Autoblinda Alleggerita Mod. 1942 (or Autoblinda Mod. 1942/AB42)

ImportantSimone5 · June 15, 2024, 1:04am

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Autoblinda Alleggerita Mod. 1942 (or Autoblinda Mod. 1942/AB42)

History.

In 1937 the Italian Royal Army realized that the old Lancia 1ZM armored cars in service, although still efficient, were obsolete because they were not fast enough, weakly armored and armed and had poor off-road driving capabilities. This inevitably led to the development of a new fast and wheeled reconnaissance vehicle. An attempt was first made to replace the Lancia armored car with the Fiat 611 armored car, which was appreciated as a replacement for the old Lancia armored car. More or less in the same period, however, the Italian African Police (or PAI) unilaterally requested Ansaldo to develop an armored car for reconnaissance tasks to be used in the Italian African colonies, in which there were pockets of colonial resistance, in replacement for the old armored cars already present (which had been in service for almost a quarter of a century). Fiat-SPA, in collaboration with Ansaldo, responded to the request of both parties by deciding to develop a new armored car based on the TM40 artillery tractor. After the necessary modifications, the vehicle called AutoBlinda Mod. 1940 or more simply AB40 was born. The vehicle was much appreciated and several examples were ordered, although it was soon realized that the vehicle was too lightly armed. It was therefore decided to rearm the vehicle by replacing the previous turret with the one installed on the L6/40 light tank, and the vehicle was renamed AB41. In 1941, however, the Royal Army realized that the performance of the modern AB41 was not able to satisfy the operational needs of the African Campaign, and at the beginning of 1942 the official request was made to Fiat-Ansaldo for a new, lighter and more elusive vehicle. but with the same armor as the AB41, and after some time the vehicle called Autoblinda Alleggerita Mod. 1942 was born, which was sent to the Motorization Study Center in November 1942. After a short while, given the situation the Italy, the project was no longer considered a priority by the Italian High Command and the prototype was shelved. In the following months, Ansaldo recovered the engine and turret of the prototype, which was mounted on the chassis of an AB41, giving life to the more powerful Autoblinda Mod. 1943. After this recovery, the rest of the prototype was probably demolished as the chassis it was now unusable.

Armaments and propulsion.

The armored car was armed with a Breda 20/65 Model 1935 multi-purpose cannon placed in a Model 1942 type rotating turret and one Breda Model 1938 8 mm caliber medium machine guns which was coaxial with the Breda 20/65 cannon. The 20 mm cannon had a reserve of 456 rounds, while the machine gun had 1,992 rounds.
The vehicle was powered by a new FIAT-SPA ABM 2 engine, an update of the FIAT-SPA ABM 1 engine of the previous AB 41. The engine was slightly more powerful (110 HP), and added to the lightness of the vehicle it allowed a maximum speed of 90 km/h.

Specifications.

Spoiler

Crew: 3
Length: 5.2m
Width: 1.93 m
Height: 2.24 m
Weight: 6 tons
Engine: FIAT-SPA ABM 2, 6 cylinders, 110 hp
Maximum speed: 90 km/h
Armament: 1x Breda 20/65 Model 1935 and 1x Breda Model 1938
Armor: 22-8.5 mm

Pictures and drawnings.

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