Italian Medium Tanks in action - Armor No. 39

Armor in Action #39

by Nicola Pignato, Andrew Probert (Illustrator), Richard Hudson (Illustrator)

The Royal Italian Army's 'M' series tanks began with the Fiat-Ansaldo M11-39 in 1939 and continued with the M13-40, M14-41 and the M15-42. Medium tanks served on all Italian fronts during WWII. Although out performed by most Allied armored vehicles, these tanks & self-propelled guns were Italy's armored defense throughout WWII, 100 photos, over 60 line drawings, 3 full color cover paintings, 8 color profiles, 50 pages.

50 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the sort of war they expected to fight, the Italian tank development braintrust came up with pretty good solutions, really. Essentially an upgunned and enlarged copy of the classic Vickers 6-ton Export tank of the late 1920s, their tank was designed to operated in the mountainous border areas of Italy- a tank that would dominate Alpine Mobile warfare. In their other theatres, colonial North and east Africa- their opponents usually had no tanks at all, since imperial peacekeeping usually fought indigenous foe. Squadron Signal brought out their Italian Gear expert Nicola Pignato who had a tonne of expertise on Italian WWII equipment and doctrine. He takes us from the proof of concept M11-39, with its hull borne main gun through the M13-40/M14-41 that fought for Rommel in the Desert war to the Assault Gun Semovantes , Italian StuG copies, all along captioning a plethora of photos. Don Greer adds some great silhouette schemes, from the Desert to Albania in Italian paint jobs- and then in Nazi hands after 1943. The book is still a good resource, even if it seems a bit dated now.

Of course, the most famous front these tank performed on was in the African Desert- where they were found a poor third competitor. Italian tank formations often fought hard- but not well- or well -but not hard. Poor training, doctrine and mechanical reliability dogged the Italians in the Desert, their smaller industrial base less able to provide factory fixes, or forward mechanics in large enough numbers. Tanks with bolted armour would always be at some disadvantage to cast and welded armour- and British and even American tank builders were ahead of this curve if behind some other combatants The tanks did perform admirably in late war Italian and Yugoslavian mountain warfare- as intended. Overall- its a story of too little too late - but some interesting transitional solutions along the way- and some brave men who went to war in these vehicles.

There are few adult themes, save the inner politics and innate graft of Fascist Italy, so this is a good read for the Junior Reader over 11/12 years with a historical interest. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast this book is a mixed bag. For the gamer, not much but information about which tanks fought on which fronts, and those sweet silhouette schemes for painting guidance- you''ll need other sources for scenario/campaign help. The Modeler gets a lot of build help, but today's modeler will probably prefer more colour. The Military Enthusiast gets a great short guide to Italian Armour development and production. before and during WWII The lay reader. who might be surprised to learn that Rommel's Desert Armour was half Italian, will enjoy learning about a lesser known aspect of WWII.