Tanks in the Spanish Army have over 80 years of history, from the French FT-17s first delivered in 1919 to the Leopard 2 and B1 Centauro models of the early 21st century. The FT-17 took part in combat during the Rif War and performing in the first amphibious landing with tanks in history, at Alhucemas. In 1925, the Spanish Army began to undertake a program to develop and produce a Spanish tank, heavily based on the French FT-17, called the Trubia A4. Although the prototype performed well during testing, the tank was never put into mass production. Between July 1936 and April 1939, during the Spanish Civil War, the two opposing armies received large quantities of tanks from foreign powers. Spain's Second Republic received tanks from the Soviet Union, many of which were captured by the Nationalists and pressed into service against their former masters, while the Nationalists were aided by the Germans and Italians. The Spanish Civil War, although the testing grounds for the nations which would ultimately take part in World War II, proved inconclusive in regards to the proof of mechanized warfare. Despite attempts by Soviet, German and Italian advisers and soldiers to use newly devised mechanized theories, the lack of quality crews and tanks, and the insufficient number of tanks provided bad impressions of the usefulness of tanks on their own. The Spanish Army ended the Spanish Civil War with a fleet of light tanks. (Full article...)