Autoblindo Fiat-Ansaldo AB.41 of the R.E.Co. “Lodi”.

ImportantSimone5 · June 9, 2024, 8:05pm

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Autoblindo Fiat-Ansaldo AB.41 of the R.E.Co. “Lodi”.

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. The AB41 was the standard reconnaissance armored car of the Royal Italian Army which used it with excellent results in the campaign of Africa, on the Russian front and in the Balkans from mid-1941 to 8 September 1943. The vehicle was widely used by the Exploring Armored Groupings (R.E.Co.) of various cavalry and armored divisions, and was also used by the famous unit called Armored Exploring Group (R.E.Co.) “Cavalleggeri di Lodi”. During the period in North Africa the unit was equipped with various of these armored cars, which were used from 1942 to 1943 and with the decrease in numbers the unit was renamed the “Lodi” autonomous armored car squadron (as only the efficient armored cars remained ). Given the shortage of weapons and ammunition, soldiers often relied on equipment lost during battles against enemy units. Two armored cars of the AB41 type were modified in Tunisia by their respective crews to improve their defensive capabilities by mounting weapons captured from Anglo-American forces on the turret of the vehicle in anti-aircraft use. Not much is known about the effectiveness of this artisanal adaptation, and it is not known for certain what happened to the two vehicles with their respective crews. They were probably lost during the clashes with the overwhelming enemy forces, or were lost after the repatriation in 1943 and the subsequent clashes with the Allied units landed in Sicily.

Armaments and propulsion.

The armored car was armed with a Breda 20/65 Model 1935 multi-purpose cannon placed in a Model 1941 type rotating turret, two Breda Model 1938 8 mm caliber medium machine guns (one of which was coaxial with the Breda 20/65 cannon and one in retreat) and a 7.62 x 63 mm Browning M1919 machine gun in various anti-aircraft support (the first vehicle had the support welded onto the panoramic telescope housing, while the second had the weapon mounted on a support fixed laterally to the turret.). For the cannon there were 38 magazines for a total of 456 rounds and 83 magazines for the Breda machine guns for a total of 1,992. The amount of ammunition carried for the Browning machine gun is unknown.
The vehicle was powered by an 88 hp FIAT-SPA ABM 2 6-cylinder in-line engine, which could push the vehicle up to a maximum speed of 78 km/h forward and 37 km/h in reverse.

Specifications.

Spoiler

Crew: 4
Length: 5.2m
Width: 1.92 m
Height: 3 m
Engine: 88 hp FIAT-SPA ABM 2 6-cylinder in-line
Maximum speed: 78 km/h
Armament: 1x Breda 20/65 Model 1935, 2x Breda Model 1938 and 1x Browning M1919
Armor: 40-8.5 mm

Pictures and drawnings.

Spoiler

(There is only one known extant photo of this artinal modification unfortunately.)