Armour in Canada (5-4) Captured Italian tanks (1943-1945)
Armour in Canada (5-4) Captured Italian tanks (1943-1945)
Italian Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 Light Tank, Italian XX Armoured Corps, ca 1942. (Royal Italian Army Photo)
(JustSomePics Photos)
Italian Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 Light Tank, Museum Hangar, CFB Borden Military Museum.
(Peter Simpson Photo)
(Sidney J Photo)
Italian Fiat-Ansaldo M14/41 Light Tank. CFB Wainwright, Alberta.
(Author Photo)
Italian Fiat-Ansaldo CV-33 Light Tank, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, Ontario. This "tankette" is on permanent loan to the Australian War Museum as of August 2015. (An M3 Stuart has arrived in exchange).
Italy designed the Carro Veloce (Fast Tank) CV33 tankette in the early 1930s based on the British-built Carden-Lloyd Mark VI tankette. At first equipped with a single 6.5-mm machinegun, the Series II entered production in 1935 with dual 8-mm machine guns. The CV33 hull was also used as a basis for a flamethrower, armoured recovery vehicle, bridge layer, and a few mounted a 37-mm gun. It was reasonably successfully in Ethiopia against an army with no antitank weapons, but eventhere it had obvious flaws. It saw action in the Spanish civil war, but with its thin armour and weak armament, it was already obsolete. Despite this, it was used in North Africa, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Crete, North Africa, Russia, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Italy during the Second World War. CWM 19590012-002.
(Pierre Deschenes Photo)
The Canadian War Museum had an Italian L3/35 or Carro Veloce CV-35 tankette, currently on loan to the Australian War Museum.
The L2/35 saw combat before and during the Second World War. Although designated a light tank by the Italian Army, its turretless configuration, weight and firepower make it closer to contemporary tankettes. It was the most numerous Italian armoured fighting vehicle and saw service almost everywhere the Italians fought in World War II but proved inadequate for modern warfare, having too thin armour and weak armament of only machine guns. It was cheaply produced but because of its light armaments and armour it was reserved to mostly colonial, policing, reconnaissance, and supply duties.
(Pierrre Deschenes Photos)
Italian L3/35 on display in Managua Nicaragua.
