- Yes
- Maybe
- No
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. In the same period the Italian African Police unilaterally requested Ansaldo to develop an armored car for reconnaissance to be used in the colonies, in which there were pockets of colonial resistance, in replacement for the old armored cars already present. Fiat-SPA and Ansaldo, responded to the requests by developing a new armored car based on the TM40 artillery tractor. After the necessary modifications, the vehicle called 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 armored car was long used by the Royal Army, and was also used by the fascist loyalist forces after the beginning of the civil war in 1943. Four armored cars were captured and used by the “San Giusto” Armored Squadron Group, which used them in the area near the border between Italy and the former Yugoslavia; one of these armored cars (number unknown) was portrayed in photos with an unusual three-tone color scheme. What happened to this vehicle is unknown, however, it was probably destroyed during a clash against Yugoslav partisan units.
The camouflage.
The armored car adopted an unusual three-tone yellow-reddish-brown-green amoeba coloring. The coloring is similar to that applied on the helmets of the Exploring Group of the Anti-Partisan Regiment.
Pictures and drawnings.
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Sources.
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“I mezzi corazzati italiani della guerra civile (1943-1945)”
AB41 in Repubblica Sociale Italiana Service - Tank Encyclopedia
ZimmeriT - Modellismo e Storia Militare
Modellismo Più