Tanks of Italy
s have been employed by the military forces of Italy since their first use in World War I. Initially, Italy built up its tank forces with imported French designs: the Renault FT and Schneider CA. Italy then opted for domestic production of copies of foreign tanks like the Fiat 3000 and the L3 series of tankettes. From the Carden Loyd tankette-derived designs, Italy developed their own series of tanks during the interwar years.
During World War II, Italian tanks proved inadequate compared to its Allied and German contemporaries. The small Italian industrial base was incapable of fielding competitive designs, and Italian tanks had too thin armor and too weak armament. The problems became worse as the war wore on due to the rapid evolution of tanks during World War II.
With defeat in World War II, domestic Italian tank production ceased and in the post-war years it received tanks from the US as a NATO member state. In 1971 Italy began fielding the West German Leopard 1 as its main battle tank. From 1990, it was gradually phased out and ultimately replaced by the C1 Ariete starting in 1995.
Overview
Italy first built a heavy tank called the Fiat 2000 during World War I with a powerful gun, a 65/17 howitzer, with the first prototype being partially finished in 1917, but just two were built. It then imported the French Renault FT and produced a slightly improved version, the Fiat 3000, before beginning its own designs. While the Fiat 3000 was being developed, France sent 100 of these FT tanks to Italy in 1918 so that Italian troops could get acquainted with tracked combat vehicles. By 1918, FIAT and Ansaldo, were the only industrial complex large enough to deal with tank production. The first model produced for the Royal Army, was the FIAT 3000. They were ready by 1922, and served well to forge Italian interwar armoured tactics and was in use until 1943. Another model developed in 1930, was the gun-armed serie II or FIAT 3000B. Both formed the bulk of the Italian army corps until new models arrived in 1935. Soon after, the official designations incorporated "Carro Armato or "CA" meaning "armed carriage". Italy bought a number of Carden Loyd Mark VIs, built a few licence copies designated CV-29, and then developed this design further. Italy produced a large number of CV-33 and CV-35 tankettes based on this Vickers-Carden-Lloyd concept.A native Italian design was the L6/40, a very small light tank with a 20 mm Breda cannon and rivetted construction. A medium tank, based on the Vickers Six-Tonner, was the M11-M13 series which had a very good 47 mm gun, but very thin armor.
The Carro Armato was the Italian Army's designation for tanks from 1938 onwards. This would be followed by a letter and a series of numbers. The letter would be either L, M or P meaning light, medium, and heavy tank respectively. The official Italian military tank classification differed from contemporary classifications in other countries. The numbers would follow the pattern of X/Y where X would be the weight in tonnes and Y the year of adoption.
Development
The Fiat 3000 was the first tank to be produced in series in Italy. It was to be the standard tank of the emerging Italian armored units after World War I. The 3000 was based on the French Renault FT.The design was accepted with deliveries to begin in May 1919, but the end of the war caused the original order to be cancelled and only 100 were delivered. The first Fiat 3000s entered service in 1921 and were officially designated as the carro d'assalto Fiat 3000, Mod. 21.. Tests of the Model 21 revealed that the armament, consisting of two 6.5 mm machine guns, was inadequate, and adoption of a 37 mm gun as main armament was urged.
The up-gunned version of the Fiat 3000, armed with a 37/40 gun, was tested in 1929 and was officially adopted in 1930 with the designation of carro d'assalto Fiat 3000, Mod. 30. The Model 30, in addition to its improved armament, also differed from the Model 21 in that it had a more powerful engine, improved suspension, different engine compartment silhouette, and the external stores were stowed differently. Some Model 30s were also produced with two 6.5 mm machine guns as main armament, as on the Model 21, in lieu of the 37 mm gun. A limited number of Model 21 vehicles were exported to Albania, Latvia and Abyssinia prior to 1930.
The L3/35 was developed from the Carden Loyd Mark VI tankette, four of which were imported from Britain in 1929. The first vehicle developed by the Italians from the Carden Lloyd tankette was designated CV-29; "CV" being an abbreviation of Carro Veloce and "29" as the year of adoption. Only twenty-one CV-29s were built.
In 1933, a new design was built jointly by the Fiat Company of Turin and the Ansaldo Company of Genoa. This vehicle was introduced as the Fiat-Ansaldo CV-33 light tank and was only armed with two machine guns and was in wide use at the beginning of the war in Africa. About 300 CV-33s were built.
In 1935, a slightly improved model of the CV-33 was introduced and designated CV-35. The primary differences were that the armour was bolted rather than riveted and the single 6.5 mm machine gun was replaced with twin 8 mm machine guns. Many older CV-33s were retrofitted to meet the specifications of the CV-35. In 1938, the vehicles were redesignated L3/33 and the L3/35.
In 1938, a further development of the L3 design was designated L3/38. The L3/38 had torsion bar suspension and two versions of a single mounted 13.2 mm machine gun.
The designations of these tanks were changed prior to the outbreak of World War II, in accordance with the identification system that was adopted throughout the war by the Italians. The Model 21 was redesignated the L.5/21, and the Model 30 was redesignated the L.5/30 becoming the L5/21 and L5/30 light tank respectively.
Image:Fiat-Ansaldo L6 40.jpg|thumb|right|Fiat-Ansaldo L6/40 tank in 1940
The L6/40 light tank was developed prior to World War II and used by the Italian army from 1940 and on and was adopted by the Italian Army when officials learned of the design and expressed interest. A one-man turret in the center mounted a single Breda Modello 35 20 mm main gun and a Breda Modello 38 8 mm coaxial machine gun. The driver sat in the front right of the hull. The riveted armor was six to 30 mm in thickness, which was roughly equivalent to existing Allied light tanks. A further development of the Fiat L3 light tank, the L6 went through a number of prototypes during the late 1930s. The first was armed with a sponson-mounted 37 mm main gun and a machine-gun armed turret. Ultimately, the production configuration, named Carro Armato L6/40, was put into production in 1939, with 283 finally produced. It was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. L6/40s were also used in the North African campaign.
The M11/39 medium tank was first produced prior to World War II. The need for a medium infantry tank led FIAT to design a brand new hull in 1938. Army specifications included a 37mm gun, two machine-guns and a good armor. The M11/39 had strong influences from the British Vickers Matilda I and Cruiser I. There was no turret design strong enough to support the designed M40 37mm gun, and the latter had to be fitted in the hull; the light turret was equipped with a twin Breda 8mm. For the first time, this was a three-man crew design. The armour was 30mm thick, and the engine was a 105 bhp V6 diesel, sufficient to a 32 km/h max speed and 200 km range. It was an 11-ton model, hence its denomination. The M11/39, which saw service in Africa and Italy, was developed as a "breakthrough tank". The design of the M11/39 was influenced by the British Vickers 6-Ton. This influence is reflected particularly in the track and suspension design. One innovative aspect of the design was the placement of the final reduction gears inside the front-mounted drive sprockets, eliminating the need for enlarged final drive housings in the bow armor. However, it was relatively slow, its mechanical reliability was very poor, and its 30 mm maximum riveted steel armor, designed to withstand only 20 mm fire, was vulnerable to British 2-pounder guns at any range at which the M11/39s main gun was useful.
The Carro Armato M13/40 was the Italian tank designed to replace the Fiat L3, the Fiat L6/40 and the Fiat M11/39 in the Italian Army at the start of World War II. The M13/40, weighing 13-14 tons, was fitted with a 47 mm gun, having armor-piercing capabilities, in the turret and a four-men crew. After a single prototype, series production began in late 1940. The late production had a 42 mm armour, similar to the next model, the almost identical M14/41. It was the main tank the Italians used throughout the war. The design was influenced by the British Vickers 6-Ton and was based on the modified chassis of the earlier M11/39, whose production was cut short in order to get the M13/40 into production.
The M14/41 was a four-person medium tank that served from 1941 and was first employed in the North African Campaign. The M14/41 was a slightly improved version of the M13/40 with a more powerful diesel engine. It was produced in limited numbers as it was considered already obsolete by the time of its introduction. The M14/41 used the same chassis as the M13/40 but with a redesigned hull with better armor, and was manufactured in 1941 and 1942. Nearly 800 were produced by the time production ended.
File:M15-42-Saumur.0004yfcp.jpg|thumb|right|M15/42 on display at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur
The M15/42 was a medium tank whose production began on 1 January 1943. 90 had been built before the Armistice of 8 September 1943. Having occupied most of the Italian territory, Germany confiscated all remaining M15/42s and produced 28 incomplete M15/42s. The M15/42 was developed from the M13/40 and the M14/41. It had a more powerful engine and air filters to cope with the harsh conditions of the desert. Basic armament was one 47 mm / L40 main gun and four 8 mm Breda 38 machine guns.
By 1942 the Italian army tried to develop a true "cruiser tank". This could only be achieved with a Christie style suspensions system. This led to the M16/43, better known as the Carro Celere Sahariano, which bears some resemblance to the British Crusader. It had a low profile, long hull, and the same armament as the M15/42, and a powerful FIAT SPA. It was capable of a sustained speed of 71 km/h but came too late. Production was cancelled when the Axis forces were driven out of Tunisia.
The first real tank to be able to take on the allies modern tanks was the P26/40 armed with a 75 mm gun and an 8 mm Breda machine gun. The design of the P26/40 "heavy" tank had started in 1940 but very few had been built by the time Italy signed the armistice with the Allies in September 1943 and the few produced afterwards were used by the Germans. The turret was operated by two crew members and this was a significant drawback as it put excessive workload on the tank's commander as most new tanks were designed with three-man turrets, following the successful example of the German Panzer III. The main weapon was the 75/34 cannon, a development of the Model 37 divisional gun, retaining the same dimensions. This weapon had a muzzle velocity of around. The P26/40 originally fielded three machine guns, but one was removed along with the deletion of the frontal, dual barbette machine gun mount.
The mechanical systems were a development of the "M" series, in particular the suspension which was reliable, but in rough terrain would not allow speeds similar to the more modern Christie suspension or torsion bar suspension. Nevertheless, the good power-to-weight ratio represented a significant improvement in mobility over its predecessors.
The armour was still riveted at a time when most tanks were constructed by welding. The armor was capable of protecting the tank against early anti-tank guns such as the British QF 2-pounder, but was vulnerable to 1943 anti-tank weapons such as the British QF 6-pounder and QF 17 pounder. The P40 was designated as a heavy tank in Italy, not because of its weight, but because of the intended role: it was to accompany and support the widely used medium tanks on the battlefields.
There was a P26/43 being developed with a 420 hp engine called the 'P43 bis', with a gun was the same as the P.26, the 75/34 mm cannon, but never got past the first models.
The Semovente line of self-propelled gun was developed with the Semovente da 47/32 using a 47 mm gun and a Semovente da 75/18 with a 75 mm Obice da 75/18 modello 34 mountain gun on the chassis of older tanks such as the M13/40 and M14/41 chassis from 1941 to 1943, later using the M15/42 chassis. The Semovente da 75/18 was one of the first of the self-propelled tanks and was used in North Africa in many actions and in later in Italy.