Dominican Republic Tanks in Battle
The Swedish L60 Formed the Backbone of the Island's Armored Force
Two dozen well-used Swedish L60 tanks served the island republic for forty years and even fought US Marines in 1965.
The Landsverk L60 light tank was a product of German design and Swedish manufacture. It was produced between the two world wars and when compared to its contemporaries (the British 6-ton Vickers and the French Renault F17 for example) it was more modern. Operated by Sweden for more than twenty years the vehicles were also sold to and used by Hungary and Finland in World War Two combat. When Sweden retired its 160-odd inventory of the L60s in 1957, it made the best twenty-five for sale to the Dominican Republic. Dominican strongman General Rafael Trujillo made something of a Caribbean arms race that saw the small island county grow a 20,000 man army and acquire tons of munitions including 12 new French AMX-13 tanks, and 13 Landsverk Lynx armored vehicles along with the veteran Swedish L60s to equip it. When Trujillo was assassinated in 1961 the resulting power vacuum led to instability and something of a rotating government for several years until near open revolt developed by 1965. With paranoia of the Dominican Republic turning into another version of Fidel Castro's nearby communist Cuba, President Johnson order an intervention by US troops.
On April 28, 1965 four hundred US Marines of the 6th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) landed in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo from a US Navy task force offshore. The Marines helped to conduct an evacuation of 3,000 American and other foreign civilians from the country and allow for a follow-on force of another thousand marines and the US Army's 82nd Airborne Divisions paratroopers. Downtown Santo Domingo was occupied by about 1,200 rebel Dominican troops. Over the course of the next week the US forces put down the rebels and began a transition to a force of Latin American peacekeepers. The rebels had in their possession a number of Trujillo’s tanks including a few of the old Swedish L60s. At least three incidents left the L60s out-gunned. One was destroyed in combat with a Marine Ontos anti-tank vehicle, which mounted six 106mm recoilless rifles firing high explosive anti-tank rounds. A second L60 was knocked out in an armored duel with a Marine M48 tank. This battle was lop-sided as the M48 was much better armed and armored (120mm thick armor and a 90mm gun) than the L60 (which mounted a 37mm gun and had 50mm of armor). A third L60 succumbed to an 82nd airborne paratrooper's ground mounted 106mm recoilless rifle.
The tank was also used in numbers by the so-called Loyalist forces in the resulting Dominican Civil War. Those remaining old Swedes continued in service with the Dominican Army until the last survivors were sold in 2002. The dozen or so tanks who endured nearly thirty years of service with Sweden and another forty in the Caribbean island have spread all over the world and are in the hands of private AFV collectors and museums in a number of different re-enactor liveries.
Sources
Leland Ness Jane’s World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles The Complete Guide, , 2002
Finizio, Giuseppe ‘Toldi, A Brave Little Warrior’, AFV News, Vol. 21 No. 3
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