In this episode I look at Italian tanks for my proposed Italian tank tech tree, concentrating on the tankettes, armoured cars, light tanks and medium tanks.
Don't forget to check out the brilliantly done Italian aviation tech tree, links below.
Social Media ⬇️
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toreno.bsky.social
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Toreno4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toreno170
Mastodon: Toreno17@mastodon.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@toreno170
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Toreno17
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/toreno5/videos
Italian aviation tech tree website and forum thread:
http://italiantechtreewtint.weebly.com/
http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/73287-wt-italian-tech-tree-fan-made/
Vehicles in this episode:
Introduction: 00:00
L5/38: 02:42
AS-42 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 04:19
AB-41 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic") 05:44
AB-43 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 06:59
Fiat 3000: 07:53
L6/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 09:00
M11/39 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 09:48
M13/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 12:12
M14/41 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 13:19
M15/42 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 13:47
M16/43 “Celere Sahariano” (Added in Update “New Power”): 15:00
P26/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 16:19
Conclusion: 18:07
Future Italian Tank Tech Tree series
Italian Tank Destroyers and Self Propelled Anti Aircraft vehicles: https://youtu.be/nKKq8ZLIDF0
Italian Premium tanks: https://youtu.be/uly_POMcsls
Information/picture citations⬇️
WWII: The Directory of Weapons.
Tanks: compared and contrasted.
Weapons of World War II.
http://www.miniatures.de/shells-italian.html
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/italy/penetration-tables.asp
http://www.warwheels.net/AB42protoINDEX.html
Game: War Thunder ⬅️
#warthunder #italy #italian #tank #tanks #carro #p40
Don't forget to check out the brilliantly done Italian aviation tech tree, links below.
Social Media ⬇️
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toreno.bsky.social
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Toreno4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toreno170
Mastodon: Toreno17@mastodon.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@toreno170
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Toreno17
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/toreno5/videos
Italian aviation tech tree website and forum thread:
http://italiantechtreewtint.weebly.com/
http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/73287-wt-italian-tech-tree-fan-made/
Vehicles in this episode:
Introduction: 00:00
L5/38: 02:42
AS-42 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 04:19
AB-41 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic") 05:44
AB-43 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 06:59
Fiat 3000: 07:53
L6/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 09:00
M11/39 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 09:48
M13/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 12:12
M14/41 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 13:19
M15/42 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 13:47
M16/43 “Celere Sahariano” (Added in Update “New Power”): 15:00
P26/40 (Added in Update 1.85 "Supersonic"): 16:19
Conclusion: 18:07
Future Italian Tank Tech Tree series
Italian Tank Destroyers and Self Propelled Anti Aircraft vehicles: https://youtu.be/nKKq8ZLIDF0
Italian Premium tanks: https://youtu.be/uly_POMcsls
Information/picture citations⬇️
WWII: The Directory of Weapons.
Tanks: compared and contrasted.
Weapons of World War II.
http://www.miniatures.de/shells-italian.html
http://www.wwiivehicles.com/italy/penetration-tables.asp
http://www.warwheels.net/AB42protoINDEX.html
Game: War Thunder ⬅️
#warthunder #italy #italian #tank #tanks #carro #p40
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of my proposed tank tech tree series.
00:04I'm actually doing the Italians today, I should explain because I said I was going to do the Japanese originally.
00:09We were told a little while ago the priority release schedule was for Britain, which already had some tanks done,
00:17then Japan, then Italy and France at some point.
00:20Yeah, but Italy and France after Japan.
00:23We've since been clarified it's going to be American tank destroyers, Britain, then
00:27Armoured cars and Japan at some point. I don't know where the armoured cars come into it.
00:32But the reason I'm doing the Italians is because the Japanese tank tech tree is taking quite a bit longer than I expected.
00:39And the Italian tank tech tree just happened to be almost finished, so I just quickly finished that off and I'm just doing a video on that.
00:46So I've got something out there.
00:48I've actually done the Italian and French tank tech trees before for the aviation.
00:54I had a bit of discussion in the comments section of those videos and I was told about players who had done their own proposed tech trees for the Italian aviation.
01:06So I'll leave a link to that.
01:08It's a very well done tech tree, I haven't looked at it as much as I'd like to, I just haven't had time lately.
01:14But it does look very good and I'm hoping these videos will help promote the Italian tank tech trees and ground forces,
01:21which are sometimes a bit underrated or forgotten.
01:25Although they did come up with some very good designs.
01:28As you can see here I've put armoured cars in. This was before the announcement we would get armoured cars, or before the Q&A about armoured cars.
01:36The reason I put them in was because it was something Italy did quite a few good designs on.
01:42It's something unique, I think all nations should have some sort of unique line, such as with the Japanese having amphibious tanks.
01:51Their main strong point is their self-propelled guns and assault guns.
01:59Their self-propelled anti-aircraft guns can also have some good anti-tank capability if I'm not mistaken.
02:07Medium tanks, there's a few of them but they're not all great, some of them are quite good.
02:12There's some, especially the first one or two, well the first one isn't as good.
02:18If used right you should be able to overcome these disadvantages and should do reasonably well with them.
02:25Before I waffle on too much, we'll get straight into the video.
02:29We'll only be dealing with the first three lines today, just before I get straight into it.
02:35The other three I'll be doing in the next video, but as I said we'll get straight into the video.
02:40Now the first vehicle we're looking at is the L5-38.
02:45Now these were mainly armed with machine guns, some of the earlier variants were only armed with 8mm machine guns or flamethrowers.
02:53Now the reason I've got it in my tank tech tree is because, the same reason with the Mk6C in the British tank tech tree, some of them were armed with 13mm machine guns.
03:04And again, I don't know the exact penetration, but these apparently did have some limited arm penetration capabilities.
03:13There was also an anti-tank version with a Sullow Fern 20mm anti-tank rifle.
03:20Now this, I don't think it could penetrate that much, 20mm are like 300m or 200m.
03:27So it's mainly for against lightly armoured vehicles, so probably very very early reserve tier tanks.
03:36I think this would probably be a good place to start off with, but again it depends on the penetration capability of the 13mm gun and the 20mm gun.
03:46It may not be the best thing to start off with, if they haven't got enough penetration, then it can start off with another tank such as the Fiat 3000 which we'll look at in a minute.
03:55But I thought I should at least include this so you're aware there is the possibility of this being in the tank tech tree, or I feel it should be at least considered for the tank tech tree.
04:04Now the armour was only something like 6-14mm, but it could do 26mph.
04:10So a fast little tank, not well armoured, but potentially could cause some damage.
04:15Like I said, it depends on the gun really.
04:17Moving on to the next vehicle, we have the SPA Faberti AS42, I hope I pronounced that right.
04:24Which was based on the chassis of the AB41 armoured car.
04:30It was used as a reconnaissance car, because the Italians had seen what the British had used for their long range desert group and wanted something similar.
04:39And it was armed with a variety of weapons.
04:42It's only an armoured car, but they could be armed with 20mm cannons and even a 47mm anti-tank gun.
04:53It could take the 20mm anti-tank rifle as well, but for 20mm I assume it'll be the anti-aircraft gun.
05:01I believe it was a Breda model, which was a form of anti-aircraft cannon.
05:07It doesn't particularly have much armour, I don't think.
05:11It's open-topped, as you can see.
05:13So it's going to be quite vulnerable.
05:15But it can do up to 50mph, so you'll have to use its speed to your advantage.
05:21Quickly driving in, getting a few shots off and driving off ambushing vehicles.
05:27It could, if used right, be quite a potent threat, especially with the bigger guns.
05:32Assuming the bigger the gun you have, the slower it will be.
05:36But that can pay off, especially if you do a lot of damage to the enemy.
05:41And of course we now have the Autoblinder 41 and 43, which the AS42 was based on.
05:51Now originally there was an AB40, but this was only armed with a few machine guns and maybe one cannon.
05:57But eventually the Italians decided to put a turret from an L640 light tank on the Autoblinder,
06:04and it became the Autoblinder 41, or AB41.
06:10And in this version it had a 20mm Breda AA cannon again,
06:16and an 8mm machine gun in the caraxle, and an 8mm at the rear of the turret.
06:22It also interestingly had a rear driving position, so you could drive it from either the front or from the back.
06:29I don't know how that would be represented in game, if you'd get two drivers or something,
06:33but it could be an interesting thing to look for.
06:36Now it only had about, I'm trying to find, 18mm of armour.
06:41So not the most well protected vehicle in the game, but it can do 48mph,
06:47so that's only 2mph slower than the AS42, and it has a big 20mm cannon, and a decent amount of armour.
06:57Now later on there was an AB43, which was basically a 47mm gun in the turret.
07:04There was also apparently a German 50mm gun in an open top hull, you're probably seeing the picture of it now.
07:10I've put that in the premium line, and I'll discuss that later.
07:14I don't think the AB43 was ever used by the Italians, or I think it was mainly used by the Germans,
07:19because the Italians had obviously made the armistice with the Allies by now.
07:23Now I've put the AB43 in tier 2 and the AB41 in tier 1, because obviously the AB43 is more upgraded.
07:31You know, better gun.
07:33I don't think you can really have any higher reconnaissance vehicles.
07:37I'm not sure the Italians had any other reconnaissance vehicles, or tankettes, that could really do higher than tier 2.
07:44So that's really it for the tankettes and armoured cars, and we'll move on to the light tanks now.
07:50Now the first light tank we're looking at is the Fiat 3000, an Italian designed tank,
07:56and the first to be produced in Italy, or won the first, but was based on the French FT17.
08:04Now the version I put in, the 3000B, was armed with a 37mm gun, a 37-40, which I believe is to do with the length of the gun,
08:15and had a 6.5mm machine gun, secondary armament, and it could do 13 miles an hour, and had 6-16mm of armour.
08:25Now I've put this, obviously, a low tier, because it's, well, first tier, maybe even the reserve tank,
08:32or one of the first tanks after the reserve, because obviously it's a pre-war design, it's not going to do that great.
08:39But, you know, it should do well enough, hopefully.
08:43I don't know the performance of that gun in particular, I'll try and find some more information on it,
08:50but hopefully it can do well in a low tier.
08:54I think it would be a good starting point for the main proper tanks.
08:58Now the next tank we're looking at is the Fiat L640.
09:02Now, this actually has a bit of a, well, I don't know if it's a downgrade, but it has a 20mm cannon.
09:09Now, I don't know what the penetration value is of the Breda versus the 37mm of the Fiat 3000,
09:17so it could be a downgrade, could be an upgrade, I'm not entirely sure.
09:21However, it has 6-14mm of armour, so it can protect itself a lot better, and it can do 26mph, so it's faster.
09:30So, potentially trading armament for speed and armour.
09:35I think this would do reasonably well in the low tiers, it could be swapped around with the Fiat 3000 if needed.
09:41Yeah, and I think it would be a good tank for the lower tiers, for Italy.
09:46Now, we're moving on to the medium tanks, and so far we've only looked at the first two tiers,
09:51because the vehicles we've looked at, armoured cars, tankettes, light tanks,
09:55obviously haven't got that great an armament or armour.
09:59The main problem is, when we're looking at the medium tanks, is these are the best Italy had to offer,
10:05and they're not exactly much better.
10:08The first tank we're looking at is the Fiat M1139.
10:13Now, the M stands for medium, the 11 is how heavy it is in tonnes, so 11 tonnes,
10:18and the year it was adopted, so 1939.
10:22This was like the M3 Grant, in a way, in that it had the main armament in the hull of the tank.
10:31Unfortunately, the turret had machine guns rather than something better.
10:36Only 100 of these were built, and I can't remember if quite a few of them were prototypes, so less than 100 really.
10:45Armour was about 30mm on the front, at the side it was 14.5mm,
10:51and at the rear it was 8mm, and various different thicknesses around the rest of the tank.
10:56The 37mm gun, the tank in general wasn't really good against the British in North Africa.
11:03The 37mm gun, I finally found the figures for it, from 100m could only pierce about 58mm of armour.
11:11Now, that's a bit of a problem, because the British Matilda Mk II, the main infantry tank in use at the time,
11:17had 78mm of armour, bearing in mind the penetration figure is for 100m.
11:23The Matilda Mk II from 450m could pierce 37mm of armour,
11:29so the Fiat couldn't destroy the British tanks from point blank range,
11:33while the British could destroy their Fiats from quite a long distance.
11:37Not to mention being handicapped by the fact it didn't have a turret.
11:41Now, I've put this pretty low in the tiers, about tier 1, because obviously it's not a good gun.
11:46It's stuck in the hull, so you've got to turn the whole tank.
11:50It's a bit like a not very good tank destroyer, and it was like that in real life.
11:55Only 100mm was built, and they weren't used for long.
11:58Well, they were replaced as quickly as they could.
12:01They were used by the British when they captured them, but that was more because of a lack of tanks, from what I understand.
12:06Its speed was also 20mph, so a bit slower than some of the other tanks we've seen.
12:10Now, the Italians, of course, realised the shortcomings of this tank,
12:14and came out with the M13-40 to replace it.
12:20Now, this was better when it had 42mm to 6mm of armour,
12:25and it had a 47mm cannon, and it was in a turret, so already it was quite a bit superior to the M11.
12:34Unfortunately for the Italians, their industry couldn't really provide many of these tanks,
12:39only 779 being produced in total.
12:43Its top speed was also 20mph, but like I said, for the armour and gun it's got, that's not too bad.
12:51Of course, while it's a lot better than the M11, it still wasn't too good.
12:58The 47mm gun became obsolete quite quickly.
13:02You know, the Allies and Germans were upgrading to 50mm, 75mm guns,
13:09which is why I've sort of put these two tanks at the lower tiers,
13:12so their lack of armour and armament isn't going to be too much of an issue, hopefully.
13:17There was, of course, the M14-41, basically an M13 with a more powerful engine,
13:26allowing it to go to 22mph.
13:29Although, rather than that, there doesn't seem to have been too much difference.
13:33The only reason I've actually put that in tier 2 is just so we haven't got them all bunched up in the lower tiers, or tier 1.
13:40Although I would put it as a very low tier 2, or possibly even a higher tier 1.
13:45After the M14 was the M15-42.
13:48Now, this was slightly better, it had maximum armour thickness of 42.
13:54It's weird, my book says thickness from 42 to 14, with a maximum of 45 on the turret front.
13:59I don't know if that means the mantlet or something.
14:02Secondary armament was pretty much the same, the coaxial machine gun and the bow machine gunner.
14:09They also lengthened the turret, the gun.
14:13It had a length 40 instead of a length 32 gun, which improved penetration quite a bit.
14:21I believe it could penetrate 78mm from 100m away.
14:26And if it used heat, about 112mm.
14:29So, they did start improving their vehicles quite a bit.
14:33Unfortunately, only a few of these were made, about 100, maybe 150.
14:40Because, you know, 1942, the Italians had basically lost Africa by this point, or was about to lose Africa.
14:47It says 42, but production didn't actually begin until 1943.
14:53So, these were only really used by the Germans, after the Italians had surrendered.
14:59Now, the next tank I wasn't sure whether to put in or not, is the FIA M16-43.
15:05Now, only one of these were actually built.
15:08You can see it in the picture, it does look quite a bit different from some of the previous tanks.
15:15It looks like it has some sort of sloped armour, or angled.
15:19It was armed with a 47mm gun, and it had 30mm of armour at the front, 25mm at the sides.
15:26So, a bit less than the M15-42.
15:30But, it was also extremely fast, 34mph, and it had the Christie suspension.
15:35I believe the first Italian tank to have it.
15:37Now, only one prototype was finished.
15:40They did intend to put a 75mm gun in it, but the prototype had the 47mm gun.
15:47Now, I've put this just because Italy doesn't have many medium tanks.
15:50Without it, it only has something like 4 tanks, or 3 tanks, if you're going by just mediums.
15:57So, I've put that in. I think it would be a good addition.
16:02Not really sure it should be a premium, because there aren't many medium tanks, as I already said.
16:07No need to put one in as a premium.
16:09But, if Gaijin can find information on it, I think it would be a pretty good tank to have in the game.
16:15A bit of a unique tank.
16:17Now, the next tank is the P-40.
16:20Now, the P, as far as I understand, stands for heavy tank.
16:24But, I've put it in the medium tank line, because Italy only produced one heavy tank, to my knowledge.
16:30And, don't really need its own line for one tank.
16:33Now, this was much improved over previous tanks.
16:36It had a 75mm gun, which, from 100m, could penetrate 90mm of armour with AP rounds.
16:43Or, 120mm with the HEAT rounds.
16:46So, quite a good gun. A lot better than the previous guns.
16:50It also had improved armour. As you can see, it's sloped, although it still has rivets.
16:56So, advanced in some ways, not advanced in others.
16:59I've heard the armour was around 60-50mm at the front.
17:02I've had to rely on internet sources for the armour, because my book barely gives the actual tank a mention, unfortunately.
17:10Although, it does mention that it could reach speeds of 25mph, maximum road speed.
17:15So, quite a bit faster than previous tanks, and quite a bit more armoured and armed.
17:23So, definitely a good addition for the Italian tech tree.
17:27This would probably be where the medium tanks, or tanks in general, end.
17:31Because, unfortunately for the Italians, they signed the armistice with the Allies, when the P-40 was brought into service.
17:38Only a few were produced, mostly by the Germans, once they took over the factories.
17:43Who used them, pretty much, for themselves.
17:46I've put it mid-tier 3. It probably could go to low-tier 3, or even high-tier 2.
17:52I can't see it being any higher than where I've put it.
17:56It's a good tank, although, like I said, it still has some downsides, like riveted armour.
18:02But, I think it would be a very good addition for the Italian tech tree.
18:06Now, I'll probably leave the video about here.
18:09In the next episode, we'll look at the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and the premium tanks.
18:15In this episode, hopefully you've got a good outline of the gun tanks, tankettes, armoured cars, light tanks, that could be in the Italian tech tree.
18:24These aren't necessarily Italy's strongest sides.
18:29The armoured cars are actually quite powerful. In some cases, more powerful than some of the tanks.
18:35Light tanks are reasonably okay. Medium tanks can suffer a little bit.
18:40But, I think if they're tiered appropriately, they could do quite well.
18:45I think Italy definitely does deserve some form of tank tech tree.
18:51I hope it will be introduced sometime in the future.
18:54Hopefully this raises awareness about the Italian tech trees.
18:58Don't forget to visit the links I showed at the beginning of the video.
19:02I hope you enjoyed the video.
19:04Leave a like if you liked it.
19:06Subscribe if you like these sorts of videos.
19:08Leave feedback. I can always do with more feedback.
19:11Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.