Second Battle of Nanawa

The battle began on the 4 July at 9:00 a.m. with the explosion of a large mine just 30 yards short of the main Paraguayan redoubt, followed by a massive frontal attack. Part of the redoubt was seized by the attackers. The Bolivian army engaged the defenders with artillery and mortar fire, air strikes, three Vickers light tanks, two Carden-Lloyd tankettes and four flamethrowers. The Bolivian troops staged a two-pronged assault, one from the north and the other from the south, while a diversionary force established a blocking position in the center.^[5] The Paraguayan troops responded with their own artillery fire and 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds.^[6] They eventually recovered the fortifications that had been overrun by the Bolivians.^[7]

The Bolivians lost one tank to artillery fire,^[7] while one of the tankettes was damaged by small-arms fire and the other became stuck in a ditch. Both of them were withdrawn from the front line after this battle,^[8] while the crippled tank was eventually blown up by Paraguayan sappers.^[7] Four Potez 25s fighter-bombers being used as transport aircraft resupplied the exhausted Paraguayan stockpiles by delivering hand grenades and ammunition. The planes were stripped of their rear machine guns in order to use the gunner's cockpit to load 115 kilograms (254 lb) of ammunition. The aircraft departed from Isla Poí to the south flying over hostile territory and landed on an improvised airstrip close to the battle lines.^[9] The airstrip had been hastily built during the first Bolivian offensive.^[4] The pilots handed over 1,650 kg of ammunition to the stronghold on the first day of operation. Three Potez 25s were hit by ground fire and forced to make hard landings, but all were eventually recovered and rebuilt.^[9][10]

Once the assault was repelled, the Paraguayans launched an unsuccessful counterattack on 11 July on enemy positions outside the complex, in a wooded area southwest of the Paraguayan outpost of Gondra.^[11] The second battle of Nanawa was a major turning point in the war, since the Paraguayan army regained the strategic initiative that had belonged to the Bolivians since early 1933.^[12]

23°29′15″S 59°46′09″W / 23.48750°S 59.76917°W / -23.48750; -59.76917