as the great war rages across the Atlantic Mexico slowly begins to emerge from the ashes
of a bloody civil war political instability and corruption has caused years of torment
for the people of this developing nation as the dust settles and the country begins to work its
way towards industrialization it would bring with it one of the most unlikely creations
this is the story of Mexico's first and only tank the TNCA Salinas throughout history
there have been countless tanks all designed to kill but not all have been a success
what happened to the ones that never made it and why did they fail my name is ConeOfArc join me as
we journey through time uncovering failed projects and forgotten creations in cursed by design
stuck working on a prototype tank in the blistering heat of the Mexican summer thanks
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quality bottle as well as helping to support this series now let's talk tanks it's hard to believe
that a country which had just emerged from sheer chaos would be capable of beating an industrial
giant like the United States in a field like tank building but in 1917 that's exactly what they did
information about this project is difficult to find and completely verify but enough has survived
to at least tell the story of this unique machine before we talk about the tank itself though we
need a little bit of background to understand how they were even able to build what was basically
cutting edge military technology only produced by the world's biggest powers of that day with nearly
constant revolutions occurring in the early 1900s it's no surprise that weapons were in constant
demand this would eventually lead to a project led by General Venustiano Carranza to build armament
factories for domestic production one of these new facilities was the Talleres Nacionales de
Construcción Aeronáutica or National Aircraft Construction factories for the purposes of saving
your ears I'll just be referring to it as the TNCA as the name would suggest the main purpose of this
company was to produce aircraft parts as well as early license-built aircraft sometime around
1916-1917 however something entirely different would be turned off the production line the man
behind the project was an aviator by the name of Major Alberto Salinas Carranza he was also the
nephew of the general in charge of the factory's construction his name as well as the factory it
was built in would be combined to form the name TNCA Salinas although it was more commonly known
as Tanque Salinas or Salinas Tank although we know some about the designer the actual design
itself is a bit of a mystery from its exterior the tank closely resembles the world war 1
British landships with the same rhomboid shape the similarities continue on the sides with sponsons
each containing a machine gun the armor thickness would likely have been similar to that of the
European tanks at the time based on its estimated 7 meter length and 20 ton weight as you may have
already noticed though the front of this tank has something quite different from other machines
mounted in a cutout was a 37 millimeter Hotchkiss revolving cannon most likely it was installed with
the original gun shield still attached which would have prevented a massive hole in the frontal armor
some sources say this is in fact a 47 millimeter cannon however evidence points more towards
it being the slightly smaller 37 millimeter since those are known to have been used in the
revolution this fast-firing five-barreled weapon may have come from the battleship Ignacio Zaragoza
the gun was capable of firing a solid AP round at around 455 meters per second allowing it to
punch through 45 millimeters of steel at close range it was also possible according to some
sources that a 75 millimeter cannon of some sort was tested although the truth to that is unknown
moving to what we know about the interior it's presumed the crew would have been around
six to eight with a commander a driver two or three crew to man the main gun and a man on
either side crewing the machine guns to power this beast there are two likely candidates
the first was some sort of aircraft engine this could have possibly been the indigenous
Aztatl 80 horsepower engine which was the first Mexican aircraft engine and was produced in 1917
although it may also have been another aircraft engine not domestically produced the second
possibility is that they utilize some sort of truck engine which could have been more accessible
being an aircraft manufacturer themselves though it's not unreasonable to believe TNCA could have
opted for either choice and for all we know it may have never actually had an engine installed at all
what we know about the usage of this tank is as limited as its design could there have been more
built possibly but unlikely was it used in combat again it's possible but we just don't know a few
supposed reports place it in combat twice the first being around 1919 to 1921 and the second
being in 1926 against Catholic rebels in the Cristero war with no evidence to support this
however there's no way to say at this point in time if this was the case regardless of its combat
usage or lack thereof the tank would end its days converted into a guard house or checkpoint outside
the airbase at Balbuena sometime during the 1930s after this it's reasonable to assume it was
scrapped which is unfortunate since it leaves us with more questions than answers the main question
it leaves us with is what purpose was it even designed for in Europe trench warfare had gripped
the continent causing a stalemate tanks were specifically designed to counter this by being
capable of crossing trenches and moving through no man's land in Mexico however the fighting
couldn't have been more different almost all the engagements were guerrilla style with no set lines
and even that was mostly over by this point in this sort of combat what use was the tank had this
tank seen combat would it have been a match for other tanks or even just the average foot soldier
it's likely we'll never get the answer to that but we can still speculate based on what we know
with its main armament being capable of fast fire and a good amount of damage it would have been
able to at least match the other tanks of the day in firepower if the armor was too thin or the gun
shield not properly fitted the opening could have proved a grave mistake for those inside although
this tank is mostly lost to time it still shows that despite everything Mexico or other countries
like it may suffer from they can still produce something that makes us rethink what we know about
history a special thanks to the wonderful people over at Tank Encyclopedia for piecing together an
article on this mostly forgotten tank if you're interested in learning more about this tank
although I'll admit there isn't much more to learn I'll leave a link below to the article i used
primarily for this video if you enjoyed this video please consider leaving a like and subscribing
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