Qualla: First Battle of Nanawa https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:58 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: First Battle of Nanawa https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa First Battle of Nanawa: Introduction https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa/ Photo credit Anibalcesar, CC0. Two former officers of the defeated Russian Imperial Army, refugees from a revolution half a world away, taught Paraguay how to dig in. Ivan Belaieff and Nicolas Ern had fought and lost their own war; in the 1920s they found new lives in the army of a small South American country, and at a place called Nanawa they laid out zig-zag trenches, barbed wire, and interlocking machine-gun nests in a horseshoe facing the enemy. In late January 1933, the full weight of the Bolivian army, led in person by a German general, threw itself against those defenses. The defenses held.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/6evd-first-battle-of-nanawa-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full First Battle of Nanawa: Carob Tree Forest https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa/ Photo credit Anibalcesar, CC0. The name Nanawa comes from Enxet, the language of an Indigenous people of the Chaco, and means "carob tree forest." The Paraguayans had established the outpost in 1928, and by the end of 1932 it had become their strongest position on the southern front. The Chaco itself made ever...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/6evd-first-battle-of-nanawa-carob-tree-forest.mp3 0:06 2 full First Battle of Nanawa: Kundt's Assault https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa/ Photo credit Anibalcesar, CC0. The Bolivian commander-in-chief was Hans Kundt, a German veteran of the First World War who believed in the massed frontal attack and commanded the assault from the field himself. Against Nanawa he sent his 7th Division, some 3,600 men reorganized into reduced regiments. Facing t...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/6evd-first-battle-of-nanawa-kundts-assault.mp3 0:06 3 full First Battle of Nanawa: Rain and Reinforcement https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa/ Photo credit Anibalcesar, CC0. When the frontal attacks failed, the Bolivians changed tactics, trying to dig a trench all the way around the Nanawa complex and strangle it. Paraguayan reinforcements broke up the effort. Then the weather intervened. Heavy rains turned the Chaco's hard ground to mud and forced t...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/6evd-first-battle-of-nanawa-rain-and-reinforcement.mp3 0:06 4 full First Battle of Nanawa: The South American Verdun https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-nanawa/ Photo credit Anibalcesar, CC0. Taken together, the two battles of Nanawa became among the bloodiest fought in South America in the twentieth century, earning the grim nickname the "South American Verdun" after the meat-grinder of the First World War. The fighting left its mark on culture as well as the land. A...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/d/first-battle-of-nanawa-wp/6evd-first-battle-of-nanawa-the-south-american-verdun.mp3 0:06 5 full