanish crews will be radioless. The T-26 B had a crew of 3. The Spanish designation for this tank was Carro Ligero de Infanteria T-26 B