in the
Balkans, August 1943 The
Fiat 3000s that were first upgraded and officially designated as the carro d'assalto
Fiat 3000 Mod.21, or Carro Armato L5/21 and the later upgrade the up-gunned version of the 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 or L5/30
light tank still were in use when World War II started. With Italy's entry into World War II in June 1940, a limited number of Fiat 3000s still in service with the Italian Army were employed operationally on the Greek-Albanian front. They were also among the last Italian tanks to oppose the Allies, as in July 1943, when the
Allies landed in Sicily, two Italian tank companies on the island were still equipped with the 3000. One company was dug in and their vehicles were used as fixed
fortifications, while the other company was used in a mobile role at the
Amphibious Battle of Gela, with few of the tanks surviving the Allied drive. in the Balkans, August 1943 In addition to seeing action in the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the
Spanish Civil War, the
Slovak-Hungarian War, and the
Anglo-Iraqi War, the L3 tank was used almost everywhere that Italian troops fought during
World War II. L3s were found on the
Italian/French border,
North Africa,
Italian East Africa, the
Balkans,
USSR,
Sicily, and
Italy. with German markings passes German infantrymen in
occupied Albania, September 1943 s on the streets of
Tripoli, March 1941 A further development of the
Fiat L3 light tank, the
Fiat L6/40 went through a number of prototypes during the late 1930s and used the Italian army from 1940 and on through World War II. The
L6/40 light tanks were used by the Italians in the
Balkans Campaign, in
the war against the Soviet Union, in the latter stages of the
North African campaign, and in the defense of
Sicily and
Italy. The L6/40 was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the
Eastern Front. The L6 fought alongside the L6/40-based
Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. Although a good light tank for its size and an improvement over the
tankettes that were common within the Italian army, it was already obsolete by the time of its introduction. On paper, the
Royal Italian Army was one of the
largest ground forces in
World War II, though in reality it could not field the numbers claimed. Italian 'medium'
M11,
M13,
M14 and
M15 tanks were at a marked disadvantage against the comparatively heavily armed American
Sherman tanks, for example. More crucially, Italy lacked suitable quantities of equipment of all kinds and the
Italian high command did not take necessary steps to plan for possible setbacks on the battlefield, or for proper logistical support to its field armies. There were too few anti-aircraft weapons, obsolete anti-tank guns, and too few trucks. When
Italy entered World War II, the
Royal Italian Army (
Regio Esercito) possessed around one-hundred
M11/39 medium tanks in two tank battalions. L3 tankettes still equipped all three Italian armored divisions, they equipped the tank battalions in the motorized divisions, the light tank squadron group in each "Fast" (
Celere) division, and numerous independent tank battalions. tanks in the desert, April 1941 The Fiat-Ansaldo
M11/39 medium tank was used from 1940 through the early period of World War II. The M11/39 was developed as a "breakthrough tank" (
Carro di Rottura). It was replaced by the Fiat-Ansaldo
M13/40 medium tank which was used in the
Greek campaign and in the
North African Campaign. The first of over 700 M13/40s were delivered following a rate of production of about 60-70 a month, before the fall of 1940. They were sent to North Africa to fight the British. Its baptism of fire came with a special unit, the
Babini Brigade. Arriving too late to fight in the September offensive, this unit was ready the next December, for
a major British offensive operation. Further action took place in Derna, where the V battalion had just arrived. Tanks of III battalion were also present near this position, at the
battle of Bardia. In two days of fighting (January 3–4, 1941), the Australians suffered 456 casualties while the Italians lost 45,000 men captured or killed. On February 6–7, the British offensive penetrated so far that the Babini Brigade sought to open a breach in the British lines at
Beda Fomm in an effort to allow cut-off Italian troops to retreat along the Libyan coast. The brigade's action was unsuccessful and all 20 of their tanks were lost. The last six surviving tanks entered a field near the local British command post. They were destroyed one after another by a single
2-pdr (40 mm) anti-tank gun. Many tanks were lost in this campaign to artillery fire rather than other tanks. Subsequently, in April 1941, M13s of the
Ariete division took part in the
Siege of Tobruk, with little success against British
Matildas. The first successful action for the M13 was the
Battle of Bir-el-Gubi. The tank was widely used in North Africa by the Italian army and some that were captured by the British army were subsequently issued to the British 6th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) and the Australian 6th Cavalry Regiment early in 1941 when tanks were in a very short supply on the Allied side. The Australian regiment had three squadrons of captured vehicles which they called Dingo, Rabbit, and Wombat. So that they were not engaged by Allied units, white kangaroos were painted on the sides, glacis and turret rear. The
M13/40 was not used on the
Eastern Front;
Italian forces there were equipped only with
Fiat L6/40s and
Semovente 47/32 tank destroyers. Armament was sufficient for 1940–41, but did not keep up with the increased armor and firepower on Allied or German tanks and anti-tank guns. Beginning in 1942, the Italian Army recognized the firepower weakness of the M13/40 series and employed the
Semovente 75/18 self-propelled gun alongside the tanks in their armored units. In April 1941, at the time of the arrival of the
Afrika Korps, the Italians had around 240 M13 and M14 tanks in first-line service. In 1942, as the Allies began deploying
Grants and
Crusader IIIs, along with towed 6-pounder anti-tank guns in their infantry units, the weaknesses of the M13 were exposed. In an attempt to improve protection, many crews piled sandbags or extra track links on the outside of their tanks, but this made the already-underpowered vehicles even slower and increased maintenance requirements. The Italians equipped at least one company in each tank battalion with more heavily armed
Semovente 75/18 assault guns. tanks in depot, September 1943 The
Second Battle of El Alamein saw the first appearance of the
M4 Sherman, while some 230 M13s were still in front line service. In several days of battle, the
Ariete and
Littorio divisions were used to cover the Axis retreat. The
131st Armored Division "Centauro" was virtually destroyed fighting in Tunisia. The next tank in the series was the
M14/41, a slightly improved version of the M13/40 with a more powerful diesel engine. The tank was also employed in the
North African Campaign. The M14/41 was a four-person
medium tank and served starting in 1941 in the
Royal Italian Army. The official Italian designation was Carro Armato M 14/41 and the tank was first employed in the
North African Campaign where its shortcomings quickly became apparent. The vehicle was unreliable, cramped, and caught fire easily when hit. Following the withdrawal of Italian forces from North Africa the M14/41 was rarely encountered. A few captured M11, M13 and M14s were pressed into service by British and Australian forces to fill the serious shortage of allied tanks in 1941. The next in the series was the
M15/42, a 15 tonne tank first built in January 1943. 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. The M.15/42 was armed with a 47mm main gun and up to four Modello type 8mm machine guns in various places throughout the design with 6 road wheels fitted to either track side. Power was derived from a single SPA 15 TB M42 8-cylinder gasoline engine - developing some 192 hp - and mounted to the rear of the hull. Some 90 vehicles were built before the Italian armistice in September 1943 and in connection to that event they were used in battle against the Germans by the
132nd Armoured Division Ariete in Rome. After that point they were confiscated and used by the Germans, along with 28 incomplete M15/42s. The Germans ordered the completion of the remaining 28, but incorporated a slightly improved version of the 47 mm gun. The Carro Armato M16/43 was cancelled before the single prototype was completed after Axis were expelled from North Africa so never was used in the war. In September 1943,
Italy made an armistice with the Allies and split into the
Italian Social Republic - effectively a puppet state of Germany - in the north and that of the Badoglio government in the south. The
Italian Co-Belligerent Army (
Esercito Cobelligerante Italiano) was the army of the Italian royalist forces fighting on the side of the Allies in southern Italy after the Allied armistice with Italy in September 1943. The Carro Armato
P40 came late in the war and was armed with a 75 mm gun and an 8 mm Breda machine gun, plus another optional machine gun in an anti-aircraft mount. Of the 1,200 tanks ordered, only a few (between one and five depending on the source) pre-production models were completed before the
Italian Armistice in September 1943, at which point they were taken over by the German
Wehrmacht. About a hundred P40s were built by
Ansaldo from then until the end of the war, although most were not entirely completed because of a lack of engines. A few were used in combat, under the German designation of
Panzerkampfwagen P40 737(i), for example at
Anzio. Some, without engines, were used as static strongpoints. There were at least two planned variants of the P40. One was named P43, a tank with a weight over 30 tonnes, which would have had about 100mm of frontal armour and a main armament of either a longer-barrelled 75 mm gun or the same 90 mm piece mounted on the
Semovente M41 90/53. However of this variant only a couple wooden scale models were ever produced. There was also a further upgraded variant called the P43 bis which was planned to have a 480 hp gasoline engine. ==Cold War==