Italian Armoured Vehicles

Most of us have discussed only German armour, some Japanese and some Italian; but this is spread out all over the place, in this forum.
This is something that I know little of, so I wish to shed some ignorance in regards to the Axis Minor Powers.

Cheers!

 

Well the only thing I know of the Italian tanks is that they were bolted together, so they simply rattled apart when being shot at or driving on a bumpy road.

 

Ok, you must be joking. Does this include their Flamethrower varients?

Cheers!

 

Well unfortunately I'm not... not joking at all. I've once seen a programme and this was about Italian afv's. The only thing I can clearly remember of it was, because it seemed so strange, this bolt thing. As far as I recall they mentioned this was for all Italian tanks, also the flamethrowers. Not entirely sure though.

 

They were all bolted, none of the Italian AFVs were welded or cast so i guess this also includes the flame thrower varients. His story is true, however. Even their bolting was inferior...

 

Italian vehicles

I have some pictures - see: http://www.geocities.com/vqpvqp/nih/veh ... Italy.html
Although we never saw them in action, during the heady days after the war ended in Tunisia, one crew had an AB 40 for their personal transport.

The following extract from my narrative may be of interest:
"The large numbers of abandoned German and Italian vehicles, everywhere to be found, became a hunting-ground for each tank crew seeking personal transportation. Dick Hayward and I came across a beautiful Bugatti Open Tourer only to find, on opening the bonnet, the distributor cap to be non-existant. After searching in vain for the cap we eventually settled for Lancia diesel powered open-deck lorry which Dick, being the expert mechanic he was, fine-tuned the engine. The fun the crew of Bangor had, swanning around Northern Tunisia, was not lessened when later we discovered that "our" Bugatti had been salvaged by another tank crew.
Alas, the use of personal transport ended two weeks later when the Army Command issued orders that ALL Axis vehicles, by a certain date, had to be handed in. Taking the order literally, before the deadline, the Bugatti became a British vehicle when it was repainted, appropriately numbered and ceremoniously presented to the OC for his personal use. The car stayed with the Squadron while in Africa but I cannot recall whether it was, in fact, shipped to Italy."

 

Does any one know any of the specs or info on the Italian P40 heavy tank? It is quite a mean looking tank.

http://military.cz/panzer/index_en1.htm

 

26 tons, armour between 15mm and 50mm thick, 75mm gun. It wasn´t that mean for a 1943 model. Only 21 of them were built anyway, and they didn´t see much combat, if any, with the Italians. 5 of the tanks fell into German hands by the time of the Italian surrender together with parts to complete 200 more. The Germans built 100 of them ( as the PzKpfw P40 737(i) ) as far as I know, but only 60 of them were fitted with engines. I believe most of the German produced P40s ended as static fortifications, or at least their turrets did. The training unit of Army Group C received the 5 Italian built tanks.

 

Only 21 were built? Well thanks for the info, but do you know how it did in combat?

 

It looks weird. Could anyone figure out why the suspension rises sharply at the front? This doesn't seem to have any good effects, but it decreases stability, I would guess.

 

21 were built by the Italians, 100 ( allthough only 60 of them had engines ) by the Germans. The only combat service I´m aware of is with the Panzer Ausbildung Abteilung attached to the Army Group C, but this was a training unit so it´s doubtful if they ever saw any combat.

I know the Germans were happy with its armour, the best of any foreign AFV they thought. They found the gun of moderate performance and the engine useless. The German tanks ( 60 of them anyway ) had the original engine replaced by the Maybach HL120.

 

It´s just the drawing that make it look that way.

 

I liked the drawing better. No it looks little differnt from the M/17.

 

Well, at least it looks like a normal tank. Thanks Skua.

 

Here's another picture of her which has been added on the page previously indicated.
http://www.geocities.com/vqpvqp/nih/veh ... taly-4.jpg
Please note, I forgot to add to that posting, I am still awaiting an OK from the owner to reproduce the pictures for public consumption.

Some additional specs for the P40 - the production model had the nomenclature P26/40.
Speed: 22 mph. Range: 150 miles. Engine: V12 Diesel generating 275 bhp. The fitting of a petrol engine was proposed but rejected

 

Well, I´d say it looks much better and more powerful in your picture Gerry.

 

Certainly, but the bolts are still very obvious. This could never have been a very good tank, even though it was the best Italian tank...

 

Good move on their part. Diesels are, IMHO, the best chioce for tank engines, with the exception of the turbines of the Abrams.

 

Italian Armor

The mainstay of Italian armor in WW2 was the M13-40. There were other AFV's but more on them later. Introduced in 1940 it weighed 15.4 tons. It could cross a trench 6.9 ft in diameter and climb a slope of 40 degrees. Radius aof action was 124 miles on roads.

It used 2.5 gals of gas per mile on roads and carried 50 gal's of gas. The engine was a 8TM, 8 cylinder 105 HP diesel and was liquid cooled (bad choice for the desert).

Turret was hand traversed with 1.2" armor front hull, sides 1". Turret front 1.6" and turret side 1". (Overall a box on tracks; much like German armor).

Armament: one 47mm gun L/32 and 4-8mm Breda machine guns. Muzzle velocity on 47mm was 2,067 fps.

Ammunition stowage 104 rds. MG's 3,048 rds.

Generally comparable to the German Pz II in armor but the M13 had better armament for tank vs tank. The Pz II had a 20 mm gun that could fire 450 rds per minute but only carried 180 rds.

Actually, Rommel was fortunate to have the Italian armor in North Africa. The Ariete division played important parts in his success in North Africa.

Sources: Tank Data 1- Aberdeen Proving Ground Series, Foxes of the Desert by paul Carell, Rommel Papers by Rommel of course!

 

Carro Armato P.40

The P-40 weighed 26 tons. Crew was 4. Main armament 75mm L/34 and one model 38 8mm MG. Carried 75 rds main and 600 rds MG, Speed on road was 40 kph and 25 kph cross country. Horsepower 420 V-12 engine. Gasoline. Turret Armor 60mm front, 50mm sides & 20mm on top. Hull 50mm frontal, 40mm sides & rear, 20mm deck, 14mm floor.

In service from late 1943 until 1944. Employed in Italy exclusively by German troops. Production information varies. Some sources say 21 and other quote 24. Approximately 80 may have been pproduced for the Whermacht.

None ever saw service with Italian units. All were confiscated by the Germans, some without engines which were dug in and used as stationary pillboxes.

Source: Italian Tanks and Fighting Vehicles of WW2 by Ralph Riccio
ISBN 0 904811 01 8. Published 1975.