Keeping with the tank theme from my last post Ill just do a very quick compare and contrast with the 2 tanks Italy presents in the first episode of Hetalia World Series. First he presents the Fiat-Ansaldo M11/39. This was a medium tank first produced before the war began. The name is categorized by M for Medio (medium) 11 for 11 tons, how much the tank weighs, and the year it was first produced, 1939. Obviously one of the most distinctive features, as Italy states in the anime is that the main gun, a 37mm cannon, is mounted in the hull instead of the usual turret mount. It can traverse 15 degrees left or right before having to turn the entire tank to aim. The turret housed 2 Breda 38 machine guns; the idea being that the 37mm gun would be used for heavy targets and the machine guns would hose down any threat surrounding the tank. The tank was used mainly in North Africa and at first achieved very limited success against early British tanks, however it was quickly overpowered by the arrival of heavier British tanks such as the Matilda II. The armor was only designed to stop small arms fire and up to 20mm cannon rounds but the British tanks such as the Matilda were armed with heavier guns than the Fiat could handle and so it was outclassed by quite a lot. Due to numerous problems such as the poor reliability, poor armor and slow speed, it was decided a better tank was needed and so the next tank Italy presents in the anime, the Fiat M13/40, was designed and built. This tank was the main tank of the Italians for World War Two and was based on a modified M11/39 chassis, first used in Greece and North Africa. The gun was a conventional set up now, with a 47mm anti tank cannon placed in a turret. Like the M11/39, the M13/40 had a 2x Breda 38 machine gun set up, but this time it was mounted down on the hull like most tanks of the period. Another machine gun was mounted coaxially with the main cannon and sometimes a fourth could be mounted on the turret roof for anti aircraft support. It was a vast improvement over the M11/39 but it still lacked firepower so units with the M13/40s were supplemented with Semovente 47/32 self propelled guns, armed with a more powerful 75mm cannon. Even with this, by the time American Shermans and M3 Lee tanks showed up, the M13/40s were completely outgunned and out classed. They had to resort to shooting at the tracks and suspension to hopefully disable a Sherman or Lee and then rely on the Semovente to take it out. The tank overall was not completely useless. It did have a decent cannon for the time it was made, production was simple and the diesel engine was decent enough and had good range. However, the armor was very thin, it broke down quite often, it was slow and the engine, while decent, was underpowered. Another drawback, not a fault of the tank itself, was the lack of proper crew training and radio equipment. Due to these faults, it was outclassed by superior tanks and tactics. - Alex
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:43:23 +0000
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