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General

In 1935 the Ejército del Perú ordered from Germany a quantity of the Hanomag Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251 tracked armored infantry carrier. The first vehicles were delivered by the manufacturer late in 1936, with deliveries stretching to 1940; approximately 120 units were acquired. Christened Vehículo Blindado de Asalto Modelo 36 by the Ejército these vehicles were issued to units of the Cuerpo de Caballería y Blindados and the Infantería Motorizado of the Cuerpo de Infanteria.

Efforts of the Galvez government to obtain substantial numbers of additional vehicles of this type were frustrated by financial and diplomatic considerations; Joan Domenico Franco, Defense Minister at that time, was able to arrange the purchase of 100 reconditioned vehicles from surplus stocks of the German Army – 50 vehicles arriving in the latter half of 1944 and the remainder early in 1945.

To supplement the Vehículo Blindado de Asalto Modelo 36 and to fulfill the Ejército’s wider needs for tracked armored support vehicles orders were placed in Britain for several hundred surplus Universal Carriers. These were taken into service as the Transporte Blindado de Personal Modelo 45, and issued to a variety of units as gun tractors and transport for crew-served weapons rather than proper troop carriers.

Details

Vehículo Blindado de Asalto Modelo 36

Weight: 7.81 tonnes
Length: 5.80 meters
Width: 2.10 meters
Height: 1.75 meters
Crew: 2, plus up to 10 passengers
Armor: 6-14.5 mm
Armament: Various
Engine: Maybach HL 42 6-cylinder petrol engine rated at 100 PS
Suspension: Overlapping torsion bar (track); Leaf spring (wheels)
Operational range: 300 km
Speed: 52.5 kph (road)

Transporte Blindado de Personal Modelo 45

Weight: 3.75 tonnes (laden)
Length: 3.65 meters
Width: 2.06 meters
Height: 1.57 meters
Crew: 1, plus up to 4 passengers
Armor: 7–10 mm
Armament: Various
Engine: Ford V8, rated at 85hp at 3,500 rpm
Suspension: Horstmann
Operational range: 250 km
Speed: 48 kph (road)