Autocannone da 20/65 su OM Autocarretta 35.

ImportantSimone5 · August 22, 2024, 6:38pm

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Autocannone da 20/65 su OM Autocarretta 35.

History.

In 1927 the Royal Italian Army issued a tender for a small truck to be used in the mountains by the automotive corps. Large Italian companies participated in the tender, and among them S.A. also participated. Ansaldo cars of Turin. The company commissioned engineer Giulio Cesare Cappa (who had recently left Fiat) to design the vehicle in question, and the designed vehicle was born after a period of time and was named “Autocarretta Ansaldo”: the vehicle was tested in December 1929 and gave good but not totally satisfactory results. Due to the economic difficulties that pervaded Ansaldo in those years, the company handed over the project to the smaller company Officine Meccaniche O.M. of Brescia, which remodeled the vehicle and presented it to the military authorities with the name “truckcarretta 32”. The vehicle performed better, so several examples were ordered, which saw their first use during the war in Ethiopia. In 1934, given the need to further modernize the vehicle, the updated version of the lorry called “Autocarretta OM 35” was presented, which presented some slight improvements compared to the previous model. In 1937, with the war in Ethiopia over and the Spanish civil war beginning, it was decided to try to create light vehicles (trucks) with such armament as to defend the convoys from possible air attacks. Various trucks and various armaments were used (from machine guns to the new 20 mm pieces), and an attempt was also made to use some of the OM 35 tank trucks with a Breda 20/65 Model 1935 piece (newly introduced) as an anti-aircraft vehicle. The vehicle was built and tested in 1938, but it seems that it did not satisfy the high command of the Royal Army, which discarded this idea. Probably the few (if not the single) examples of this vehicle were put back into normal use by removing the paraphernalia.

Armaments and propulsion.

The vehicle was armed with a Breda 20/65 Modelo 1935 machine gun placed in the body of the vehicle. The weapon could turn 360° and had an elevation of -10°/+80° (reduced depression with the weapon firing in the direction of the cockpit). The quantity of the activated ammunition is not known.
As for motorization, the vehicle was powered by a 23 hp 4-cylinder petrol engine, which could push the vehicle up to the very modest maximum speed of 22 km/h.

Specifications.

Spoiler

Crew: 3
Length: 3.7m
Width: 1.3m
Height: 2.3 m
Weight: 1,800 kg
Engine: 4 cylinder petrol (23 hp)
Maximum speed: 22 km/h
Armament: 1x Breda 20/65 Model 1935
Armor: 10-0 mm

Pictures and drawnings.

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