- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #67
i would like to suggest a slightly different yet interesting Genuine Italian WW2 tank, the Carro Pesante P40 75/18
after the ascension of the Fascists in Italy, Italy went into a complete reform of their armament. the mechanization of their army started in the early 30s with a large number of L3 tankettes built for their need. followed by their successor, the L6/40. only Italy didn’t have a proper tank before 1939 with the M11/39, it was considered an improvement, but not really. the first real Italian medium tank came with the M13/40 which was at the time a decent contemporary tank. but already at the edge of obsolescence. what is less known, is while the M13/40 was been put into production, the Italian was already developing in parallel a heavy tank
first indexed as the P75, the Italian government mandated Fiat and Ansalto to develop a “heavy” tank. both companies went with their prototype, initially designed with a 75mm and 20mm in the turret, the 20mm was soon abandoned as it was considered not convenient to use. the wood mock-up of the P75 was built but it was never accepted to production. it was planned to have 40mm of armour all around which was the same as the current medium tank in production. the P75 was mainly carrying more firepower.
a simplified version was later built in August 1941, showing a very close design to the Italian medium tank. only the 20mm was dropped and the frontal armor was raised to 50mm which made this new tank a pretty well-protected vehicle at that time. the trial was done with the prototype and in the meantime, the Italian was trying to finish the development of the engine for production and this was the main cause of the delay. the prototype was a rather good tank but the battle in North Africa showed it clearly, Italy needed more firepower to penetrate the British tanks. the 75/18 was then abandoned.
Firepower
the P40 75/18 was supposed to be armed with the low velocity 75mm 75/18 gun . saddly the gun shown in the picture is surely a dummy. this gun was more of a howitzer than an actual gun. it was designed to be capable of providing fire support and kind of underestimated the protection of the tank at this time, it was yet capable of using HEAT rounds which is quite capable but with a velocity rather low forcing the tank to close. the elevation of -10°/+22° should allow you to use the gun at its full efficiency. 75 rounds was carried for the 75mm. a coaxial machine gun is installed at the side of the main gun and there is also a twin 8mm mount in the hull.
Mobility
powered by the 24 L SPA Tipo 342 providing 330 hp , the P40 75/18 will not lack mobility in comparison to any medium tank. with his weight of only 24 tonnes , the power/weight would reach 13.75 hp/ton instant of 12.69 on the production, this shall give a noticeably better acceleration over the production version. the speed reaching 42 km/h (42km/h was expected, but it is unknown if it was achieved) would allow it to be at the head of the front line and even make it quite capable of flanking.
Protection
the protection of the P40 75/18 was a bit better than the M13/40, influentially been designed to have 40mm of armor all around, it was later decided that wasn’t enough and the front armor was raised to 50mm (the M15/42 was also raised) this should give the P40 75/18 a much better survivability than the Italian medium tank and capable to fight the British tank. but the P40 at this time remained a rather flat tank at the front, with the hull being pretty much just a scaled-up version of the M13/40. the side and rear protection aren’t bad at all which allows a decent capacity to take a beating from any side. with 40mm on the side and rear , the HMG and auto-cannon aren’t much of a treat. the crew of 4 is giving a decent capacity to survive a penetration.
source
- Tank Archives: "Dachshund" for Assault Artillery
- CA COMMUNITY
- Carro Armato P40 (Carro Pesante P40) Heavy Tank / Armored Fighting Vehicle
- P26/40 Heavy Tank
- P26/40 tank - Wikipedia
- LA MECCANIZZAZIONE DELL'ESERCITO FINO AL 1943 tomo II -parte 2 by Biblioteca Militare - Issuu
thanks to @Nicholas_Concu and @ConroeDoctrine for the help