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Nahuel DL-43
Nahuel DL-43
	Argentine Nahuel DL-43 tank
Type	Medium tank
Place of origin	Argentina
Service history
Used by	Argentina
Production history
Designer	Alfredo Baisi
Manufacturer	Arsenal Esteban de Luca
No. built	12 (+ 1 wooden mock-up)
Specifications
Mass	35 tonnes
Length	6.22 m (20 ft 5 in)
Width	2.33 m (7 ft 8 in)
Height	2.952 m (9 ft 8.2 in)
Crew	5 (Commander, gunner, loader, driver, co-driver)
Armor	80 mm
Main; armament	Krupp 7.5 cm Model 1909
Secondary; armament	1× 7.65 mm Allan machine gun and 3 x 7.65 mm Madsen machine guns ?? rounds
Engine	FMA-Lorraine-Dietrich 12 Eb, 12 cylinders in W, water cooled; 500 hp
Power/weight	14.3 hp / tonne
Suspension	vertical volute spring
Operational; range	250 km (on road)
Maximum speed	25 mph (40 km/h) (on road)

The Nahuel DL-43 tank was a medium tank developed in Argentina during World War II. It was the Argentine equivalent of the M4 Sherman and the M3 Grant American medium tanks.

Design

The designer was Lt. Colonel Alfredo Baisi.^[1] The word Nahuel means "jaguar" in the aboriginal language Mapudungun.^[1] It was armed with a 75 mm gun (taken from the Krupp Model 1909 Field Gun used by the Argentine Army) in a rotating armored turret.^[1]

Its design is similar to that of the United States Army M4 Medium and the early versions of the M3 Grant but with sloped armor. Contrary to popular belief it was not a copy of the M4 Sherman, but the design of the M4 influenced it.^[1]

Production

Only 12 tanks and one wooden mock-up were produced by the Arsenal Esteban de Luca in Buenos Aires and supplied to the Argentine Army, because of the availability of cheap surplus Sherman tanks, several of which were provided by Belgium and the United Kingdom in the late 1940s.^[1]

No examples of Nahuel tanks survive to this day.

Operators

Argentine Army

References

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Mailer Edu. - Argentina tanks". Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2008.

Bibliography

(in Spanish) Sigal Fogliani, Ricardo Jorge, Nahuel DL 43 - Tanques Argentinos (desde sus orígenes hasta 1950), Editorial Dunken, Buenos Aires, 2004, ISBN 987-02-0788-X.
(in Spanish) Sigal Fogliani, Ricardo Jorge, Blindados Argentinos, de Uruguay y Paraguay, Ayer y Hoy Ediciones, Buenos Aires, 1997. ISBN 987-95832-7-2.
Ness, Leland Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles - The complete guide, HarperCollins Publishers, London 2002, ISBN 0-00-711228-9