- Yes
- No
General Info
The story of this vehicle would actually commence in the United Kingdom, during interwar period many countries around the world would begin to experiment on light multi-role vehicles, which were described as ‘tankettes’. They could perform a multitude of tasks, and soon enough many new vehicles would be created following the same style of doctrine. Out of those designs one would have been chosen that surpassed the rest, this version would be the very first iteration of the Universal Carrier family, known by many as the Bren carrier. It would begin production during the 1930’s and would contiune upwards to the 1960’s, well into the cold war. The Bren carrier would overtime be upgraded which would lead to many new variants of the vehicle to come out, such as the MK I, MK II, the Scout, Wasp, Calvary and so much more. These vehicles would serve in nearly all fronts of the second world war and were used extensively by both the allies and axis, so much so that in Italy an extremely similar design would arise named ‘Fiat CVP-4’ (which was done after the Italian armed forces capturing several carriers during the war). This vehicle was only however produced in very small numbers and likely did not go into full scale production due to the circumstances surrounding Italy towards the end of the war. That said after the war Italy would need to rebuild its armed forces, so unsuprisingly so they’d recieve many variants of the Bren carrier which would range from the Universal Carriers, the MK I’s and II’s and also observesion post variants. Considering the Soviet union was one of europe’s main concern for many nations, Italy would be treated differently and actually had a lot more autonomy when compared to Germany and Japan. As such their main arms suppliers would become America, Britain and at times also France. These carriers were directly given to Italy from Britain, likely because production of the vehicle was still going ahead and would overall help in the grand scheme of things for Italy to become a useful ally if the Soviet union would’ve gone to war with the west. During the cold war Italy began to experiment on these machines and also ended up making special variants of their own, such as in this case. The Cingoletta 106 would likely show up during the late 1950’s, it would essencially be a modified Bren Universal Carrier which go unto mount the American made M40 106mm recoiless rifle,which resulted in Italy gaining a cost-effective nimble tank destroyer, at the time maintaing the carriers was very easy as spare parts were cheap and to come by and almost all nations in europe would operate a variant of the vehicle during the same time. This idea for a cost-effective tank destroyer would be quite popular, in fact Italy wasn’t the only nation to do this either, for example the Dutch also had a Bren carrier with a recoiless rifle attachment. The main role for the Cingoletta was was troop and equipment transport, at times it would carry equipment such as artillery pieces. The issue with the Cingoletta was that it was in no way protected, the crew of 3 would be exposed to enemy fire which would be extremely dangerous in a combat scenario. This problem would be the main reason why such conversion was extremely rare to see in Italy, again the carriers were meant for supporting infantry but were not made for combat. That said, the vehicle would have decent mobility depending on the variant, it would have an engine which would produce anything from 65-95hp, but usually it would reach speeds of just 30km an hour, and had an overall operational range of 250km. In terms of service, the Cingoletta 106 would likely be operated by the Bersaglieri regiments, other carrier variants would be used by a lot of other sectors of the Italian army. It sadly is one of those vehicles Italy used but was not properlly documented, therefore not much information or photo’s exist. Its unknown when this version was taken out of service but it was likely done during the same time when ATGM’s became more prominent, and Italy began to aquire weapon systems such as the TOW or MILAN to replace the role vehicles which used the recoiless rifle would have.
Armament+equipment
x1 M40 106mm Recoiless rifle (can fire HEAT and Hesh rounds)
x1 12.7mm or 7.7mm machine gun
Specifications
Why it should be added in game
It should be in game because i can see this vehicle be a very fun vehicle to play around in, considering its light and fast, it could be a vehicle that people don’t expect early in the game to take them out. It had an M40 Recoiless rifle which is already in game, and also make it semi-unique because not only are there not many recoiless rifle vehicles inside the game, but it’ll be a new experience for people to try inside of the italian tech tree rather than playing the Fiat 6614 with the recoiless rifle. Overall it should be added more so for the new potential gameplay experiences that can occur, which hopefully will allow more people to try out the Italian tech tree.
Sources
Spoiler
Cappellano, Esposito, Mezzi corazzati e blindati dell’esercito italiano 1945-2015, Storia Militare dossier n.25
Ministero della Difesa, Armi e mezzi in dotazione all’esercito 1955.
Cappellano, Mosolo, Le artiglierie a traino meccanico dell’esercito italiano 1945-2018, Storia Militare dossier n. 40
Modellismo Più
http://www.ferreamole.it/contributi/censimento/cingoletta _oare.htm
Studi del Gen. B.Fulvio Poli by Biblioteca Militare - Issuu
Possible Bren Gun carrier conversions | WARGAMING MISCELLANY
Fiat 2800 (trasporto truppe) - Wikipedia
106 mm M40 - Wikipedia
Fiat 2800 (trasporto truppe) - Wikipedia
XXII Btg. Carri "Serenissima" su Mezzi Corazzati
Camionette Cingolate ‘Cingolette’ CVP-5 (L40) - Tank Encyclopedia
Mezzo degli Alpini - Mezzi militari Italiani e Stranieri
Photos
Spoiler
Photos of it in service in different variants
