In 1940, with the fall of France at the hands of the Germans and Italians, the motherland of baguettes was occupied by the joint Italian-German forces and a part was “left to itself” with the name of Vichy France. In the areas occupied by the Italians there were some factories and industries and in some of them the Char B1 Bis tanks that had been hidden in a cave were captured by the Italians. The self-propelled vehicles were some almost complete and others without a turret but the Italians still decided to test them by renaming them “Semovente B1 bis” but the times proved to be monstrously long and in mid-1943 the vehicle ended its trial period among the Italian ranks but given the situations that arose to create the tank was left to itself.
Specifications
Dimensions: 6.37 x 2.46 x 2.79 m
Maximum weight: 28 t
Crew: 4 (driver, main gunner, sec. gunner, commander)
Propulsion: Renault 6-cyl inline, 16.5 l, 272 bhp
Maximum speed: 28 km/h
Maximum ange 200 km
Armament: 75 mm SA 35
Ammo capacity: 74 ammo
Maximum armor: 60 mm
I think I might be in love, lol. I have a hard time liking tanks with multiple main guns, so this is really cool to see. The 47mm was of limited use anyway, and the turret was a bit of a weakspot.
And furthermore, it’s always nice to see some proper armored vehicles in the Italian tree since they mainly go with thin skin vehicles.
