El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles

 

 

This is the Verdeja 75mm self-propelled howitzer, based on the hull of the only prototype of the Verdeja 1 light tank.  The Verdeja 1 was supposed to be the most advanced light tank to date, based on the Soviet T-26 and German Panzer I.  It had a front-hull engine, designed to increase protection of the crew (like the Israeli Merkava), and solved the frequent problem of tracks slipping off the return rollers by divising a track system with a single row of roadwheels per side, positioned inside a 'canal' through the center of the tracks.  The Verdeja 1 gave way to the Verdeja 2, which can be visited in the Infantry Academy at Toledo (which one day soon I'll visit).

 

 

This T-72 is from the Czech Republic and was originally sent to Indra, a Spanish electronics company, to make it into a training turret.  The contract was canceled, however, and it was awarded to an Italian company recently.  Indra kept the turret and then handed it over to the Spanish military to be exposed in the museum.

 

 

A T-26 provided to the Popular Front during the Spanish Civil War, from the Soviet Union.  This particular T-26 was probably captured during the war and pressed into service with the Nationalist Army.  Some 300 T-26s were provided during the civil war, and at least 100 of them were captured and pressed into service by the Nationalists during the duration of the war - the Spanish Army had around 120 T-26s in service until they were replaced by M47s in 1954.

 

 

The best kept tank in the museum, it was recently restored by a private company.  However, the engine has broken down and there has been no agreement to fix it (lack of funding).  This Panzer IV Ausf. H was provided to Spain under Program B�r in December 1943, and is one of twenty originally provided.  Spain originally envisioned about 100 Panzer IVs, but only 20 were sent; the Spanish Army was also supposed to be outfitted with a large number of Panzer IIIs, but this part of the order was never fulfilled.  Only three Panzer IVs remain in Spain, with the rest sold to Syria after 1965.

 

 

This is an American M20, provided by France.

 

 

This is a M47E1, upgraded and modernized in Spain in the late 70s/early 80s.  This next picture is the same tank, but you can see the revised engine grills designed to resemble those of the M60, and evidence of the new diesel engine.

 

 

 

M53 203mm artillery piece supplied to Spain in 1954 by the United States.  It's Spain's largest and more modern mobile artillery piece until Spain's M107s were upgraded with 203mm guns in Segovia, and until the purchase of the M110.