Category: WW2 Italian SPG Prototypes

Kingdom of Italy (1943)
Half-Track Mounted Self-Propelled Gun – Paper Project

The Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was an Italian anti-tank self-propelled gun designed in 1943 based on the FIAT 727 half-track chassis for the needs of the Italian Regio Esercito (English: Royal Army).

The delays with the production of the FIAT 727 caused the delay of the half-track Autocannone. The project was canceled after the 8th September 1943 Italian Armistice.

In Italian, Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 literally means Truck-mounted 75 mm L.32 cannon on FIAT 727 half-track hull.

Italian Half-Tracks

Before the Second World War, the Italian Army and the Italian industry were not interested in half-tracked vehicles, besides some interwar projects, such as the Semicingolato Corni (1923). The Italians preferred heavy-duty trucks or medium trucks with all-wheel drive. With the start of the conflict, during the French campaign, Italian officers were impressed by the mobility of the German half-tracked vehicles, such as the Sd.Kfz.7 heavy-duty half-track or the medium Sd.Kfz.10 that were used by the Wehrmacht to tow artillery pieces and ammunition.

In 1940, Colonel Sergio Berlese, an Italian designer in the Servizio Tecnico di Artiglieria (English: Artillery Technical Service), visited various German military vehicle production plants. In the production plant at Kiel, he was impressed by the German armed half-tracks and returned to the Kingdom of Italy, suggesting to his commanders that similar vehicles be produced in Italy. He easily managed to gain interest from the High Command of the Regio Esercito, and some generals showed some positive opinions towards the production of half-tracks in Italy.

Col. Berlese planned to create an Italian armed half-track, even if at that time, Italy was not producing half-tracks.

The Regio Esercito’s General Staff, enthusiastic about Col. Berlese’s ideas, ordered him to develop his design on the chassis of a fully tracked vehicle. This decision was made to speed up the project. If it was necessary to wait for the production of a half-track chassis to create a self-propelled gun on it, it would have taken a great deal of time that the Regio Esercito did not have.

This led to two different design paths. Under the supervision of Col. Berlese, an artillery piece was mounted on a fully tracked chassis. This was the Semovente M40 da 75/18, one of the most successful vehicles of the Regio Esercito during the war and the only successful design of Col. Berlese.

The other design path led the Italian Army High Command to put out some requests for the creation of half-tracks in 1941. The first developments were presented in the same year by the Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione (English: Vehicle Study and Experience Center) in Rome. These were the Bianchi Mediolanum medium trucks modified with tracks and the heavy duty Alfa Romeo 800RE (‘R.E.’ stands for Regio Esercito) truck.

These two vehicles, which were tested by Italian Army specialists, were standard medium trucks with modifications to the rear axles. They did not give the desired results in off-road tests and towing tests and were abandoned.

In 1941, the Regio Esercito High Command asked for an Sd.Kfz.7 from the Wehrmacht. The German Army responded positively and, during the same year, a German half-track was tested at the Centro Studi della Motorizzazione (English: Center for Motorisation Studies) in Rome, impressing the Italian officers with its towing capabilities and robustness.

Almost immediately, the possibility of producing the half-track under license was requested, but some bureaucratic problems slowed the release of documents. Production of the suspension and tracks was only granted by the German manufacturer Krauss-Maffei in 1942.

The production of the Italian copy of the Sd.Kfz.7, called Autocarro Semicingolato (English: Half-tracked Truck) Breda 61 (also known as the ‘Breda 8t’ for its weight), and a smaller version produced by FIAT called FIAT 727 or Maffei-FIAT 727 (a copy of the Sd.Kfz.10), started very slowly.

The FIAT 727 prototype was tested by the Italian Regio Esercito in 1943 at the Centro Studi della Motorizzazione (English: Center for Motorisation Studies) in Rome. Before the 8th September 1943 Armistice, a total of 6 or 8 pre-series vehicles were produced by the FIAT plants of Turin. It was planned to deliver the first vehicles in 1944, but the Germans were not interested in producing such medium half-tracks and the project was abandoned.

Like in the case of the Breda 61, even while the FIAT 727 was just a paper project, way before the production of a prototype, a team of engineers started the development of variants on its chassis: the Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 and the Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727.

Design

The only source that mentions the Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 is the book Andare Contro i Carri Armati written by Filippo Cappellano and Nicola Pignato. The two authors dedicated very few words to the vehicle and no kind of blueprint even exists.

Autocarro Semicingolato Maffei-FIAT 727 da 3 t

After testing the Sd.Kfz.7 in 1941, FIAT and Breda divided the tasks. FIAT would produce a scaled-down copy of the Sd.Kfz.7 (although later moved onto the smaller Sd.Kfz.10), whilst Breda would produce the copy of the Sd.Kfz.7. However, the two companies had to wait until late 1942 to receive permission from the German company Krauss-Maffei to produce the tracks and suspension of the Sd.Kfz.7.

Engine and Suspensions

The exact engine model is not known, but it was probably a FIAT license copy of the Maybach HL42 TRKM petrol engine used on the Sd.Kfz.10. The FIAT 727’s 6-cylinder engine produced a maximum of 100 hp at 2,800 rpm. It had a bore and stroke of 90 x 110 mm and an internal volume of 4,170 cm³. This propelled the vehicle to a maximum speed of 53 km/h.

The gearbox was of Italian origin, probably a copy of the German semi-automatic Maybach Variorex-transmission Schaltreglergetriebe 102 128 H, and had 4 forward and one reverse gears with a reducer. The engine was equipped with a Solex carburetor. The tracked suspension consisted of five double road wheels, overlapping and interleaved, mounted on swing arms sprung by torsion bars. The front axle had a leaf spring suspension and shock absorbers. The sprocket wheel had the complicated rollers rather than the more common teeth. This was a complicated system but guaranteed an increased track life. On the rear, the idler wheel was used to tension the track.

Chassis

The Maffei-FIAT 727 had a total weight of 3 tonnes and a payload of 1.5 tonnes. The crew consisted of a commander on the left and a driver on the right. Behind them, there were two rows of benches that could sit 6 soldiers, usually artillery troops that operated the guns towed by the vehicle, which had a tow capacity of 6 tonnes. The windshield could fold forward. A convertible canvas top was mounted at the upper part of the rear body. It fastened to the windshield when erected to protect the crew from the elements.

Like the German Sd.Kfz.10, the FIAT 727 had the engine and transmission on the front, the driving and transport compartment in the center, and a storage compartment on the rear.

The maximum speed was 53 km/h on road in the standard cargo variant. Its range was 240 km on road and 140 km off-road. The average fuel consumption was 45 liters per 100 km on road and 75 liters of fuel per 100 km off-road. The tires were produced by Pirelli of Milan. The rim dimensions were 7.25 x 20”.

Main Armament

The armament of the vehicle would have been the Cannone a Grande Gittata da 75/32 Modello 1937 (English: 75 mm L.32 Long Range Cannon Model 1937). The development of this new gun was proposed by Col. Sergio Berlese. It was a light long-range field gun, but due to the low muzzle velocity, it also had adequate anti-tank characteristics for shaped charge rounds.

The gun’s prototype was produced in 1937 by the Arsenale Regio Esercito di Napoli or AREN (English: Royal Army Arsenal of Naples) and tested later that year. It was designated as Cannone da 75/32 Modello 1937, but not accepted into service.

Between 1937 and 1939, an experimental battery was produced and intensively tested. After a series of modifications concerning the gun’s barrel lenght (decreased by some centimeters) and the muzzle brake, the gun was accepted into service in 1939. A total of 192 guns were ordered in 1940 and produced by the Ansaldo Pozzuoli plant in Pozzuoli, near Naples.

Some senior Italian officers requested the gun should be adopted as the main anti-tank gun of the Italian divisions, but the proposal was denied by the Regio Esercito’s High Command, as it considered it not reliable in that role due to the time the crew needed to put it in battery position and the complex operations to shoot at long distances. The Regio Esercito’s High Command suggested using it as an anti-tank gun only until more reliable guns came into service.

The gun had a weight in battery position of 1,160 kg with the gun shield. Its traverse was 25° to either side, elevation was from -10° to +45°.

There is no information about the trunnion on which the gun would be mounted on the half-track chassis. The decision to mount this field gun is questionable. During that period, the Regio Esercito had in service the Cannone da 75/46 Modello 1934 (English: 75 mm L.46 Cannon Model 1934), developed for the anti-aircraft role but used as an anti-tank gun due its muzzle velocity. It also had a trunnion that could be, with a few modifications, mounted on the chassis of a vehicle. This gun was probably discarded due to its weight, which was about 3,380 kg in battery position.

The Regio Esercito probably intended this autocannone to perform the tasks of a support vehicle, and, if necessary, also anti-tank vehicle, leaving the anti-aircraft role to other half-track autocannoni, such as the Autocannone da 40/56 su FIAT 727 and the dual use Autocannone da 90/53 su Breda 61.

In total, only 172 Cannoni da 75/32 Modello 1937 were produced before the 8th September 1943 Armistice. A total of 48 guns were captured intact by the Germans, who renamed the gun 7.5 cm FeldKanone 248(i) (English: 7.5 cm Field Cannon 248 Italian).

Ammunition

During the Second World War, to speed up production, the Regio Esercito used a variety of different rounds that could be fired by different cannons.

Ammunition for the Cannone da 75/32 Modello 1937
Name	Type	Muzzle velocity (m/s) with first charge	Muzzle velocity (m/s) with second charge	Weight (kg)	penetration in mm of a RHA angled at 90° at		penetration in mm of a RHA angled at 60° at
					500 m	1,000 m	500 m	1,000 m
Granata Dirompente da 75/32	High-Explosive	//	570 (estimated)	6.35	//	//	//	//
Granata Dirompente da 75/32 a d.e.	High-Explosive	360	570	6.30	//	//	//	//
Granata Dirompente da 75/27 Modello 1932	High-Explosive	350	490	6.35	//	//	//	//
Granata Perforante da 75/32	Armor Piercing	//	630	6.10	70	60	55	47
Granata da 75 Effetto Pronto (early type)	HEAT	//	580	4.50	55**	55**	50**	50**
Granata da 75 Effetto Pronto (later type)	HEAT	//	557***	5.20	*	*	*	*
Granata da 75 Effetto Pronto Speciale (early type)	HEAT	//	*	5.20	*	*	*	*
Granata da 75 Effetto Pronto Speciale Modello 1942	HEAT	//	399****	5.30	*	*	70	70
Notes	* Data not present ** British estimation *** Muzzle velocity of the projectile fired from the L.34 gun **** Muzzle velocity of the projectile fired from the L.27 gun

Crew

As many other autocannoni, the crew would have probably consisted of 6 or 7 soldiers. The vehicle was operated by a crew of 2, a driver on the right and the vehicle/gun’s commander on the left.

The gun crew would have probably consisted of a gunner and 3 or 4 loaders, maybe more. It is not known where the gun crew would have been seated. If the vehicle would have had foldable sides for the rear platform, it could have been equipped with folding seats on the sides. If the vehicle was not to be equipped with foldable sides for the platform, the gun crew would have probably been transported on another vehicle, perhaps an extra FIAT 727 that also transported a decent reserve of ammunition for the cannon.

The Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727

The Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 probably maintained the original frame of the Maffei-FIAT 727. This would speed up production, as the chassis for the autocannoni and the standard medium half-tracks would be the same and only later would the vehicles be modified with a gun on a rear platform.

For the same reason, it is logical to suppose that the chassis of the Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 would have the same modifications as those of the Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727’s chassis. The frame, engine compartment, and driving compartment would have been identical to the standard Maffei-FIAT 727. The rear platform would have probably had sides that folded 90° to increase the working surface for the gun operators.

Before firing on enemy targets, the crew of an Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 would have had to lower the jacks present on the sides of the vehicle to avoid the risk of overturning and to avoid stress on the suspension. It is probable that this autocannone armed with a larger caliber gun would be equipped with similar jacks. It is unclear if the jacks were manual, as on the Autocannoni da 90/53 su Breda 52 and Lancia 3Ro, or hydraulic, as on the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41. The vehicle could probably not have fired without the jacks in place against ground targets because the recoil of the gun would have stressed the vehicle’s suspension.

Conclusion

Very little is known about this interesting autocannone. The only source that mentions it dedicates just a few short sentences to it. Not even the original blueprint survived the war.

The Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was envisioned on a chassis that was never mass-produced, so it is difficult to hypothesize about its characteristics.

A support vehicle with great mobility would surely have been useful for the Italian divisions which regularly had to rely on improvised armed vehicles during the war.

Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 Specification
Size (L-W-H)	5.55 x 2.00 x ~2.50 m
Weight, battle ready	~ 5 tonnes
Crew	6 or 7 (driver, commander, gunner, 3 or 4 loaders)
Engine	FIAT petrol 6-cylinder engine, 100 hp at 2,800 rpm
Speed	~50 km/h
Range	240 km
Armament	1 Cannone da 75/32 Modello 1937
Armor	//
Production	Paper project

Sources

Andare Contro i Carri Armati, L’Evoluzione della Difesa Controcarro nell’Esercito Italiano dal 1918 al 1945. – Filippo Cappellano and Nicola Pignato – Gaspari Editore – 2008

Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano, Volume Secondo, Tomo II – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano – Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito – 2002

Semicingolati, Motoveicoli e Veicoli Speciali del Regio Esercito Italiano 1919-1943 – Giulio Benussi – Intergest Publishing – 1976

Kingdom of Italy (1943)
Half-Track Mounted Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun – Paper Project

The Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was an Italian self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on the Maffei-FIAT 727 half-track chassis, designed in 1943 for the needs of the Italian Regio Esercito (English: Royal Army).

Delays in the production of the FIAT 727 had a knock-on effect on the half-tracked Autocannone. The project was canceled after the Italian Armistice of 8th September 1943.

Translated from Italian, Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 literally means ‘Truck-mounted 40 mm L/56 cannon on FIAT 727 half-track hull’. In some sources it has also been called Semovente da 40/56 Bofors su Semicingolato da 3 t (English: Self-propelled gun 40 mm L/56 Bofors on 3 tonne half-track).

Italian half-tracks

Before the Second World War, the Italian Army and the Italian industry were not interested in half-tracked vehicles, apart from some interwar projects, such as the Semicingolato Corni (1923).
The Italians preferred heavy-duty trucks or medium trucks with all-wheel drive to tow their artillery, transport ammunition etc.
During the start of the war, in the French Campaign, Italian officers were impressed by the mobility of the German half-tracks, such as the Sd.Kfz.7 heavy-duty half-track or the medium Sd.Kfz.10 that were used by the Wehrmacht to tow artillery pieces, transport ammunition, and in other important logistic tasks.

In 1940 Colonel Sergio Berlese, a brilliant Italian designer and member of the Servizio Tecnico di Artiglieria (English: Artillery Technical Service) visited various German military vehicle production plants.

In the production plant of Kiel he remained impressed by the juggernaut German armed half-track and returned to the Regno d’Italia (English: Kingdom of Italy) suggesting his commanders to produce similar vehicles in Italy. He easily managed to interest the High Command of the Regio Esercito, In fact, some generals had positive opinions on the production of half-tracks in Italy.

The plans of Col. Berlese were to create an Italian made armed half-track, but in that period Italy was not producing half-tracks. This led to two different design paths: the idea of Col. Berlese was changed, mounting an artillery piece on a fully tracked chassis, this led to the Semovente M40 da 75/18, one of the most successful vehicles of the Regio Esercito during the war and the only successful design of Berlese.

The other design path led the Italian Army High Command to put out some requests for the creation of half-tracks in 1941. This was not only to create new cargo half-tracks, but also to create armored vehicles on their chassis.

The first developments were presented in the same year by the Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione (English: Vehicle Study and Experience Center) in Rome. These were the Bianchi Mediolanum medium trucks modified with tracks and the heavy duty truck Alfa Romeo 800RE CSEM (‘R.E.’ stands for Regio Esercito and CSEM for Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione) in fact the vehicle was not proposed by the Alfa Romeo company but was a Regio Esercito’s own development.

These two vehicles, which were tested by Italian Army specialists, were standard medium trucks with modifications to the rear axles. They did not give the desired results in off-road tests and towing tests and were abandoned.

In 1941, the Regio Esercito High Command asked for an Sd.Kfz.7 from the Wehrmacht. The German Army responded positively and, during the same year, a German half-track was tested at the Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione in Rome, impressing the Italian officers with its towing capabilities and robustness.

Almost immediately, the possibility of producing the half-track under license was requested, but some bureaucratic problems slowed the release of documents and the permission for producing the suspension and tracks came from the German manufacturer Krauss-Maffei only in 1942.

The production of the Italian copy of the Sd. Kfz.7, called Autocarro Semicingolato (English: Half-tracked Truck) Breda 61 (also known as the ‘Breda 8t’ for its weight) produced by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche (English: Italian Ernesto Breda Company for Mechanical Constructions) and a smaller FIAT 727 or Maffei-FIAT 727 produced by Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino or FIAT (English: Italian Automobile Factory of Turin), copying the Sd.Kfz.10, started very slowly.

The FIAT 727 prototype was tested by the Italian Regio Esercito in 1943 at the Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione. Before the 8th September 1943 Armistice, either 6 or 8 pre-series vehicles were produced by the FIAT plants of Turin. Plans were made to deliver the first vehicles in 1944, but the Germans were not interested in producing such medium half-tracks and the project was abandoned.

As was the case with the Breda 61, while the FIAT 727 was still just a paper project, before the production of a prototype, a team of engineers started the development of variants which would use its chassis, including the Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 and the Autocannone da 75/32 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727.

Design

Very little is known about this interesting vehicle armed with an unusual Swedish gun, with the only source that describes it, Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano only dedicating a few sentences to describe it.

Autocarro Semicingolato Maffei-FIAT 727 da 3 t

After testing the Sd.Kfz.7 in 1941, FIAT and Breda divided the tasks. FIAT would produce a scaled-down copy of the Sd.Kfz.7 (although later moved onto the smaller Sd.Kfz.10), whilst Breda would produce the copy of the Sd.Kfz.7. However, the two companies had to wait until late 1942 to receive permission from the German company Krauss-Maffei to produce the tracks and suspension of the Sd.Kfz.7.

Engine and Suspension

The exact engine model is not known, but it was probably a FIAT license copy of the Maybach HL42 TRKM petrol engine used on the Sd.Kfz.10. The FIAT 727’s 6-cylinder engine produced a maximum of 100 hp at 2,800 rpm. It had a bore and stroke of 90 x 110 mm and an internal volume of 4,170 cm³. This propelled the vehicle to a maximum speed of 53 km/h.

The gearbox was of Italian origin, probably a copy of the German semi-automatic Maybach Variorex-transmission Schaltreglergetriebe 102 128 Hc and had 4 forward and one reverse gears with a reducer. The engine was equipped with a Solex carburetor. The tracked suspension consisted of five double road wheels, overlapping and interleaved, mounted on swing arms sprung by torsion bars. The front axle had a leaf spring suspension and shock absorbers. The sprocket wheel had the complicated rollers rather than the more common teeth. This was a complicated system but guaranteed an increased track life. On the rear, the idler wheel was used to tension the track.

Chassis

The Maffei-FIAT 727 had a total weight of 3 tonnes and a payload of 1.5 tonnes. The crew consisted of a commander on the left and a driver on the right. Behind them, there were two rows of benches that could seat 6 soldiers, usually artillery troops that operated the guns towed by the vehicle, which had a tow capacity of 6 tonnes. The windshield could fold forward. A convertible canvas top was mounted at the upper part of the rear body. It fastened to the windshield when erected to protect the crew from the elements.

Like the German Sd.Kfz.10, the FIAT 727 had the engine and transmission on the front, the driving and transport compartment in the center, and a storage compartment on the rear.

Modifications

The Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 maintained the original frame, engine deck, and driving compartment of the FIAT 727, but a platform on which the gun was added to the rear. Even with these modifications, it seems that the vehicle’s dimensions did not change, with a length of 5.55 m, a width of 2 m and height of about 2.30 m, compared to the standard Maffei-FIAT 727 half-track’s 5.55 x 2.00 x 2.15 m.

The Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was very likely inspired by the German Sd.Kfz.10/4 and 10/5 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns armed initially with the 2 cm FlaK 30 and as the war continued, with the more modern FlaK 38 between 1939 and 1943.

The original sketches of the vehicle perhaps suggest that the platform had some sides that could be lowered 90° increasing the floorspace for the gun’s operators.

Before opening fire against air targets, the crew had to lower the jacks on the sides of the vehicle to avoid the risk of it overturning with the recoil. It is unclear if the jacks were manual as on the Autocannoni da 90/53 su Breda 52 and Lancia 3Ro or hydraulic as on the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41. The vehicle could probably not have fired without the jacks in place even against ground targets because the recoil of the gun would have stressed the vehicle’ suspension.

Crew

In addition to the original 2 crewmembers, the gun was probably operated by 2 gunners and 3 loaders, maybe more. Where the gun crew were placed when not operating the gun is unknown. If the vehicle had had foldable sides for the rear platform, it could have been equipped with folding seats on the sides, as were the German Sd.Kfz.10/4 and 10/5. This is not a far-fetched idea, as other Italian vehicles were also equipped with folding seats, such as the Camionetta desertica SPA-Viberti AS42 and the Autocannone da 90/53 su Breda 501.

If the vehicle was not equipped with foldable sides for the platform, the gun crew were possibly transported on another vehicle, perhaps another FIAT 727 that also transported a decent reserve of ammunition for the anti-aircraft gun.

Main Armament

The Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was armed with a 40 mm Fältautomatkanon L/60 (English: 40 mm Field Automatic Cannon L/60) produced in Sweden.

The Swedish Bofors company started the development of the gun in 1928 as a replacement for the Swedish Navy’s Vickers 40 mm guns. It was tested in late 1931 and was adopted by the Swedish Navy soon after. In the following years, the Bofors anti-aircraft gun was adopted by the Dutch Navy (1934), Belgium (1935), and then Poland, Norway, and Finland, followed by Argentina and many other nations. The United Kingdom examined a gun delivered by Poland in 1937 and quickly acquired the license to produce it as the Quick Firing 40 mm Mark I.

The automatic anti-aircraft Bofors 40 mm gun weighed, without the field carriage 1,981 kg. It was operated by a crew of 5 or 6 soldiers: commander, 2 gunners, and 2 or 3 loaders, depending on the versions. The Bofors had a rate of fire between 120 to 140 rounds per minute, depending on the elevation, and a muzzle velocity of 881 m/s. It was fed by 4-round metal strips loaded from the upper side.

The gun’s Italian designation was Cannone Bofors da 40/56 (English: 40 mm L/56 Bofors Gun). In fact, the real barrel length was 56 calibers, not 60 as used by other nation’s nomenclature in which the caliber number also counted the breech’s length.

The potential use of this gun is a strange decision for the Regio Esercito. The Fascist Kingdom of Italy followed a policy of autarky denying any kind of foreign equipment before the war. In part, this was also affected due to the international isolation placed on Italy as a result of the invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent League of Nations mandated embargo. During the war, the policies of autarky evolved to a limited extent with the license production of certain German weapons or vehicles.

The desperate situation the Regio Esercito found itself in at the outbreak of the war forced the High Command to accept a compromise and initiated a deal for the delivery of the production license. Due to the war and Italy’s alliances, the Italian High Command avoided asking neutral Sweden for the production license. Instead, they turned to Hungary in 1941.

In 1942 the license for the Hungarian Bofors 36M 40 mm gun was granted by the Hungarian Mavag company to Breda and Odero-Terni-Orlando (OTO). The order for 1,500 40 mm cannons was placed and the guns would begin to be delivered in January 1944. Breda and OTO had to produce copies of the gun while Terni steelworks company had to produce spare parts. the 8th September 1943 Armistice caused the cancellation of many Regio Esercito projects.
After the Armistice the Breda factories produced only small numbers of spare parts that were delivered to the Germans.

The gun was tested in autumn 1942 at the Sabaudia shooting range. It was probably actually a British QF 40 mm Mark I, the British license copy of the Swedish gun, captured in North Africa.

A table in the book Storia dell’Artiglieria states that there were a total of 42 Cannone Bofors da 40/56 guns in the Italian peninsula and islands on 30th September 1942.

On the Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727, the gun would be mounted on a turntable platform that allowed a loader to load the clips while standing still while two other loaders on the vehicle’s platform and on the ground passed the clips. Thanks to the small dimensions of the FIAT 727, the gun would have a 360° traverse and an elevation of -5° to +90° on the sides and the rear of the vehicle, while on the front, due the engine deck and driver’s cabin, the gun had to be elevated a few degrees to open fire.

The number of ammunition transported on board is not known.

Conclusion

The Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 was an Italian paper project that was developed on a vehicle that, at the time, was also merely a paper project and even armed with a main gun that was not yet in service with the Regio Esercito.

If Italian projects with greater importance were abandoned, this project was not even considered by the Germans after the Armistice and immediately canceled.

A self-propelled anti-aircraft gun with these characteristics would certainly have been useful for the Italian divisions, which, from the beginning of the war until 1943, could only rely on a few ‘improvised’ autocannoni mounted on truck loading bays to defend themselves against air attacks.

Autocannone da 40/56 su Autocarro Semicingolato FIAT 727 Specification
Size (L-W-H)	5.55 x 2.00 x ~2.30 m
Weight, battle ready	~4.5 tonnes
Crew
Engine	FIAT petrol 6-cylinder engine, 100 hp at 2,800 rpm
Speed	~50 km/h
Range	240 km
Armament	1 Cannone da 40/56
Armor	//
Production	Paper project

Sources

Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano, Volume Secondo, Tomo II – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano – Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito – 2002

Semicingolati, Motoveicoli e Veicoli Speciali del Regio Esercito Italiano 1919-1943 – Giulio Benussi – Intergest Publishing – 1976

Il Centro Addestramento e Sperimentazione Artiglieria Contraerei – Massimo Iacopi – Officina Grafica Bolognese – 2001

Storia dell’Artiglieria Volume XV – Carlo Montù – Rivista di Artiglieria e Genio Roma

Le Artiglierie del Regio Esercito nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale – Filippo Cappellano – Albertelli – 1998

L’Artiglieria Controaerei Italiana sino al 1943 – Filippo Cappellano – Storia Militare – 2015

Il Regio Esercito alla Vigilia dell’8 Settembre 1943 – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano – Storia Militare – 2003

Alle Origini della Breda Meccanica Bresciana – Andrea Curami, Paolo Ferrari and Achille Rastelli – >Fondazione Negri – 2009

La Produzione di Artiglierie in Italia Durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano – Storia Militare – 1998

Kingdom of Italy/Italian Social Republic (1942-1945)
Truck-Mounted Dual Use Artillery – 1 Prototype Built

The Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA ‘Dovunque’ 41 was an Italian anti-aircraft and anti-tank self-propelled truck-mounted gun designed in 1942 on the SPA Dovunque 41 6×6 heavy duty truck chassis. It was meant to succeed the previous Autocannone da 90/53 su Breda 52 in the ranks of the Italian Regio Esercito (English: Royal Army).

Although it was a promising project, the Armistice of 8th September 1943 caused the cancellation of the vehicle’s development, which was restarted in 1944 under the control of the new fascist-aligned Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (English: National Republican Army). They used the single armored prototype produced by Officine Viberti.

The name Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 means truck-mounted 90 mm L/53 [cannon] on SPA Dovunque 41 [chassis].

The North African Context

During the first stages of the Second World War, the Regio Esercito was involved in a military campaign against the Commonwealth troops in the vast deserts of North Africa. This campaign began on 9th September 1940, when the Italian troops invaded Egypt from Libya, which was an Italian colony.

During these actions, it was clear for the Regio Esercito commanders in Africa that the Army needed long-range and well armed reconnaissance vehicles with great mobility. They also needed support vehicles that would be fast and armed with field guns capable of supporting the Italian assault infantry units. Good mobility would allow them to quickly move from one point to another on the battlefield to stop British assaults and support Italian counterattacks.

For this purpose, some light trucks, captured from the British troops in Cyrenaica during the first days of war, were used. These vehicles were Morris CS8, Ford F15, and Chevrolet, all with a payload capacity of 15 cwt (750 kg). They were captured in large quantities and were put back into service with the Italian coat of arms as supply trucks.

General Gastone Gambara, one of the Italian commanders in North Africa, ordered some workshops to take a number of these British lorries and modify them, mounting artillery pieces on their loading bay. This was how autocannoni came to be.

In Italian, the word autocannone (plural autocannoni) designated a truck of civilian or military production, of any type (light, medium, etc.), modified to permit the transportation of an artillery piece of any type (anti-tank, field gun, anti-aircraft, etc.) permanently fixed on the cargo bay.

The first autocannone produced in significant numbers was the Autocannone da 65/17 su Morris CS8, of which 24 were assembled. This vehicle had an old Cannone da 65/17 Mod. 1908/13 mountain gun mounted on its cargo bay and was stretched by 50 cm. The gun carriage was modified removing the spade and the wheels and welding it on a Italian medium tank turret ring that permitted 360° traverse.

While the Morris CS8 was transformed into a support autocannone, the smaller Ford and Chevrolet were converted into anti-aircraft autocannoni, mounting a Cannone da 20/65 Mod. 1935 or Mod. 1939. They were used to defend the Batterie Autocannoni (English: Autocannoni Batteries) or Italian supply convoys from aircraft strikes.

In North Africa, other autocannoni were produced with support guns, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank guns on different types of trucks, mainly of Italian production.

Autocannoni da 90/53

The only autocannoni officially produced in significant numbers, 120 in total, during the war, were the Autocannone da 90/53 su Lancia 3Ro and Autocannone da 90/53 su Breda 52. The first was produced by Lancia Veicoli Industriali in Turin and the latter by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche in the Sesto San Giovanni plant (near Milan). They were modified by the Ansaldo company in the Ansaldo-Fossati plant in Sestri Ponente (near Genoa) and perhaps also by the Officine Viberti company in Turin.

The Autocannone da 90/53 was a private project of Ansaldo proposed to the Italian Ministry of War on 7th January 1941. On the blueprints sent by Ansaldo, the truck chassis chosen for the project was an Alfa Romeo heavy duty truck, but the Ispettorato Superiore dei Servizi Tecnici (English: Technical Services Inspectorate) requested on 12nd January 1941, less than a week after, to mount it on the Lancia 3Ro heavy-duty truck instead.

Despite the need to modify the project to reinforce the truck chassis, the prototype was ready on 6th February 1941, the firing tests were performed on 10th February 1941, and the first order from the Regio Esercito for the Autocannone da 90/53 su Lancia 3Ro was placed on 10th March 1941.

After some changes, on 18th September 1941, the Regio Esercito order was extended to 30 autocannoni on Lancia 3Ro and 50 on Breda 52 chassis, plus 64 Lancia 3Ro ammunition carriers, 16 command trucks, and 16 recovery trucks.

On 2nd December 1941, the order was finally changed to 30 autocannoni su Lancia 3Ro, by this date all delivered or ready to be delivered to the Regio Esercito, 90 autocannoni su Breda 52 (20 ready to be delivered), a total of 96 heavy duty trucks (Lancia 3Ro and Breda 51) converted to ammunition carriers, 24 recovery trucks, and just 12 command trucks. The last Autocannone da 90/53 su Breda 52 left the Ansaldo-Fossati plant in Genoa on 1st May 1943.

These 120 autocannoni, 96 ammunition carriers, 12 command trucks, and 24 recovery trucks were assigned to 12 Groups that used Roman numerals: DI, DII, DIII, DIV, DV, DVII, DVIII, DXI, DLVI, DLVII, XX, and XXI (501st, 502nd, 503rd, 504th, 505th, 507th, 508th, 511th, 556th, 557th, 20th, and 21st), each divided into two batteries with 4 autocannoni da 90/53 each (plus one in reserve for each battery), 4 ammunition carriers with 840 rounds in total, one command truck, two recovery trucks, 10 logistic light and heavy vehicles, and other various equipment. The total personnel complement was 4 officers, 7 NCOs, 105 crew and gunners, and 31 drivers.

The DI, DII, and DIV Groups were sent to North Africa, where they were all lost during the North African Campaign. The remaining groups were used in the defense of southern Italy until the 8th September 1943 armistice.

During service, some defects of the vehicles were found, such as the poor top speed, poor range, and poor off-road capabilities, mainly due to weight increase (11,500 kg for the 90/53 su Lancia 3Ro compared to 5,610 kg of the standard Lancia 3Ro cargo truck variant), but also because neither of the two trucks had all-wheel drive.

In order to withstand the stress of the recoil of the powerful main gun, the Lancia 3Ro and Breda 52 trucks received six manual jacks with three spades each. These needed to be hammered into the ground before opening fire.

Before being ready to open fire, the crew need to stop the vehicle, put the jacks into position, mount the jack pads, hammer three spades for each jack, and open the gun platform. This wasted time and physically strained crews and made it impossible to promptly open fire to counter an unforeseen threat, or likewise, did not allow leaving the firing position quickly in the event of a retreat or counter battery.

Another serious problem was the height of the vehicle’s silhouette. In fact, the designers had preferred to mount a trunnion that allowed the gun to engaged ground and flying targets, but the solution proved to be problematic. The trunnion was high to permit a good maximum gun elevation, but its height meant it was easier to spot the Autocannoni da 90/53 on the vast and flat North African deserts.

The 12 mm thick gun shield, the only armored part of the vehicle, was adequate for protecting the gunner and crew from small-arms caliber bullets, artillery splinters, or shrapnel, but was too high and only offered protection to the crew on the frontal arc. This meant that the crew was vulnerable from air attacks and to all the types of threats on the ground. The absence of armor also made the vehicle vulnerable to air strikes and enemy infantry ambushes during a march.

Despite these problems, the Autocannoni da 90/53 provided excellent anti-tank performance thanks to the powerful 90 mm gun. During the Allied landing on the shores of Calabria during the first days of September 1943, some Autocannoni da 90/53 su Breda 52 were used in the indirect fire role against Allied vessels.

Another great quality of the autocannoni was the 30-round ready-to-use rack placed between the cab and the gun platform, which permitted the crew to maintain a high rate of fire for a certain period of time.

In response to the problems encountered on the autocannoni da 90/53, three different projects were started:

An armored autocannone on a heavily modified Breda 52 chassis that would become the Semovente Ruotato da 90/53 Breda 501. Ansaldo produced only two prototypes before the September 1943 armistice, when the project was abandoned.

The Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda da 8t, an armored and shorter vehicle, a project initiated by Breda in August 1942. Due to delays in the production of the Breda 61 half-track and the 8th September 1943 armistice, the project was canceled.

A new 90/53 Autocannone on SPA Dovunque 41 6×6 heavy duty truck developed by Ansaldo. The Officine Viberti company in Turin was designing an armored version before the Armistice.

Design

The SPA Dovunque 41 Truck

The SPA Dovunque 41 heavy duty truck was one of the heaviest trucks of the Regio Esercito. One of its main characteristics was the all-wheel-drive configuration that permitted it to transport materials or tow heavy artillery pieces even on rough terrain.

The development started in 1941 by the Società Piemontese Automobili or SPA, a subsidiary of the famous FIAT. The first prototype was a Trattore Medio (English: Medium Tractor) SPA TM41 with seats for 7 soldiers plus the driver. It could tow the most heavy artillery pieces in the ranks of the Regio Esercito, but was usually assigned to the Cannoni da 90/53 Mod. 1939 batteries.

After the tests, it was accepted into service on 24th March 1942 and the production began the same year. The prime mover variant was accompanied on the production line by the heavy-duty truck variant in early 1943.

The trucks were produced in small numbers before 8th September 1943. The production resumed after the Armistice for the German Army, which received 153 vehicles.

There were also plans to produce a lighter variant, called SPA Dovunque 42, which would have entered production in 1944, but because of the Armistice, the project was canceled. After the war, production resumed until 1948, when it was replaced on the production line by the powerful SPA Dovunque 50. The old version remained in service with the Italian Army in the recovery version until the 1970s.

The SPA TM41 did not have a closed cab, with the driver seated on the right, the engine compartment in the center, and, on the left, the vehicle commander’s seat. Behind them was a 4-seat compartment and a third 2-seat compartment. The passenger compartment did not have a roof but could be covered by a waterproof tarpaulin.

Behind the crew compartment was a small cargo bay for the transportation of artillery rounds. On the rear was a tow hitch and a powerful hydraulic winch operated by the truck’s engine thanks to a Power Take-Off (PTO) system. When necessary, the driver stopped the vehicle, would shift out of gear on the gearbox, engage the handbrake and, via a manual override, connected the engine’s flywheel to a second driveshaft that operated the winch’s gearbox, which regulated the speed of the cable.

The heavy truck version had a fully closed steel-cabin with two seats. Behind it was the cargo bay with a payload capacity of 5 tonnes. The chassis weighed 6.5 tonnes, plus 2 tonnes of bodywork. The total ready weight of the vehicle was 14 tonnes, consisting of 500 kg of fuel, cooling liquid, oil, spare wheels, sapper tools, etc. The spare wheels were placed 360 mm over the ground and were left loose and free to rotate in order to help the vehicle overcome obstacles.

In order to improve the already great off-road capabilities of the truck, the two rear axles could be equipped with tracks that could be wrapped over the stock tires. This system was easy to mount on the tires, weighed little and took up little space and made it possible to overcome obstacles or very steep slopes.

Engine and Suspension

The SPA Dovunque 41 was powered by a 4-stroke, water-cooled, direct ignition engine equipped with DLL 145 S6-M injectors and a PE 6B 80E L4/11 pump. It was a diesel with 6 cylinders, 9,365 cm³ capacity giving out 110 hp at 1,800 rpm. The transmission had 4 forward and 1 reverse gears and a reductor. The fuel tank capacity was 130 liters.

The oil tank held 20.5 liters, while the cooling water tank had a capacity of 52.5 liters. The electric system had two 12 volts 140 ampere Magneti Marelli batteries. The maximum speed on road was 49 km/h, while the range was 270 km. The clutch was a single dry plate with compressed air servo brakes.

The SPA Dovunque 41 was the first of the ‘Dovunque’ series with the all-wheel drive configuration and was the only heavy duty truck of the Regio Esercito without twin wheels on the two rear axles.

The front suspension consisted of transverse leaf springs coupled with hydraulic shock absorbers. The rear suspension consisted of double overlapping leaf springs.

The tires dimensions were 11.25 x 24” (28.5 cm x 60.96 cm), the same as the armored cars and camionette of the Regio Esercito. Like the armored cars and camionette, it could use a wide variety of tires, such as the Tipo ‘Libia’ and Tipo ‘Sigillo Verde’ for sandy soils, Tipo ‘Artiglio’ and Tipo ‘Artiglio a Sezione Maggiorata’ for continental terrain and Russian steppes, and Tipo ‘Raiflex’ for continental grounds, all developed and produced by the Pirelli company in Milan.

Armament

The main armament of the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 was the Cannone da 90/53 Modello 1939. This was an anti-aircraft 90 mm L/53 gun developed from the Ansaldo-OTO da 90/50 Modello 1939 gun which had been developed exclusively for the anti-aircraft and illuminating role on the Italian Regia Marina (English: Royal Navy) warships. To give an example, the Littorio-class battleships had twelve 90/50 guns in as many independent turrets.

Like the German 8.8 cm FlaK 36 gun, it was also used as an anti-tank gun in the first phases of the war, proving equally adequate in that role. A total of 519 guns were used in North Africa and on the Italian mainland, 121 of them mounted on autocannoni.

The development of this gun started in 1938, when the Italian Army made a request for an anti-aircraft gun that could hit enemy heavy bombers at an altitude of over 10,000 meters. In that period, Ansaldo was developing the Ansaldo-OTO da 90/50 (OTO is ‘Odero Terni Orlando’) for the Regia Marina and decided to create a ground version of the same cannon to speed up development.

The first four cannons were ready on 30th January 1940. In April that same year, they were tested at the Nettuno Shooting Area, where they proved essentially identical to the 90/50 gun tested some months before. The gun was immediately put into production by Ansaldo.

The gun weighed 8,950 kg in the Modello 1939 towable version (6,240 kg the gun, not including the field mount) and had an elevation of -2° to +85° and a traverse of 360°. The rate of fire was 19 rounds per minute, the maximum firing range was 17,400 m against ground targets, and 11,300 m against flying targets.

On board of the Autocannoni da 90/53 su Lancia 3Ro and Autocannoni da 90/53 su Breda 52, the gun trunnion had an electromechanical system which, after entering the altitude at which the enemy aircraft was flying, automatically adjusted the fuse of the 90 mm round. The altitude of the enemy aircraft was measured by a Centrale di Tiro Borletti – Galileo – San Giorgio or Centrale di Tiro Mod. 1940 ‘Gamma’ stereoscopic rangefinders. It is therefore plausible that the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 also had such a system on board.

Ammunition

The Cannone da 90/53 Mod. 1939 fired different types of rounds in 90 x 679 mmR, the same as its naval version.

Ammunition for the Cannone da 90/53 Modello 1939
	Type	Mass (kg)	Quantity of TNT (g)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Fuze	Penetration of RHA at 90° (mm)
Name						100 m	500 m	1000 m
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 36	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 36R	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 41	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	IO40	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	R40	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Perforante	APCBC	12.1	520	758	Mod. 09	130	121	110
Cartoccio Granata Perforante	APCBC	11.1	180	773	Mod. 09	156	146	123
Granata Effetto Pronto	HEAT	**	**	**	Internal Mod. 41	~ 110	~ 110	~ 110
Granata Effetto Pronto Speciale	HEAT	**	**	**	IPEM	~ 110	~ 110	~ 110
Notes	* The same round but with anti-aircraft or percussion fuze. ** Prototypes ready for testing only in mid-1943. According to some sources, they were similar to the German 88 mm Hl.Gr 39.

As with the other autocannoni da 90/53 batteries, the Autocannoni da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 batteries would have had the majority of the ammunition carried in other vehicles.

The Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41

The chassis of the Lancia 3Ro was not sturdy enough to withstand the recoil of the 90 mm gun, while the Breda 52 chassis had some problems while driving off-road, so the new SPA Dovunque 41 was chosen for the role.

The crew would be the same as on other autocannoni da 90/53, consisting of eight soldiers: driver, vehicle commander, gunner, three gun crew, and two ‘specialists’ (that probably were not only used to pass the rounds to the loader but they, for example, adjust the fuze of the rounds and check with the rangefinder the distance of the target), the last six of whom were in another vehicle in the battery.

The new autocannoni would differ from the others by having a new variable height trunnion. During a march and in the anti-tank role, the trunnion would be lowered to keep the vehicle’s shape as low as possible, but allowing limited elevation. In fact, the cab did not obstruct the line of fire because the rigid roof and sides were substituted by removable water-proof tarpaulins and the windshield, that could be lowered downwards, was divided in two parts to permit to the gun barrel to be placed between the driver and vehicle commander’s seats during a march.

In the anti-aircraft role, the gun trunnion would have been raised to its maximum position, allowing the complete +85° elevation, exactly as on the Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda da 8t or on the Semovente ruotato da 90/53 Breda 501.

Behind the cabin were what looked like two shields with the same height as the cabin’s sides. If they were truly protective shields, when opened, they protected the lower portion of the front arch of the entire platform from enemy small-arms bullets. These shields did not interfere with the line of fire of the main gun.

Between these shields was probably an ammunition rack, as on the other autocannoni da 90/53, most likely with the usual 30 ready-to-use 90 mm rounds.

There were four new type hydraulic jacks, probably operated by the same PTO system that worked the winch in the SPA TM41 prime mover version.

The power take-off system’s driveshaft was probably connected to an oil pump that put into operation the hydraulic circuit that controlled the elevation and depression of the jacks.

This meant that the autocannone was not on the SPA Dovunque 41 chassis, but on its prime mover variant, the SPA TM41. The heavy-duty truck was not equipped with the power take-off driven winch.

The side spare wheels were removed from behind the cab to make room for the frontal lifting jacks. Only one spare wheel was carried at the rear of the vehicle, under the gun platform.

Another order for Autocannoni da 90/53 was scheduled for 19th July 1943. This would consist of 96 on the Breda 52 chassis to replace the losses of other autocannoni in North Africa and 60 on the SPA Dovunque 41 chassis. Those 60 autocannoni would be enough to equip six different Autocannoni da 90/53 Batteries.

Armor

The Regio Esercito Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 project was mostly unarmored, but the gun had a 12 mm thick gun shield to protect the crew on the platform. The gun shield would be lower and angled to better deflect small-caliber rounds.

The Technical Department of the Officine Viberti in Turin, a company specialized in bodyworks for Lancia and FIAT trucks and in the production (jointly with SPA) of armored cars and Camionette, began working on 30th June 1943 on the development of an armored body for the Autocannone on SPA Dovunque 41 chassis. This would then receive the designation of Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Blindato (English: Armored) or Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Semiblindato (English: Semi-Armored).

This variant would be identical to the unarmored one, but with an armored superstructure protecting only the driver and the vehicle’s commander. This structure would have been composed of angled riveted armored plates, probably of a thickness from 6 mm to 8.5 mm, maybe more on the frontal arc. The cab was divided in two compartments, the driver’s one on the right, and the vehicle commander’s one on the left.

In the center, the space left free would house the 90 mm cannon barrel and its travel lock. The two armored compartments would have their own armored doors, divided in two different parts, with the upper ones with a loophole. There was one frontal armored hatch for each compartment, opening downwards to increase visibility while driving. The frontal headlights were armored.

The vehicle is sometimes mentioned as semi-armored because the frontal vertical hood and the radiator grille remained unarmored, probably to keep the weight of the vehicle low.

The design of the armored cab of the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Semiblindato was completed by the Technical Office of Officine Viberti on 3rd September 1943, five days before the Armistice that led to the cancellation of the order of the 60 autocannoni su SPA Dovunque 41 by the Royal Army.

Because of the height of the armored cab when shooting forwards, the gun trunnion would have been lifted over the roof of the cabin in anti-tank role, but it could also maintain the trunnion at the minimum height if the gun was aimed to the sides or rear.

Service

With the signing of the Armistice with the Allied forces on 3rd September 1943, which entered into force on 8th September 1943, the Regio Esercito turned its guns against the German Army, its former ally.

The Germans, expecting such a move, launched Fall Achse (English: Operation Axis), prepared by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht after late May 1943. From 8th to 19th September 1943, about 20,000 Italian soldiers were killed and the German Army captured over one million soldiers and thousands of guns and armored fighting vehicles.

Some of the Italian soldiers loyal to Benito Mussolini and the Germans surrendered to them and continued to fight against the Allied troops with their Axis allies, while other captured soldiers decided to fight with the Germans.

On 23rd September 1943, Mussolini founded the Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI (English: Italian Social Republic) on the Italian territories under German control. The new army of the RSI, the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano (English: National Republican Army), was equipped with few armored fighting vehicles, since the Germans had taken control of the Italian war industry.

One of the largest units of the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano was the Xª Flottiglia MAS, with around 20,000 soldiers in its ranks divided between sailors and naval infantry. For most of the remaining two years of war, these fought as normal infantry units.

One of the artillery units of the Xª Flottiglia MAS was the Gruppo Artiglieria da Campagna ‘Colleoni’ (English: Field Artillery Group), created in March 1944 at La Spezia, near Genoa. It was composed of 3 batteries with Obici da 75/13 and 100/17.

In July 1944, it was sent to Piemonte, in the Ivrea region, to fight the partisan units and to maintain efficiently the alpine roads that ran from Italy to France. Thus, in the event of an Allied landing in Liguria, German and Fascist units in Piemonte could retreat further north.

In that period, Lieutenant Malvezzi, an officer of the Gruppo Artiglieria da Campagna ‘Colleoni’, contacted Officine Viberti of Turin. Given the need for armored vehicles to be assigned to the unit to fight the partisans, Viberti probably proposed to Malvezzi to produce the Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Blindato. The absence of information and pictures do not clarify the situation but probably the Xª MAS‘s officer helped with the development, giving suggestions or providing part of the raw materials to the Officine Viberti technicians.

Nothing is known about the vehicle, except that it was delivered to the Gruppo di Artiglieria da Campagna ‘Colleoni’ in Autumn 1944, just in time, as the Xª Flottiglia MAS was transferred to Veneto in October 1944.

From October to December 1944, the ‘Colleoni’ was employed in anti-partisan operations and then was active against the Slovenian partisans’ IX Korpus, where it was deployed in Gorizia and the Battle of Tarnova in January 1945.

The artillery unit was then sent to the Senio Front and the Autocannone was probably taken with them. In March 1945, the unit was sent to the southern front to fight against the Allies that were advancing.

The only Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Blindato was probably lost during the fight on the Senio front or against the Allied troops some weeks later.

There are no photos of this vehicle, neither in the Officine Viberti plant nor in the hands of the Xª MAS. Some sources hypothesize that this vehicle could have been camouflaged with the standard Kaki Sahariano, the standard khaki camouflage, but it is also possible that the vehicle could be camouflaged in the three-tone Continentale camouflage typical of Italian vehicles used on the mainland, composed of Kaki Sahariano background with reddish-brown and dark green spots.

Conclusion

The Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 would have been an interesting vehicle if put into service for its characteristics. This is due to its special development with experiences from similar vehicles.

Unfortunately, the Italian Armistice of 8th September 1943 canceled the orders for this vehicle, and nothing is known about the only vehicle allegedly produced in 1944. The Gruppo di Artiglieria da Campagna ‘Colleoni’ of the Xª Flottiglia MAS used a single vehicle against Yugoslav partisans.

Specifications

Size (L-W-H)	6.905 x 2.480 x ~2.8 m
Total weight, battle ready	~ 14 tonnes
Crew	8 soldiers (driver, commander gunner, 3 gun crew, and 2 specialists)
Propulsion	6-cylinders, 9,365 cm³ diesel engine, 110 hp
Speed	~ 40 km/h
Range	~ 200 km
Armament	Cannone da 90/53 Modello 1939
Armor	not specified
Total production	one prototype

Sources

Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano, Volume Secondo, Tomo II – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano
Semicingolati, Motoveicoli e Veicoli Speciali del Regio Esercito Italiano 1919-1943 – Giulio Benussi
Italian Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War II – Ralph A. Riccio
associazionedecimaflottigliamas.it

Kingdom of Italy (1943)
Half-Track Mounted Dual Use Artillery – Paper Project

The Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda 61 was an Italian anti-aircraft and anti-tank self-propelled gun designed in 1943 based on the Breda 61 half-track chassis for the needs of the Italian Regio Esercito (English: Royal Army).

Although it was a promising project, the delays with the production of the Breda 61 caused the delay of the half-tracked Autocannone. The project was canceled after the Italian Armistice that was signed on 8th September 1943.

Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda 61 in Italian literally means Truck(-mounted) 90 mm L/53 cannon on Breda 61 half-track hull.

Lack of mobile artillery and the need for the ‘Autocannoni’

Already during the early stages of the Second World War, the Regio Esercito’s High Command received complaints about the absence of a mobile support gun to help the Italian troops during assaults to the enemy positions.

During the fighting in the vast deserts of North Africa, an armed vehicle with great mobility could reach the battlefront quickly to counter the enemy attacks and then move to another point of the battlefront to counterattack or for other defensive duties was needed.

Despite the need for such vehicles, development in Italy was very slow and the soldiers in Africa were forced to create such vehicles themselves in military and civil workshops. This is where Autocannoni (singular Autocannone) originated from.

In Italian, the word Autocannone means a truck (in this case, a half-track) of civil or military production, of any type (light, medium etc) modified to permit the transportation on its cargo bay of a permanently fixed artillery piece of any type (anti-tank, field gun, anti-aircraft, etc).

The first autocannone produced in significant numbers (24 converted) were the Autocannone da 65/17 su Morris CS8. The old Cannone da 65/17 Mod. 1908/13 mountain gun, hard to tow on the soft desert terrains, was mounted on a 360° rotating support made from turret rings recovered from destroyed Italian tanks. It was then fixed on the loading bay of the British Morris CS 8 4×2 light utility truck, captured in significant numbers in the first days of war, slightly modified by the Autofficine del 12° Autoraggruppamento AS (English: Workshops of the 12th Motorized Group, AS standing for Africa Settentrionale – North Africa) located in the Village of Giovanni Berta, near the city of El Gubba, North-east Libya.

This workshop and the FIAT ones of Tripoli were responsible for the conversion of the trucks into autocannoni. By 1942, autocannoni with howitzers, anti-aircraft autocannons, naval guns, and standard field artillery pieces were produced.

Autocannoni da 90/53

The only officially produced autocannoni were the ones armed with the powerful 90 mm Cannone da 90/53 Mod. 1939 based on the Lancia 3Ro and Breda 52 heavy duty trucks. These trucks were produced by Lancia Veicoli Speciali in Turin and by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche in the Sesto San Giovanni plant (near Milan). They were modified by the Ansaldo-Fossati Plant in Genoa and perhaps also by the Officine Viberti plant in Turin.

These autocannoni were developed for anti-aircraft and anti-tank purposes and 120 were converted, 30 on the Lancia 3Ro chassis, and 90 on the Breda 52 chassis.

These vehicles were assigned to 12 Groups with 2 batteries each, used in North Africa and Southern Italy. Some units were also used in the anti-naval role, shooting in indirect fire against Allied vessels that tried to disembark on the Calabria coasts on 3rd September 1943.

These vehicles had some problems caused by the heaviness of the gun and the recoil stress. In order to deal with these, the chassis was reinforced and manual jacks were adopted to lift the vehicles off the ground.

The increase in weight of the vehicle decreased the already moderate speed of these heavy trucks and the manual jacks forced the crew to exert a high physical effort and increased the times to get ready to fire and to leave the fire position, especially in dangerous situations.

Another problem was the height of the vehicle. This was not a factory defect, but a choice of the designers that proved to be problematic. The trunnion was high to permit a great elevation to allow the autocannoni da 90/53 to engage flying targets and ground targets. Its height made it easier to spot by enemy troops on the vast and flat desert terrain.

The 12 mm thick armored shield could protect the crew from small arms, shrapnel, or splinters. However, it protected the crew only on the frontal arc. This meant that the crew was vulnerable from air attacks and all the crew on the ground were vulnerable to all threats.

Despite these problems, the Autocannoni da 90/53 provided excellent anti-tank performance thanks to the powerful 90 mm gun. Another great quality of the autocannoni was the 20-rounds ready-to-use rack placed between the cab and the gun platform, which permitted the crew to maintain a high rate of fire for a certain period of time.

In response to the problems encountered on the autocannoni da 90/53, three different projects were started:

An armored autocannone on a Breda 52 chassis, which would become the Semovente Ruotato da 90/53 Breda 501. Ansaldo produced only two prototypes before the September 1943 Armistice, after which the project was abandoned.

A new 90/53 Autocannone on SPA Dovunque 41 6×6 heavy duty truck was proposed in two different configurations. The first one, would be essentially a 90/53 su Breda 52 copy, while the second one, called Autocannone da 90/53 su SPA Dovunque 41 Blindato (English: Armored) had a lower armored cab and a new gun shield. Only a prototype was completed after the Armistice and assigned during the Fall of 1944 to the Reggimento ‘Colleoni’ of the Xª MAS.

An Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda da 8t started by Breda in August 1942.

Design

The Breda 61

Before the Second World War, the Italian Army and the Italian industry were not interested in half-tracked vehicles, apart from some interwar projects, such as the Semicingolato Corni (1923). The Italians preferred heavy-duty trucks or medium trucks with all-wheel drive. With the start of the conflict, during the French Campaign, Italian officers were impressed by the mobility of the German half-tracked vehicles, such as the Sd.Kfz. 7 heavy-duty half-track.

The Italian Army High Command put out some requests for the creation of half-tracks in 1941, and the first developments were presented in the same year by the Centro Studi ed Esperienze della Motorizzazione (English: Vehicle Study and Experience Center) in Rome.

These were the Bianchi Mediolanum medium trucks modified with tracks and Alfa Romeo 800RE (‘R.E.’ stands for Regio Esercito) heavy duty truck.

These two vehicles, which were tested by Italian Army specialists, were standard medium trucks with modifications to the rear axles. They did not give the desired results in off-road tests and towing tests and were abandoned.

In 1941, the Regio Esercito High Command asked for an Sd.Kfz. 7 from the German Army. The German Army responded positively and, during the same year, a German half-track was tested at the Centro Studi della Motorizzazione (English: Centre for Motorisation Studies) in Rome, impressing the Italian officers with its towing capabilities and robustness.

Almost immediately, the possibility of producing the half-track under license was requested, but some bureaucratic problems slowed the release of documents and the permission for producing the suspension and tracks came from the German manufacturer Krauss-Maffei only in 1942. The production of the Italian copy of the Sd. Kfz. 7, called Autocarro Semicingolato (English: Half-tracked Truck) Breda 61 (also known as the ‘Breda 8t’ for its weight) and a smaller version produced by FIAT and called FIAT 727 or Maffei-FIAT 727 started very slowly.

The Breda 61 prototype was ready in July 1943 and was sent to the Centro Tecnico della Motorizzazione (English: Vehicle Technical Center) in Rome, where it was accepted into service as a heavy artillery tractor as the Autocarro Semicingolato Breda 61 da 8t (English: Breda 61 Half-track weight 8 tons).

Before 8th September 1943, a total of 36 Breda 61 out of 500 ordered were delivered to the Regio Esercito. These went to equip the anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the 136ª Divisione corazzata ‘Centauro II’ (English: 136th Armored Division) to tow the Cannone da 88/55 (Italian name for the 8.8 cm FlaK 37).

After the Armistice, the Germans captured some of the vehicles produced and, in January 1944, ordered the Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche to produce another 300 Breda 61s. Until 1944, the Breda Plant in Brescia produced a total of 199 vehicles, for a total of 235 heavy half-tracks produced.

The German Army added them to its nationally produced medium half-tracks in the heavy artillery towing and recovery duties in Northern Italy, the Balkans, and France.

Engine and suspensions

The engine of the Breda 61 was a Breda Tipo 14, 6-cylinder, 6,191 cm³ unit delivering 140 hp at 2,600 rpm. It was probably a license copy of the Maybach HL62 TUK, which had similar characteristics and powered the Sd. Kfz. 7. The gearbox was of Italian origin and had 4 gears plus reverse (4 + 1) with a reductor. The book ‘Italian Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War II’, written by Ralph Riccio, claims that the engine was a 6-cylinder, 7,412 cm³ unit delivering 130 hp at 2,400 rpm, but there is no proof in support of this thesis.

The maximum road speed was 50 km/h and the range with the 203-liter tank was 250 km on road and 160 km off-road.

Thanks to its powerful engine, this 9,750 kg vehicle could transport 1,800 kg in its cargo bay and a payload of 8,000 kg towed. This meant that the Breda 61 could tow essentially any of the heavy artillery pieces used by the Regio Esercito, such as the Obice da 149/40 Mod. 1935 and Obice 210/22 mod. 35.

The front wheels were 9.75 x 20”, the same as those of the Lancia Ro, Lancia Ro-Ro, and Lancia 3Ro heavy duty trucks. The steering wheel was mounted on the right side instead of the left side, one of the few differences from the German Sd. Kfz. 7.

The suspension was in the form of transverse torsion bars for the front tires and standard torsion bars for the tracks.

There were seven overlapping and interleaved road wheels, based on the German ‘Schachtellaufwerk’ design common with other vehicles.

Due to the increase in weight, the vehicle would have a decreased top speed on the road to about 40 km/h and its range on the road would have decreased to less than 200 km.

Armament

The Cannone da 90/53 Modello 1939 was an anti-aircraft 90 mm L/53 gun developed from the Ansaldo-OTO da 90/50 Modello 1939 gun which had been developed for the anti-aircraft role on the warships of the Regia Marina (English: Royal Italian Navy).

Like the German 8.8 cm FlaK gun, the Italian gun was also used as an anti-tank gun in the first phases of the war, proving equally adequate in that role. About 500 guns were used in North Africa and on the Italian mainland, sometimes even as field artillery guns in indirect fire roles.

The development of this gun started in 1938, when the Italian Army made a request for an anti-aircraft gun that could hit enemy bombers flying at altitudes of over 10,000 meters. During that period, Ansaldo was developing the Ansaldo-OTO da 90/50 (OTO is ‘Odero-Terni-Orlando’) for the Regia Marina and decided to create a ground version of the same cannon to speed up the development.

The first four cannons were ready on 30th January 1940. In April of the same year, they were tested at the Nettuno Shooting Area, where they proved essentially identical to the 90/50 gun tested some months before. The gun was immediately put in production by the Ansaldo.

The gun weighed 8,950 kg for the Modello 1939 towed version (6,240 kg for the gun only, not including the field mount). It had an elevation of -2° to +85° and a traverse of 360°. The rate of fire was 19 rounds per minute, while the maximum firing range was 17,400 m against ground targets, and 11,300 m against flying targets.

On the Self Propelled version, there was also a Breda Mod. 1938 machine-gun, a shortened version of the infantry Breda Mod. 1937 chambered for the 8 x 59 mm RB Breda rounds for tank use. It was mounted on an anti-aircraft support on the cabin and used to defend the vehicle from airstrikes and infantry attacks. The machine gun had a theoretical rate of fire of 600 rpm and a practical rate of fire of 350 rpm and was fed by 24-round curved top-mounted magazines.

Ammunition

The Cannone da 90/53 Mod. 1939 fired different types of 90 x 679 mmR rounds, the same as for the naval version.

Ammunition for the Cannone da 90/53 Modello 1939
	Type	Mass (kg)	Quantity of TNT (g)	Muzzle velocity (m/s)	Fuze	Penetration of RHA at 90° (mm)
Name						100 m	500 m	1000 m
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 36	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 36R	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	Mod. 41	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	IO40	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Esplosiva*	HE – AA	10.1	1,000	850	R40	//	//	//
Cartoccio Granata Perforante	APCBC	12.1	520	758	Mod. 09	130	121	110
Cartoccio Granata Perforante	APCBC	11.1	180	773	Mod. 09	156	146	123
Granata Effetto Pronto	HEAT	**	**	**	Internal Mod. 41	~ 110	~ 110	~ 110
Granata Effetto Pronto Speciale	HEAT	**	**	**	IPEM	~ 110	~ 110	~ 110
Notes	* The same round but with anti-aircraft or percussion fuze. ** Prototypes ready for testing only in mid-1943. According to some sources, they were similar to the German 88 mm Hl.Gr 39.

There is little information about the half-tracked SPG version and none about the number of rounds transported on the Autocannone da 90/53 su Semicingolato Breda 61. The blueprints show some boxes on the rear of the vehicle, which were probably used as ammunition racks for some rounds or as spare equipment boxes.

It is plausible that, as for the other autocannoni, the majority of the ammunition would have been transported in other vehicles. As an example, the batteries of Autocannoni da 90/53 had in their organic strength, apart from the 4 autocannoni and 13 logistic vehicles and other material, one more heavy truck for each autocannone which carried 210 90 mm rounds, for a total of 920 rounds for each battery.

The Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato Breda da 8t

On the half-tracked self-propelled gun, the chassis would be unchanged, but the rest of the vehicle would be modified.

The engine compartment would receive armor plates of unknown thickness, probably around 6 to 8.5 mm, as on similar Italian vehicles. In front, it would have sloped armored grilles to permit air intake to the radiator.

In order to allow the vehicle to maintain a low profile, the gun would have received a variable height trunnion. For anti-tank use and traveling, it would have been in a lower position and would have allowed a limited elevation. In the case of anti-aircraft fire, the trunnion would have been raised, allowing a higher elevation, exactly as on the Breda 501.

The cab was divided into two armored compartments, one for the vehicle commander and one for the driver. This permitted the 4.73 meters-long barrel to be locked between the two compartments during traveling.

Each compartment would have had a large viewport protected by a hinged armored window on the front to permit the two crew members to drive and check the battlefield. An armored door with another viewhole was on the side.

The gun crew operated on the rear platform with foldable sides. This gave more space to operate the gun during operations.

The gun was placed at the center of this platform on a variable trunnion. It would have received a frontal shield, probably 12 mm thick, to protect the crew from splinters and light weapons.

Thanks to the tracks and the sturdiness of its chassis, this autocannone could withstand the recoil stress of the 90 mm gun without needing jacks to raise it from the ground. This would have decreased the time needed for the crew to prepare the vehicle to open fire or to leave.

The armor would probably be made of armor sheets with variable thickness, from 6 mm on the sides up to 8.5 mm and maybe more on the frontal arc, in order to protect against enemy small arms fire, artillery shrapnel and splinters and high-caliber machine gun bursts from ground attack aircraft.

The gun shield would probably have been composed of 12 mm ​​thick armor sheets. The blueprint shows that the shield was angled to better deflect small-caliber rounds.

The crew was probably composed, as on the other autocannoni da 90/53, of 8 soldiers: driver, vehicle/gun commander, a gunner, three loaders and two specialists.

The driver and vehicle commander sat in the armored cab during travel, while the rest of the crew would probably sit on the gun platform, where some foldable seats were probably placed or traveled on one of the logistic vehicles assigned to the autocannone battery. During firing, crew members from the battery’s logistic vehicles would assist the gun servants, by speeding up reloading and increasing the rate of fire.

If the course of the war had not prevented its development, the Autocannone da 90/53 su Semicingolato Breda 61 would have probably entered service in late 1943 or early 1944, too late to change the fate of the conflict, and most likely in very small numbers. Nevertheless, the vehicle would have undoubtedly provided Italian units with an adequate mobile anti-aircraft and anti-tank defense, very useful, especially in the desperate situation in which the Royal Army was forced on the Italian peninsula.

Conclusion

Even if was never produced, it is plausible to assume that the Autocannone da 90/53 su Semicingolato Breda da 8t would have answered the needs of the Italian Regio Esercito. It had the same firepower characteristics as the already existing autocannoni da 90/53, but with good off-road mobility, faster to deploy and withdraw, and more protection.

Unfortunately, the Armistice of 8th September 1943 put an end to this promising project. Like many other Italian vehicles, it remained only on a sheet of paper abandoned in an archive for the rest of its existence.

Autocannone da 90/53 su Autocarro Semicingolato da 8t Specification
Dimensions	6.9 x 2.45 x ~2.5 m
Total weight, battle ready	not specified
Crew	8 soldiers (driver, commander gunner, 3 servants and 2 specialists)
Propulsion	Breda T14 130 hp, 6-cylinders, 6,191 cm³
Range	~170 km
Maximum speed	~40 km/h
Main Armament	Cannone da 90/53 Mod. 1939 and a Breda Mod. 38 machine gun
Armor	not specified
Total production	Only paper project

Sources

Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano, Volume Secondo, Tomo II – Nicola Pignato and Filippo Cappellano
Semicingolati, Motoveicoli e Veicoli Speciali del Regio Esercito Italiano 1919-1943 – Giulio Benussi
Italian Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War II – Ralph A. Riccio

Kingdom Of Italy (1943)
Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun – 1 or 2 Prototypes Built

During the Second World War, the Regio Esercito (Italian Royal Army) lacked an anti-aircraft vehicle that could protect its armored formations from enemy air attack. Sometime in 1942-43, the Italian Royal Army began development of an anti-aircraft vehicle based on the new M15/42 tank chassis. As its development began too late, only one or two prototypes would be built. Sadly, due to insufficient sources being available, very little is known about this vehicle.

Development

During the fighting in North Africa, the Italian ground armored forces were often subject to Allied fighter and fighter-bomber attacks. The Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) lacked modern fighter designs and was thus unable to provide sufficient aerial protection. One solution was to mount anti-aircraft guns on a mobile chassis. There were some attempts to mount 20 mm anti-aircraft guns on available trucks. These proved to be insufficient due to many factors like poor mobility, weak firepower, and no armor protection for the men or vehicle.

Due to the ineffectiveness of these truck-based vehicles, the Royal Army moved on to the idea of using a tank chassis for this role. With only limited time and resources, it was decided against developing a brand new chassis and to instead use the available tank production capacities. As the M15/42 was entering production during 1942, it was decided to use it for this modification. During early 1943, one prototype was completed and presented to the Royal Army. The only visible change in contrast to the original M15/42 was the introduction of a new polygonal turret equipped with four 20 mm Scotti cannons. According to D.Nešić, (Naoružanje Drugog Svetskog Rata-Italija), this vehicle was built using the command version of the M15/42, which lacked the hull machine guns and had an extra radio set.

M15/42 tank

Due to the increasing obsolescence of the M13 Series (including the M14/41) and the slow development of the heavy tank program, the Italians were forced to introduce the M15/42 medium tank as a stopgap solution. The M15/42 was mostly based on the M14/41 tank, but with a number of improvements. Most noticeable was the introduction of a new 190 hp FIAT-SPA 15TB (‘B’ stands for Benzina – Petrol) engine and a new transmission. With the installation of the new engine, the tank hull was lengthened compared to the M13 Series tanks by some 15 cm. The standard 8 mm Breda anti-aircraft machine gun was removed and the access hatch door was repositioned to the right side. The removal of the anti-aircraft machine gun on the turret may appear odd given Allied air superiority of the time and the threat it posed, but a single 8 mm Breda machine gun was almost completely ineffective in the anti-aircraft role and was seen as a waste of resources and weight. Most noticeable for the M15/42 was the installation of a new 4.7 cm main gun with a longer barrel, producing a more effective anti-tank gun, albeit still inadequate by this point in the war. The armor protection on the tank was also slightly increased, but this too was still inadequate to keep up with newer and better Allied tanks.

The Royal Army placed an order for some 280 M15/42s in October 1942. However, due to attempts to produce more Semovente self-propelled vehicles, the order for 280 was reduced to 220 tanks. These were built by June 1943 and an additional 28 tanks would be built under German command after the September Armistice was signed with the Allies. The M15/42 had introduced some improvements, but these tanks were generally outdated by the time they were put into service. Nevertheless, they would remain in service up to the end of the war, mostly with their new Germans owners (known as PzKpfw M15/42 738(i)), although some would also serve with Italian Fascist troops of the Italian Social Republic (RSI – Republicca Sociale Italiana).

Just like the earlier M13 Series tanks, a command tank variant (carro centro radio/ radio tank) of the M15/42 was developed. On these vehicles, the turret was removed and some were rearmed with 13 mm heavy machine guns instead of the two 8 mm machine guns and extra radio equipment was added. By the time of the September Armistice, some 45 M15/42 CC vehicles were built. An additional 40 vehicles were built after September 1943 under German control. There were also a few different Semoventi vehicles based on the M15/42 built.

Designation

Various sources give many different names for this vehicle, including: Semovente (self-propelled) M15/42 Antiaereo (anti-aircraft), Carro Armato Medio Antiaereo (anti-aircraft medium tank), M15/42 Antiaereo or Contraereo (M15/42 anti-aircraft), M15/42 “Quadruplo” (M15/42 Quad), Semovente Antiaereo M42 (self-propelled anti-aircraft gun M42), Semovente da 20/70 quadruplo, among others.

In Italian service

Not much is known of this vehicle’s development history. What is known is that the first prototype was completed sometime in early 1943. It was presented to the Italian Army at the Centro Studi della Motorizzazione (Study Center of Motorization). If the Army showed any interest in it is unfortunately not known. In March 1943, the prototype was stationed in Cecchignola (Rome) and given to the VIII Reggimento Autieri (8th Driver Regiment), possibly to be used for evaluation.

Some sources (mostly on the internet) suggest that this vehicle was shipped to Tunisia for field combat tests and that it would remain there until the Axis surrender in May 1943. This seems highly unlikely, mainly due to the lack of evidence and photographs of it in the theater. If it was captured, its unusual construction would have certainly sparked some interest among the Allies and they would have certainly taken photographs or mentioned it in their documents. The more realistic fate of the M15 anti-aircraft vehicle (or vehicles) was that, after the Italian capitulation in September 1943, it was seized by the German forces.

Technical characteristics

Being an obscure vehicle and rarely mentioned in sources in more detail, the precise technical characteristics are hard to come by. What is known with certainty is that it was based on a slightly modified M15/42 tank or the command version of the same vehicle. Most parts of the tank, including the suspension and hull, were unchanged. The only visible change to the hull was the removal of the two machine guns which were replaced with an armored cover. If the armor thickness was changed there is no information about it, but it seems likely that it remained the same in order to save development time.

The most obvious change was the introduction of a new turret equipped with four 2 cm Scotti cannons. The new turret had a polygonal shape and was made using a frame on which (unusual for the Italians) armor plates were welded.

For the main weapon, four Cannone-Mitragliera da 20/70 autocannons (generally known as Scotti, after their designer, Alfredo Scotti) were chosen. This type of gun was intended to be cheaper and easier to build compared to the Breda Cannone-Mitragliera da 20/65 modello 35. But, despite its simplicity, a higher rate of fire, and being lighter, its performance was not much better than its counterpart. In all, some 300 were built either as static emplacements or with a twin-wheel carriage. The Germans also managed to capture a number of these guns, where they were known as 2-cm Scotti(i). The Scotti had a 250 rpm rate of fire with a maximum range of 2,100-3,500 m (depending on the source). It had a barrel length of 1,540 mm and the muzzle velocity was 830 m/s. Elevation was -10° to +85°, with a rotation of 360°.

The Scotti anti-aircraft guns that survived the war would be used by the new Italian Army for some years on. These would mostly be used to equip navy ships. An unknown number of quadruple-gun systems would also be built after the war, with some even supplied to Israel in the late forties.

Prior to their installation into the new turret, the four Scotti cannons had to be modified and a specially designed mount had to be developed. The most obvious change to the cannons was the feed mechanism. This type of cannon had two feed options, by a clip or by drum magazine. Both of these were unusable due to the cramped space of the turret, and for this reason, a new type of fed system had to be adopted. The manufacturer of this cannon, Isotta Fraschini, developed a new ammunition supply system that consisted of a metal belt feed with disintegrating mesh which allegedly also increased the rate of fire up to 600 rpm per gun. The elevation of the new turret installation was -5° to + 90° with a full traverse of 360°. How the main armament was mounted inside the turret is, due to a lack of information, unknown. The armor thickness is also unknown, but would most likely have been very light, in order to provide protection at least from small-caliber weapons while keeping weight down.

Interestingly, in some photographs, the front part of the new turret is lacking armor plating. The reason why is not known. It could potentially be that it was not yet completed or due to some problems with the main weapon mount that required more working space.

According to the few sources available, the crew consisted of three crew members. While they are not listed, an educated guess can be made. At least one crew member had to be the driver. The second crew member would be the commander who was probably also the gunner and his position would likely be behind the main gun installation. The last crew member was probably a radio operator (if a radio was ever to be used on this vehicle) or a loader.

The mobility of the M15/42 Antiaereo was probably similar to that of the original tank configuration. The new turret and weapons would have probably been similar to the weight of the previous turret and gun, giving a total weight in the vicinity of 15.5 tonnes. The speed and the operational range were probably also similar. Some of the dimensions, such as the length of 5.06 m and width of 2.28 m, were almost assuredly the same but the vehicle may have been somewhat higher than 2.4 m.

Propper Turret Desing

The overall turret design of this vehicle has always been something of a mystery. The reason for this is the general lack of source materials or any good photographs. In many illustrations or in-game presentations of this vehicle, the rear part of the turret is short and does not protrude out of the superstructure. However, recently, a new photograph of this part of the turret emerged. It shows a completely different design to previous representations. This part of the turret actually protruded out to the rear. It appears that the rear armor consisted of several smaller armor plates welded together. This addition to the rear makes sense given the cramped interior of the vehicle turret. It would be logical for the designers to extend the crew working space as much as possible. In addition, we can also see that the turret top is also different, being slightly raised and then lowering to the rear. This part of the turret appears to consist of several smaller parts that were hinged to the rear part of the turret.

How many were built

The precise number of built vehicles is unfortunately not known. What is known with certainty is that at least one prototype was built and tested. According to the few available photos, there is a possibility that at least one more vehicle was built. This vehicle has German markings, camouflage paint, and lacks the frontal turret armor. Of course, there is the possibility that this was simply the first vehicle just slightly modified by the Germans. Author D. Nešić (Naoružanje Drugog Svetskog Rata-Italija) quotes that a few were built but does not mention how many precisely.

In German hands

The Germans managed to capture the M15/42 Antiaereo prototype during their occupation of Rome. Interestingly, in one photo, this vehicle is lacking some front turret armor plates, despite having pictures of it with them. This may be additional proof that at least another vehicle was built beside the one prototype.

What the Germans did with it is not completely clear. According to a few sources, it appears that the prototype was transported back to Germany for evaluation. It also allegedly saw service against the Soviet Forces in 1945 in the Teupitz area (Germany). At that time, it was supposedly attached to the 5th SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgskorps (Mountain Armored Corps).

The Germans did use large quantities of Italian captured weapons and thus had available spare parts and ammunition, making it plausible that this information has some merit. By 1945, the Germans were trying desperately to stop the Soviet offensive, and in their desperation they used any available weapons that they had on hand, perhaps including the M15/42 Antiaereo prototype. Of course, on the other hand, due to insufficient sources, the information about its use by the Germans could easily be incorrect or even fake.

After seizing a number of Italian production factories, the Germans produced small numbers of some Italian equipment, mostly self-propelled Semovente vehicles. Why the Germans did not bother producing more Antiaereo, even as they were themselves in great need of such a vehicle, is unknown.

Influence

It is relatively common to find claims that, after the M15/42 Antiaereo, was seized by the Germans, it influenced their development of anti-aircraft tanks like the Flakpanzer IV (2cm Flak 38 Vierling) ‘Wirbelwind’. Does this assumption have any merit? First, it must be taken into account the fact that this vehicle was completed in the first months of 1943 and captured by the Germans later that year, after the Italian capitulation. This meant that it would have been shipped out to Germany after September 1943.

The issue is that the German had already begun (in early 1943) to develop their own anti-aircraft tank based on the Panzer IV. This vehicle had a completely different design, simply installing the 2 cm Flakvierling anti-aircraft system on a Panzer IV chassis, protected by large metal plates that could be folded down during combat situations. As the 2 cm caliber was deemed weak by the Germans, it would be later replaced with the 3.7 cm gun and put into production as Flakpanzer IV (3.7cm Flak 43) “Möbelwagen”. Also, even earlier in the war, the Germans had tested the anti-aircraft tank concept on the Panzer I and later Panzer 38(t) chassis.

Conclusion

The Semovente M15/42 Antiaereo was certainly an interesting vehicle that was developed for the Italian army. It also represents a modern concept of an anti-aircraft vehicle based on the tank chassis. The installation of its main weapon in a fully enclosed turret had important benefits, as it would provide sufficient protection for the crew. In practice, this was not easy to achieve and often came at the cost of reduced visibility, and not many anti-aircraft vehicles were built during the war that used an enclosed turret.

Semovente M15/42 Antiaereo
Dimensions	5.06 x 2.28 x 2.4 m
Total weight, battle ready	~15 tonnes
Crew	3 (Commander/Gunner,Loader and Driver)
Propulsion	190 hp FIAT-SPA 15TB
Speed	38 km/h road, 20 km/h off-road
Operational ranger	200 km road, 130 km off-road
Armament	4x20mm Scotti-Isotta Fraschini M41 20/70 cannons
Armor	6-50 mm
Total production	1 to 2 prototypes
For information about abbreviations check the Lexical Index

Source:

D. Nešić, (2008), Naoružanje Drugog Svetskog Rata-Italija, Beograd

F. Cappellano and P. P. Battistelli (2012) Italian Medium Tanks 1939-45, New Vanguard

D. Doyle (2005). German military Vehicles, Krause Publications.

Pafi, Falessi e Fiore Corazzati Italiani Storia dei mezzi corazzati

N. Pignato, F. Cappellano. Gli Autoveicoli da combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano Volume secondo

L. Ceva and A. Curami (1989) La meccanizzazione dell’esercito italiano dalle origini al 1943, Volume 2″ from Stato maggiore dell’Esercito, Ufficio storico,

V. Meleca, Semovente M 15/42 “Contraereo”.

N. Pignato, (2004) Italian Armored vehicles of World War Two, Squadron Signal publication.

A. Lüdeke (2007) Waffentechnik im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Parragon books

C. Bishop (1998) The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, Barnes Book.

R. Riccio and N. Pignato (2010) Italian Truck-mounted Artillery in Action. Squadron Signal publication

N.Pignato (1978) Le armi della fanteria italiana nella seconda guerra mondiale, RIVALBA,

Kingdom of Italy (1921)
Self-Propelled Gun – 1 Built

Mountainous northern Italy was treacherous tank country. Any war fought there on that terrain would be difficult. As well suited to defense as mountains were, any force which could deploy armor there, especially if they could also deploy some mobile artillery, would have a significant advantage. Combine this need with the late 1920’s assessment that the doctrine for new warfare should be highly mobile tactically making full use of light tanks combined with strategic mobility and Italy had a clear requirement for a vehicle able to achieve both goals.

Early work had involved testing the British Carden-Loyd Mark VI light tank as well as the Mark V* light tank. Both had some advantages such as their small size and mobility but also some disadvantages in terms of the arrangement of automotive components.

The Carden-Loyd Mark VI entered service with Italy fitted with a single machine gun as the CV29. The Mark V* was not assigned an official Italian service number but served as an inspiration for Ansaldo’s design for a 65 mm gun armed vehicle.

The Entry of Moto-Guzzi

The Italian firm Società Anonima Moto Guzzi, better known as just ‘Moto Guzzi’, is world famous for motorcycles and is Italy’s oldest motorcycle producer, having started in 1921. They even developed a completely enclosed armored motorcycle mounting a heavy machine gun. Of far more military use though they also worked on a fully tracked vehicle design. This design was a significant departure from anything seen before. It had two versions. The first was just a tractor which served as a test bed and the second was based on the same vehicle, but mounting a gun.

Structure

The basic structure of both vehicles was the same as the chassis were the same consisting of two independent track units mounted on arms and driven by an engine in the front. The driver and another crew member would sit at the back to command, drive and service the gun. The cabin seen in the test bed is a roll cage for protection from rolling over and it is unknown whether it was intended to be a permanent feature on either vehicle. Certainly, some sort of protection for the crew would have been required for the Semovente (a self propelled gun for infantry support) should it have been built.

Suspension

The suspension was very unusual and consisted of two tracks completely independent of each other consisting of four wheels on a supporting bar, along with an idler and drive sprocket all suspended on three rotatable arms. As one track moves down, these arms rotated, ensuring that the body of the vehicle remains horizontal and the tracks move at different heights. The arrangement was unlike anything before in Italy and had the significant advantage of allowing movement across the side of a steep slope. The drawing from Moto-Guzzi suggests a side slope of approximately 45 degrees. Drive appears to be provided via the front sprocket as per the prototype vehicle. However, the exact arrangements of the fastenings for the wheels is likely to have differed on the envisaged production vehicle from the test bed.

The drawing of the Semovente shows four road wheels and the test bed also has four wheels but each wheel is paired so as to leave a gap down the centre for the track guide. A large external supporting bar ran from the front sprocket to the rear idler wheel on which were mounted small track support wheels.

Engine

Moto-Guzzi made a lot of motorcycles for the Italian Army and had a lot of experience in small high powered engines but it is not known what engine was used in the design. The cylindrical object at the front of the test bed is unknown but appears to be either the exhaust or possibly a fuel tank, which would have to have been completely rearranged on a production vehicle to permit the gun to be used.

Armament

The Moto Guzzi, as a tractor, would (amongst other duties) be used for towing light guns. As a semovente, it would mount the 65mm Model 1913 mountain gun. This gun was made by the Royal Arsenal in Naples and was 17 calibers long. It was an ideal gun for use in the mountains as it could be broken down easily into 5 loads for transport. It fired the 65mm x 172R rounds just under 5kg in weight and ammunition for the gun was mainly high explosive, but a specific shrapnel shell was also available. Later, an armour piercing (AP) and also a hollow charge shell were available for it.

Conclusion

The Semovente Moto-Guzzi was a very advanced design for the time. A design ideally suited to the rigours and demands of mountain warfare and carrying a weapon specifically designed for the job. It was not to be, however. The Moto-Guzzi design, either for work as a tractor or as a semovente, was discontinued by 1930. The Italians would have to look elsewhere for a suitable gun carrier to meet their unusual requirements.

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Illustration of the Semovente Moto-Guzzi produced by Andrei Kirushkin, funded by our Patreon Campaign.

Specifications
Crew	2
Armament	65mm L/17 Model 1913 mountain gun

Sources

Italie1939-45.com
Italian Artillery of WWII, Ralph Riccio
Iron Arm: The Mechanization of Mussolini’s Army, 1920-1940, John Sweet
Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento Dell’Esercito Italiano V.2, Pignato and Cappellano
Italian Armoured Vehicles of World War Two, Nicola Pignato
La Meccanizzazione dell’Esercito Italiano, Ceva and Curami
motoguzzi.com

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Kingdom of Italy (1939)
Self-Propelled Gun – Wooden Mockup Built

Italy had a shortage of armor, guns and of just about everything they needed to wage a modern war against a modern, well equipped, and well-disciplined opponent. As World War Two beckoned in Europe, the Italians, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, were far behind in their modernisations with the majority of funding going to the Navy rather than the Army or Air Force. The result was that the Army, despite having requirements for tanks and support guns, was not getting what it needed, namely armor in quantity.
One particular shortfall in planning was the lack of a gun of an adequate calibre to fire high explosive and smoke shells to support the infantry during their attacks.
The small CV3 series of tanks could provide machine gun fire support but even the tanks which were available in 1939 with a proper cannon, such as the FIAT 3000, were horribly out of date, slow, and poorly protected, and with just a 47mm gun which lacked the firepower needed to smash an enemy defensive structure. What was needed was a larger caliber gun.

Wooden mockup of the Semovente M6. Source: Pignato

Ansaldo’s Venture

The M6 (later L6) was a private venture by Ansaldo and FIAT which built forth on the success of the CV3 (L3) light tank. A working prototype of the vehicle was ready by 1936 albeit with a small cannon instead of the later 20mm commonly associated with it. The CV3 had been a successful design, small, rugged and adaptable, it was ideally suited to many of the needs of the military but it lacked a turret mounted gun to function effectively as a tank. The M6 was a logical step up, with improved suspension and a 360-degree arc of fire, it was superior in every way to the CV3 while still being transportable easily by truck due to its small size. The development of the M6’s improved suspension allowed it to take more weight and be better off road than the CV3 series of vehicles which made it an ideal platform for a larger gun.

Mockup of the M6 medium tank with the 47mm L/32 cannon mounted behind a gun shield on top. Source: Ceva and Curami

Selection of a Cannon

If you need to fire a high explosive shell with enough explosive to make a difference, then the 47mm gun in widespread use was simply not sufficient. The CV3 mounting a 47mm gun, for this reason, was clearly not sufficient for the infantry support role and was abandoned. The next common gun, a step up, would be 65mm. Several years before-hand, the attempt to put a 65mm gun on a small vehicle – work done by the firm of Moto-Guzzi, had also failed. The 65mm gun had been used on the enormous FIAT 2000 but that was a generation earlier and redundant, and to add to the issue, the 65mm L/17 was already effectively obsolete. It had been relegated to infantry use in the 1920’s and replaced in the mountain gun role by a 70mm gun.
It is important to note that the 47mm gun option was not abandoned for the M6 (L6) hull. At the same time as this 75mm plan was developed, a scheme was produced with the 47mm L/32 cannon mounted on top of the casemate of an L6 hull in place of the turret. Although that idea was abandoned, that design morphed into the Semovente L6/40 with the 47mm gun mounted in the front of the vehicle instead.
By 1935, the venerable 65mm had been replaced in the infantry support role by the 47mm so it was a poor choice for any future support gun, or ‘Semovente’ as it is known in Italy. The obvious choice, therefore, was a 75mm calibre. Italy already had a huge stockpile of 75mm field guns and on the 26th October 1939 General Pariani (Chief of the General Staff) listed a series of decisions on tank development programs. The M6 featured heavily within those plans including a study to modify an M6 hull to transform it into a carrier for a 75 mm gun. He noted that it must also have an anti-aircraft machine gun fitted. The choice of the M6 for this project was logical if for no other reason than that there was nothing else available. At this time, the only medium-sized vehicle in production (just) was the M11/39. Those hulls were urgently needed for the Medium tank program so none were going to be available for a Semovente.
The commonplace CV3 hull was in plentiful supply but was too small. The work on putting a 65mm on a machine that size had already shown that. The best option therefore was the new projected 6 or 7 tonne medium tank which was just entering production itself. This new vehicle was ideal, small and light enough to be easily transported on the back of trucks but large and rugged enough to deal with the weight of the gun, ammunition and the necessary crew to serve it.
The decision by Pariani confirmed the 75mm gun as the choice for infantry support and the M6 was the vehicle to carry it. He had other plans for the M6 including as a platform for an anti-aircraft vehicle but concerned about air defence was requesting all new vehicles to come with some protection from the air.
It was not until a letter from a delegation of industry to General Pariani on the 30th of October 1939 though that a final decision as to which 75mm gun was going to be used. The gun selected was a 75mm L/18 and, as an aside, it was also mentioned that the 20mm cannon selected for the ‘tank’ version of the M6 was also suitable for use in an anti-aircraft role as well as an anti-tank role.

The vehicle which was to serve as the hull for the Semovente M6. This is the production L6/40 light tank. Source: Public Domain

Front view of the Semovente M6

Illustration on the Semovente M6 by Yuvnashva Sharma, funded by our Patreon campaign.

Modifications

The M6 was reclassified as a light tank L6 in 1940 (as the new M13/40 design was available for the medium tank role) and was a very mobile vehicle with the transmission at the front. A large hatch openable for the inspection and maintenance of the transmission and brakes was retained on the glacis as was the whole rear of the hull, allowing access to the engine and suspension components. The difference between the two came in the body of the vehicle at roughly track level. In place of the M6’s squarish body and vertical driver’s plate with a small turret on top (for a 20mm cannon or 37mm gun) was a large open-topped, open-backed rotating turret with the large 75mm gun mounted prominently in the center, although it is not known exactly how far this turret could rotate. A large order for 583 examples of the L6 was placed in March 1940 and this seems to have killed off the Semovente M6 project. Ansaldo and FIAT had won a large order and production would focus on that vehicle for the time being. A new Semovente on the hull of the L6 would appear shortly afterward but, for the time, the turreted M6 idea was over.

From approximately the same angle the modifications to the M6 are apparent.

Automotive

Like the M6 (L6/40) from which it was made, the Semovente M6 used two pairs of bogies on each side of the hull attached to torsion bars. The track was supported on the return run by two small rollers. Drive was from the front and the rear wheel was in contact with the ground. Power came from the same SPA model 18 68-70hp petrol engine as on the early L6 light tank although the L6 had not yet been formally standardized. This engine allowed the L6 to reach 25km/h off road and up to 42 km/h on road.

Semovente M6 with 75mm gun turret turned to the left showing a single crew position (driver) through the front of the turret presumably where a large hatch would go in a production version.

Crew

The previous Semovente version based on the CV3 had two crew, and the L6 light tank on which the Semovente M6 was based also had two crew members. It is therefore highly likely that this vehicle continued the trend. The Semovente da 47/32, also based on the L6, which later was approved, operated the much smaller 47mm gun, had a crew of three and was very cramped. This adds to the evidence that there was very little room inside the Semovente M6, especially considering the size of the 75mm shells it would have to carry.

Semovente M6 mockup showing the elevation of the 75mm gun in the turret.

Armament

The only gun known to have been planned for this vehicle is of 75mm calibre. A caliber which Italy had in no short supply. The gun selected was the Anslado 75mm L/18 gun, as this was already in production at the time by the makers of the designers of the vehicle. The gun would see use in later Semovente too. The 75mm L/18 was a howitzer standardized in 1934 and was actually just under 21 calibers long (20.75) despite being an ‘L/18’ thanks to an older Italian convention regarding how to measure the length of a barrel. It could fire a 6.4 kilogram shell out to nearly 10 km. Although the elevation and depression figures for this gun are not known when fitted to the M6 it did have a range of elevation from -10 to +45 when mounted normally as a field gun and the available photograph of it elevated would indicate 45 degrees was still probable. Various ammunition was available weighing between 4.5kg up to just over 8kg depending on ammunition type. Available ammunition for the 75mm gun at the time included several models of High Explosive shell, Armor Piercing (AP), Armour Piercing High Explosive, and the Effetto Pronto (EP) shaped charge round.

Conclusion

The Semovente M6 was a very good attempt by Italy pre-World War Two to field a large calibre gun onto a tracked chassis to support the infantry in the attack. It is not clear why this project was not adopted as the L6/40 was produced in large numbers, but the most likely explanations are that by this time the Carro Medio hull was already coming into production for the M11/39 and later the M13 series. This chassis was bigger, stronger and more adaptable so would be a better choice for a large-caliber Semovente than the L6. Within just a few months after the termination of this turretted M6 project, a new Semovente mounting the 47mm gun using the same L6 chassis began.

Semovente M6 specifications
Weight	7 tonnes
Propulsion	likely SPA model 18 68- 70 hp petrol
Speed	est. 25km/h off road / 42km/h on road
Armament	75mm L/18 and 8mm anti-aircraft machine gun
Armor	est. 6 to 30mm
Production	Mockup only

Sources

Curami, L., Ceva, A. (1994). La Meccanizzazione dal Regio Esercito. Arte Della Stampa
Pignato, N., Cappellano, F. (2002) Gli autoveicoli da combattimento dell’Esercito Italiano. Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito

Kingdom of Italy (1941)
Assault Gun – At Least 2 Captured

The French Char B1 Bis is probably one of the most recognizable tanks ever made. An impressive union of a hull-mounted 75mm gun, thick armor, and a 47mm gun in the turret made this tank a formidable enemy in 1940. Despite its less than handsome appearance, this was a technologically advanced tank and was the product of a huge amount of time and money invested in its development. In 1940, it was the most powerful tank fielded by any army during the battle for France.
Despite its many advantages though, the Char B was unable to prevent the collapse of France. When the country was occupied, huge stocks of war material in factories plus those captured in the field, came into the hands of the Germans and her allies. While the Germans made good use of a lot of captured tanks, a large amount was also supplied or permitted to be taken by her allies and the Kingdom of Italy was no exception to this.

Colonel Keller (the Italian Inspector General of Tanks) had already reported on the advantages of the Char B (referred to as the ‘Carro B’) back in 1935. In 1940, after the fall of France, the Italians, occupying parts of the south of France, took the opportunity to seize some of these tanks when they could get their hands on them. The Italian author Nicola Pignato states that some twenty B1 Bis’, in various stages of preparation and construction, along with a single 36-tonne B1 Ter prototype were recovered from the FCM factory, of which an unknown number were to be destined for Italy. An official report, however, from 1943 related that just 2 turretless B1 tanks were taken directly from the factory along with an additional 4 which had their turrets, and the single experimental 36-ton vehicle along with a quantity of engines, parts, and armor plate.

The French author Pascal Danjou states that the Italians got hold of only 8 Char B1 Bis tanks though, six made by FCM (Compagnie des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée) and two made by FAMH (Compagnie des Forges et Aciéries de la Marine et d’Homécourt). These vehicles had been rapidly pushed by the French into action in June 1940, half of which had no turrets (which would make 4 tanks although which turretless vehicles of those 8 came from which factory is not clear) and none of these vehicles were captured but were instead hidden by workers in a cave. Their hiding place was later revealed by an Italian worker to the Commission d’Armistice Italienne pour la France, the CAIF (Italian Commission for Disarmament in France), who then seized them in October 1940 for Italy. Whatever account of how these vehicles or even exactly how many came into the possession of Italians is correct, the Italians got hold of some Char B1 Bis tanks of their own.
The exact number shipped to Italy cannot be determined as not all of them received official army registration numbers, but at least two vehicles did receive registration numbers R.E. 508 and R.E. 750 on 30th April 1941.

Turretless B1 Bis with an armored plate covering turret ring undergoing trials in Italy 1941. Source: Pignato

Role

It is debatable as to what function the Italian Army wanted to use these tanks. The Italian author Nicola Pignato classifies the Italian use as one of a ‘Semovente’, literally a self-propelled gun; one used to both indirectly shell enemy forces and also provide direct fire against the enemy. Lacking a turret, this is the most likely consideration for its use, as the poor mobility and relatively low velocity of the French hull gun did not lend themselves to the role of a tank destroyer.

Evaluations

In 1940, the heaviest Italian tank in service was barely half the weight of the 32-tonne B1 Bis. Even without the turret, the Char B1 Bis weighed about 28 tonnes and was still a significantly larger vehicle than the Italians had used since the FIAT 2000. The tank was also not as easy to operate as other similar vehicles and the design called for well-trained crews proficient in the use of the machine.
The sheer size of the vehicle though was the biggest problem. The standard means of moving tanks was on the back of a truck or small trailer, neither of which would be possible for this tank meaning it could only be moved long distances by rail. Even then, it wasn’t going to be an easy task.
Two of the B1 Bis chassis were subjected to trials in November 1941 against anti-tank obstacles. The hulls, lacking turrets, had the hole in the roof of the hull covered with a rudimentary 60mm thick armor plate. Photographic evidence from France shows a captured turretless Char B1 Bis in German hands with an identical circular plate over the missing turret suggesting that this modification was done in France and not in Italy.

Captured French B1 Bis. Sent into action with the turret replaced by a circular cover as seen on the example in Italy. Source: Les chars B
Against all the obstacles tried, the only one which the tanks could not get past was an anti-tank ditch with a 45-degree escarpment. Experiments were terminated on the 24th of May 1943, a ridiculously long testing time for a production-quality vehicle simply being repurposed. The time involved though does suggest that the concept of using the vehicles in the Semovente role had long since expired and they were more suited to experimental work relating to the design of obstacles than anything else.

Illustration of the Semovente B1 Bis by Tank Encyclopedia’s own David Bocquelet

Armament

There is no information to suggest any gun other than the French 75mm hull gun was ever considered but the Italians did have large numbers of antiquated field guns of various calibres which could have fulfilled the role if required. Even so, the French 75mm hull gun was still a potent weapon against tanks or enemy defences and in the turreted vehicle the French would carry up to 74 rounds of armor-piercing or high explosive shells. It is reasonable to assume that, without a turret, at least that amount or slightly more could be carried had this vehicle entered service with Italy.

Turretless B1 Bis undergoing trials in Italy in 1941. Source: Pignato

Conclusion

Despite some initial interest in using the B1 Bis turretless for the role of an assault gun, it was simply not adopted. Italy had already got its own Semovente program using the hull of the M series tanks to carry a short-barrelled 75mm gun for exactly the same type of fire support the B1 Bis offered. This had the same firepower but in a much smaller, lighter, simpler vehicle, one which could be built in large numbers and shared parts with their other tanks meant that the B1 Bis was not needed. With the program of trials terminated and any remaining combat value remaining in the vehicles now gone in 1943, records state that they were instead sent for testing out as ammunition carriers, as firing range targets and presumably some parts scrapped or salvaged.
The Italian author Nicola Pignato recounts that, on 4th June 1943, the situation was lamented that the 20 B1 Bis and single B1 Ter (36 tonne prototype) tanks seized by the Italian military in Marseilles in 1940 could have provided a much needed heavy armored unit for the Italian Army even if by the end of 1942 the tanks had been technically outdated. Despite the advantages their armor and firepower could have brought, the problems and presumably the poor war situation led to the project’s end. No trace of the tanks is known to remain in Italy today.

Char B1 Bis specifications
Dimensions (l-w-h)	6.37 x 2.46 x 2.79 m (20.8 x 8.07 x 9.15 ft)
Total weight, battle ready	28 tonnes (56,000 lbs)
Crew	4 (driver, main gunner, sec. gunner, commander)
Propulsion	Renault 6-cyl inline, 16.5 l, 272 bhp
Speed (road/off road)	28/21 km/h (17/13 mph)
Range (road/off road)-fuel	200 km (120 mi)-400 l
Armament	Unknown
Maximum armor	60 mm (2.36 in)

Links, Resources & Further Reading

Gli Autoveicoli da Combattimento Dell’Esercito Italiano, Pignato and Cappellano
La Meccanizzazione dell’Esercito Italiano, Ceva and Curami
Axis history forum
Les Chars B, Pascal Danjou