Layout

The CV-33 was a classic tankette without a turret. The layout of the tankette was very dense.

Story

After the approval of the tankette by the military, the Ansaldo company, together with the well-known automaker Fiat, decided to create its own version of such a machine, for the production of which one of the Ansaldo ammunition factories was allocated. The wedge heel was designed in -1932 and appears to have been sufficiently different from its British prototype to not raise any accusations of violating the OTO's exclusive rights. With a general resemblance to the Mk.VI, the Fiat-Ansaldo tankette was distinguished by a completely closed, elongated hull of a less dense layout with reinforced armor, rational angles of inclination of the armor plates were used to a limited extent in its frontal part. Also different was the suspension design; as a result of these changes, the mass of the vehicle turned out to be 2.5 times greater than that of the Mk.VI, which was partly offset by a more powerful engine.

The tankette was tested and after some refinement was adopted by the Italian army in 1933, under the designation C.V.3 / 33. In the same year, Fiat-Ansaldo began to fulfill the first order for 100 units. Shortly thereafter, an order was placed for a series of heavily armed vehicles, with the third and largest order coming in late 1935, after the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War; a total of 1,400 tankettes were ordered by the Italian army. As of the beginning of June 1936, 1031 vehicles were transferred to the army, but then the production rate slowed down and the remaining 369 tankettes were released only by 1939.

During serial production the tankette continued to improve: from the second series, the 6.5 mm machine gun was replaced with a twin mount of more modern 8 mm, and in 1935 the assembly lines switched to the production of the variant C.V.3/35. A number of sources mention the existence of a modification put into production in or 1938 C.V.3/38, featuring a reinforced suspension, an improved driver's viewing device and armament from two more modern 8-mm or one 12.7-mm machine guns, however, the existence of such a modification is not mentioned in the works of Italian historians, and the listed improvements refer to those carried out in those years an unsuccessful attempt to modernize the tankette, with the exception of the 12.7-mm machine gun, which was installed on a small number of vehicles from the autumn of 1940. These changes were made to serial vehicles only in 1942 during the Ansaldo modernization of the tankette fleet.

The release of such a series of tankettes brought the Italian army to the top five world leaders in the number of tracked armored combat vehicles by the mid-1930s. Significant production volumes also allowed the Italian military to experiment with large armored formations and create specialized vehicles based on tankettes. The list of the latter included ARVs, bridgelayers, flamethrower tanks, and command vehicles. Bridgelayers were converted only in a few units and were not used in battles, however, flamethrower and command vehicles were mass-produced.

However, over time, as in other countries that relied on the use of tankettes as full-fledged combat vehicles, the Italian army was disappointed in the combat capabilities of the C.V.3. The first reason for this was the experience of the Italo-Ethiopian war, which demonstrated the importance of rapid fire maneuver. The placement of weapons in an installation with limited horizontal guidance angles allowed the Ethiopian soldiers to take wedges "on board" with a massive infantry attack. Flamethrower C.V.3 proved to be more successful due to the high psychological effect of their weapons. However, even against a weakly armed but brave enemy, the tankette proved to be an inadequate weapon.

As of the beginning of 1940, the C.V.3 two-machine gun tankettes made up the majority of the total number of armored vehicles in the Italian army.

As of June 10, 1940, the Italian armed forces had over two thousand tankettes of the C.V.3 type of various modifications, most of them were consolidated into 24 tankette battalions. At the same time, 1320 of them were machine-gun wedges.

Variants and modifications

In addition, a number of tankettes were converted into self-propelled mortars armed with a 45 mm Brixia Mod light mortar. 35 .

Service and combat use

• Austria Austria - 72 pcs. CV-33/35 purchased in 1935-1937.
• Afghanistan Afghanistan - several tankettes purchased in 1937-1939.
• Bulgaria - in 1934, it was decided to purchase 14 tankettes C.V.3 / 33 (armed with an 8-mm Schwarzlose machine gun), transport with equipment arrived in the port of Varna on March 1, 1935. The tankettes entered service with the 1st tank company
• Bolivia Bolivia
• Brazil Brazil - 23 pcs. CV-35 purchased from Italy
• Hungary Hungary - in August 1935, 30 tankettes CV 3/33 were purchased from Italy, which received the Hungarian designation 35M, in 1936 - 121 tankettes CV 3/35 (37M). Hungarian 8-mm machine guns 34 / 37M were installed on tankettes; in the summer of 1941, only as part of a separate mobile corps of the Hungarian army, aimed at Eastern front, there were 65 pieces. tankettes
• Greece Greece - three tankettes captured by the British and Greek troops during the fighting in Greece in April 1941, were used in the units of the Greek army
• Iraq Iraq - several tankettes delivered in 1938
• Francoist Spain - C.V.3/35 were supplied from Italy for the Francoists. The first five C.V.3/35s (with Italian crews) were received on 26 August 1936 at the port of Vigo. Over the entire period of the war, 36 out of 149 tankettes transferred by Italy to the Francoists were destroyed and irretrievably lost in battles, for technical and other reasons.
• Second Spanish Republic The Second Spanish Republic - a number of captured tankettes were used by the Republicans (for example, in March 1937, during the battles near Guadalajara, ten serviceable CV-3s were captured), while the damaged and non-repairable vehicles served as a source of spare parts
• Kingdom of Italy Kingdom of Italy
• Italy Italy - several tankettes were in service with the Italian police in the early post-war years
• Republic of China Republic of China - about 100 pcs.
• Nicaragua Nicaragua - two wedges acquired in the 1930s, one was in service until 1979.
• Paraguay Paraguay
• El Salvador El Salvador - three C.V.3 / 33 wedges were received in 1938, they entered the disposal of the national police and were in service at least until the 1950s
• Third Reich Third Reich - after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, the wedges of the Austrian army entered service with the Wehrmacht. After Italy left the war in September 1943, the German troops (who disarmed the capitulating Italian units) received another 148 wedges, in the following months - a certain number (some of them were transferred to the arsenal of the Italian parts of the "Republic of Salo"). Several C.V.35s were transferred to the Adria tank battalion, and some more were transferred to the police and to the Todt organization. Another C.V.3 handed over to the NSKK unit in Upper Carinthia
• Ethiopia Ethiopia - during the war of 1935-1936. , November 11, 1935, during an ambush attack on an Italian unit, one C.V.35 tankette was captured. In total, according to various sources, from 11 to 18 tankettes were captured, but the Ethiopians could not fully put them into operation due to the lack of trained crews. Most of the captured equipment was forcibly destroyed by the Ethiopians.
• Kingdom of Yugoslavia Kingdom of Yugoslavia

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Notes

Footnotes

Sources

1. L. Ness. Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles: The Complete Guide. - London: Jane's Information Group / Harper Collins Publishers, 2002. - P. 123. - ISBN 0-00711-228-9.
2. P. Chamberlain, C. Ellis. Tanks of the World 1915-1945. - 2002 edition. - London: Arms and Armor Press, 1972. - P. 125. - 256 p. - ISBN 0-30436-141-0.
3. M. B. Baryatinsky. Wedge T-27 and others. - Moscow: Model designer, 2008. - S. 11. - 32 p. - (Armored Collection No. 3 (78) / 2008). - 2000 copies.
4. N. Pignato. Italian Armored Vehicles of World War Two. - Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 2004. - P. 7. - 64 p. - (Special Series No. 89 (6089)). - ISBN 0-89747-475-9.
5. N. Pignato. Italian Armored Vehicles of World War Two. - Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 2004. - P. 7-8. - 64p. - (Special Series No. 89 (6089)). - ISBN 0-89747-475-9.
6. P. Chamberlain, C. Ellis. Tanks of the World 1915-1945. - 2002 edition. - London: Arms and Armor Press, 1972. - P. 126. - 256 p. - ISBN 0-30436-141-0.
7. L. Ness. Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles: The Complete Guide. - London: Jane's Information Group / Harper Collins Publishers, 2002. - 237 p. - ISBN 0-00711-228-9.
8. It is not indicated whether these machines were included in the number of ordered tankettes in 1400 or were produced separately.
9. L. Ness. Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles: The Complete Guide. - London: Jane's Information Group / Harper Collins Publishers, 2002. - P. 124. - ISBN 0-00711-228-9.
10. I. W. Walker. Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts. Mussolini's Elite Armored Divisions in North Africa. - Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 2004. - P. 36. - 208 p. - ISBN 1-86126-646-4.
11. I. V. Pavlov, M. V. Pavlov. Strangers on Russian soil. // "Equipment and weapons", No. 5, 2014. pp. 20-24
12. Kurt von Tippelskirch. History of World War II, 1939-1945. SPb., "Polygon"; M., "AST", 1999. p.135
13. A. A. Bystrov. Tanks, 1916-1945: an illustrated encyclopedia. Krasnoyarsk, BONUS; M., OLMA-Press, 2002. p.179
14. The CV 33 / L 3 Tank and derivatives // F. Capellano, P.P. Battistelli. Italian Light Tanks, 1919-45. Osprey Publishing. 2012. pages 12-18
15. Chris Shant. Infantry weapons: an encyclopedia of small arms. / per. from English. M., "Omega", 2004. p.194
16. I. W. Walker. Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts. Mussolini's Elite Armored Divisions in North Africa. - Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 2004. - P. 34. - 208 p. - ISBN 1-86126-646-4.
17. P. Chamberlain, C. Ellis. Tanks of the World 1915-1945. - 2002 edition. - London: Arms and Armor Press, 1972. - P. 127. - 256 p. - ISBN 0-30436-141-0.
18. M. B. Baryatinsky. Light tanks of World War II. M., "Collection" - "Yauza", 2007. p.46
19. M. B. Baryatinsky. Light tank Honvedsheg // "Model designer", No. 11, 1997
20. Andrew Mollo. Armed Forces of World War II. Structure. A uniform. Insignia. Complete illustrated encyclopedia. M., EKSMO, 2004. p.211
21. A. A. Bystrov. Tanks, 1916-1945: an illustrated encyclopedia. Krasnoyarsk, BONUS; M., OLMA-Press, 2002. p.211
22. Alejandro de Quesada, Stephen Walsh. The Spanish Civil War 1936-39 (1). Nationalist Forces. London, Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2014. page 21
23. F. Capellano, P.P. Battistelli. Italian Light Tanks, 1919-45. Osprey Publishing. 2012. page 29
25. Julio A. Montes. // "Small Arms Defense Journal", November 6, 2013
26. Tankette CV-35 // Peter Chamberlain, Hilary Doyle. Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War II. Complete illustrated guide to German battle tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns and half-tracks 1933-1945. M.: AST, Astrel, 2004. p.233
27. Antonio J. Muloz, Vincent Wai. Slovenian Axis Forces in World War II, 1941-1945. Bayside, NY: Axis Europa Books, 1998. page 46
28. Croatia // Steven J. Zaloga. Tanks of Hitler's Eastern Allies, 1941-45. London, Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2013. pages 42-44

Literature

• M. Kolomiets, I. Moshchansky. Armored vehicles of France and Italy 1939-1945 - M .: Model designer, 1998. - (Armored collection, No. 4 / 1998).

Links

• (English) . World War II Vehicles. .
• (English) . Comando Supremo. .

An excerpt characterizing the Carro CV3/33

The friends were silent. Neither of them began to speak. Pierre glanced at Prince Andrei, Prince Andrei rubbed his forehead with his small hand.
"Let's go to dinner," he said with a sigh, getting up and heading for the door.
They entered the elegant, newly decorated dining room. Everything, from napkins to silver, faience and crystal, bore that special imprint of novelty that happens in the household of young spouses. In the middle of dinner, Prince Andrei leaned on his elbows and, like a man who has long had something in his heart and suddenly decides to speak out, with an expression of nervous irritation in which Pierre had never seen his friend, he began to say:
“Never, never marry, my friend; here is my advice to you: do not marry until you tell yourself that you have done everything you could, and until you stop loving the woman you have chosen, until you see her clearly; otherwise you will make a cruel and irreparable mistake. Marry an old man, worthless ... Otherwise, everything that is good and lofty in you will be lost. Everything is wasted on trifles. Yes Yes Yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you expect anything from yourself ahead, then at every step you will feel that everything is over for you, everything is closed, except for the drawing room, where you will stand on the same board with the court lackey and the idiot ... Yes, what! ...
He waved his hand vigorously.
Pierre took off his glasses, which made his face change, showing even more kindness, and looked in surprise at his friend.
“My wife,” continued Prince Andrei, “is a wonderful woman. This is one of those rare women with whom you can be dead for your honor; but, my God, what would I not give now not to be married! This I tell you alone and first, because I love you.
Prince Andrei, saying this, was even less like than before, that Bolkonsky, who was sitting lounging in Anna Pavlovna's armchairs and squinting through his teeth, uttering French phrases. His dry face kept trembling with the nervous animation of every muscle; eyes, in which the fire of life had previously seemed extinguished, now shone with a radiant, bright brilliance. It was evident that the more lifeless he seemed at ordinary times, the more energetic he was in those moments of almost painful irritation.
“You don’t understand why I say this,” he continued. “It's a whole life story. You say Bonaparte and his career,” he said, although Pierre did not talk about Bonaparte. – You are talking to Bonaparte; but Bonaparte, when he worked, went step by step towards the goal, he was free, he had nothing but his goal - and he reached it. But bind yourself to a woman, and like a chained convict, you lose all freedom. And everything that is in you of hope and strength, everything only weighs you down and torments you with repentance. Drawing rooms, gossip, balls, vanity, insignificance - this is a vicious circle from which I cannot get out. I'm off to war now the greatest war, which only happened, but I don’t know anything and I’m not good for anything. Je suis tres aimable et tres caustique, [I am very sweet and very eater,] continued Prince Andrei, “and Anna Pavlovna is listening to me. And this stupid society, without which my wife cannot live, and these women ... If only you could know what it is toutes les femmes distinguees [all these women of good society] and women in general! My father is right. Selfishness, vanity, stupidity, insignificance in everything - these are women when everything is shown as they are. You look at them in the light, it seems that there is something, but nothing, nothing, nothing! Yes, don’t marry, my soul, don’t marry, ”Prince Andrei finished.
“It’s funny to me,” said Pierre, “that you yourself, you consider yourself incapable, your life a spoiled life. You have everything, everything is ahead. And you…
He did not say that you were, but his tone already showed how highly he appreciated his friend and how much he expected from him in the future.
"How can he say that!" thought Pierre. Pierre considered Prince Andrei a model of all perfection precisely because Prince Andrei combined to the highest degree all those qualities that Pierre did not have and which can be most closely expressed by the concept of willpower. Pierre was always amazed at Prince Andrei's ability to calmly deal with all kinds of people, his extraordinary memory, erudition (he read everything, knew everything, had an idea about everything), and most of all his ability to work and study. If Pierre was often struck by the lack of the ability of dreamy philosophizing in Andrei (which Pierre was especially prone to), then he saw this not as a drawback, but as a strength.
In the best, friendly, and simple relations, flattery or praise is necessary, as grease is necessary for wheels to keep them moving.
- Je suis un homme fini, [I am a finished man,] - said Prince Andrei. - What to say about me? Let's talk about you," he said after a pause and smiled at his comforting thoughts.
This smile was immediately reflected on Pierre's face.
- And what to say about me? - said Pierre, spreading his mouth into a carefree, cheerful smile. – What am I? Je suis un batard [I am an illegitimate son!] - And he suddenly blushed crimson. It was evident that he made a great effort to say this. - Sans nom, sans fortune ... [No name, no fortune ...] And well, right ... - But he did not say that he was right. - I'm free for now, and I'm fine. I just don't know what to start with. I wanted to seriously consult with you.
Prince Andrew looked at him with kind eyes. But in his look, friendly, affectionate, all the same, the consciousness of his superiority was expressed.
“You are dear to me, especially because you are the only living person among our entire world. You feel good. Choose what you want; it does not matter. You will be good everywhere, but one thing: stop going to these Kuragins, to lead this life. So it doesn’t suit you: all these revels, and hussars, and that’s all ...
– Que voulez vous, mon cher, - said Pierre, shrugging his shoulders, - les femmes, mon cher, les femmes! [What do you want, my dear, women, my dear, women!]
“I don’t understand,” Andrei answered. - Les femmes comme il faut, [Decent women,] is another matter; but les femmes Kuragin, les femmes et le vin, [Kuragin's women, women and wine,] I don't understand!
Pierre lived with Prince Vasily Kuragin and participated in the wild life of his son Anatole, the same one who was going to be married to the sister of Prince Andrei for correction.
“You know what,” said Pierre, as if he had an unexpectedly happy thought, “seriously, I have been thinking about this for a long time. With this life, I can neither decide nor think about anything. Headache, no money. Today he called me, I will not go.
“Give me your word of honor that you won’t ride?”
- Honestly!

It was already two o'clock in the morning when Pierre went out from his friend. The night was a June, Petersburg, duskless night. Pierre got into a cab with the intention of driving home. But the closer he drove, the more he felt the impossibility of falling asleep that night, which was more like evening or morning. Far away it was visible along the empty streets. Dear Pierre remembered that Anatole Kuragin was supposed to meet the usual gambling society that evening, after which there was usually a drinking bout, ending in one of Pierre's favorite amusements.
"It would be nice to go to Kuragin," he thought.
But at once he remembered his word of honor given to Prince Andrei not to visit Kuragin. But immediately, as happens with people who are called spineless, he so passionately wanted to once again experience this dissolute life so familiar to him that he decided to go. And immediately the thought occurred to him that this word meant nothing, because even before Prince Andrei, he also gave Prince Anatole the word to be with him; finally, he thought that all these words of honor were such conditional things, having no definite meaning, especially if one realized that perhaps tomorrow either he would die or something so unusual would happen to him that there would no longer be any honest , nor dishonorable. This kind of reasoning, destroying all his decisions and assumptions, often came to Pierre. He went to Kuragin.
Arriving at the porch of a large house near the horse guard barracks in which Anatole lived, he climbed onto the illuminated porch, onto the stairs, and entered the open door. There was no one in the hall; there were empty bottles, raincoats, galoshes; there was a smell of wine, a distant voice and a cry could be heard.
The game and dinner were already over, but the guests had not yet left. Pierre threw off his cloak and entered the first room, where there were the remnants of dinner and one footman, thinking that no one could see him, was secretly finishing his unfinished glasses. From the third room came fuss, laughter, cries of familiar voices and the roar of a bear.
About eight young people crowded preoccupiedly near the open window. Three were busy with a young bear, which one dragged on a chain, scaring the other with it.
“I hold a hundred for Stevens!” one shouted.
– Look not to support! shouted another.
- I'm for Dolokhov! shouted a third. - Take it apart, Kuragin.
- Well, drop Mishka, there's a bet.
- In one spirit, otherwise it is lost, - shouted the fourth.
- Yakov, give me a bottle, Yakov! - Shouted the owner himself, a tall handsome man, standing in the middle of the crowd in one thin shirt, open in the middle of his chest. - Stop, gentlemen. Here he is Petrusha, dear friend, - he turned to Pierre.
Another voice of a short man, with clear blue eyes, which was especially striking among all these drunken voices with its sober expression, shouted from the window: "Come here - break the bet!" It was Dolokhov, a Semyonov officer, a well-known gambler and swindler, who lived with Anatole. Pierre smiled, looking cheerfully around him.
- I don't understand anything. What's the matter?
Wait, he's not drunk. Give me a bottle, - said Anatole and, taking a glass from the table, went up to Pierre.
- First of all, drink.
Pierre began to drink glass after glass, scowling at the drunken guests, who again crowded at the window, and listening to their conversation. Anatole poured him wine and said that Dolokhov was betting with the Englishman Stevens, a sailor who was here, that he, Dolokhov, would drink a bottle of rum, sitting on the third floor window with his legs down.
- Well, drink it all! - said Anatole, giving the last glass to Pierre, - otherwise I won’t let him in!
“No, I don’t want to,” said Pierre, pushing Anatole away, and went to the window.
Dolokhov held the Englishman's hand and clearly, distinctly pronounces the terms of the bet, addressing primarily to Anatole and Pierre.
Dolokhov was a man of medium height, with curly hair and light blue eyes. He was twenty-five years old. He did not wear a mustache, like all infantry officers, and his mouth, the most striking feature of his face, was completely visible. The lines of this mouth were remarkably finely curved. In the middle, the upper lip fell energetically onto the strong lower lip in a sharp wedge, and something like two smiles constantly formed in the corners, one on each side; and all together, and especially in combination with a firm, insolent, intelligent look, made such an impression that it was impossible not to notice this face. Dolokhov was a poor man, without any connections. And despite the fact that Anatole lived in tens of thousands, Dolokhov lived with him and managed to put himself in such a way that Anatole and everyone who knew them respected Dolokhov more than Anatole. Dolokhov played all the games and almost always won. No matter how much he drank, he never lost his head. Both Kuragin and Dolokhov at that time were celebrities in the world of rake and revelers in St. Petersburg.
A bottle of rum was brought; the frame, which did not allow one to sit on the outer slope of the window, was broken down by two lackeys, apparently in a hurry and timid from the advice and cries of the surrounding gentlemen.
Anatole, with his victorious air, went up to the window. He wanted to break something. He pushed the footmen away and pulled the frame, but the frame did not give up. He broke the glass.
“Well, come on, strong man,” he turned to Pierre.
Pierre took hold of the crossbars, pulled, and with a crack turned the oak frame inside out.
- All out, otherwise they will think that I am holding on, - said Dolokhov.
“The Englishman is boasting… huh?… good?…” said Anatole.
“Good,” said Pierre, looking at Dolokhov, who, taking a bottle of rum in his hands, went up to the window, from which he could see the light of the sky and the morning and evening dawns merging on it.
Dolokhov, with a bottle of rum in his hand, jumped up to the window. "Listen!"
he shouted, standing on the windowsill and turning into the room. Everyone fell silent.
- I bet (he spoke French so that an Englishman could understand him, and he did not speak this language very well). I bet fifty imperials, want a hundred? he added, turning to the Englishman.
“No, fifty,” said the Englishman.
- Well, for fifty imperials - that I will drink the whole bottle of rum without taking it from my mouth, I will drink it, sitting outside the window, right here (he bent down and showed a sloping ledge of the wall outside the window) and not holding on to anything ... So? …
“Very well,” said the Englishman.
Anatole turned to the Englishman and, taking him by the button of his tailcoat and looking at him from above (the Englishman was short), began to repeat the terms of the bet in English.

Greetings, dear colleagues. I want to show you a model of the Italian light tank Fiat-Ansaldo Carro Armato L6/40.

First, a little about the prototype. The tank was developed by Fiat and Ansaldo in 1936-1938 as a proposed export for overseas buyers combat vehicle models. Since the new light tank was significantly superior in its capabilities to the CV-33 and CV-35 tankettes in service with the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito), the developers were given an order to build these vehicles for their own armed forces under the name L6 / 40. This alphanumeric index reflected the classification, mass and year of adoption of the vehicle - the letter L meant "light", the digital index stood for 6-ton tank mod. 1940 Serial production of the L6 / 40 began in 1941, for all its time up to and including 1943, 300 vehicles were produced. Of these, 283 tanks received parts of the Regio Esercito, first cavalry and later Bersaglier (motorized infantry), after the capitulation of Italy, another 17 L6 / 40 was built by order of the German occupation administration. The Italian leadership considered the L6/40 light tank as a high-speed reconnaissance tank, their own analogue of the German Pz.Kpfw. II. The speed and armament for such a use were quite adequate, and the frontal armor of the tank was not bad either. Among the shortcomings of the machine, one can name the functional overload of the crew and the lack of a radio station, which is of high importance for a reconnaissance tank. The German prototype, with one and a half times the mass, had a significantly more powerful engine, radio station and one more crew member. However, due to the lack of more powerful tanks, the L6/40 was used as a close infantry support vehicle, where its armor and armament were no longer sufficient.

L6 / 40 was used in all theaters of military operations where units of the Regio Esercito participated in the battles - in the Balkans, in Greece, North Africa and on the southern face of the Soviet-German front. After the capitulation of Italy, the remaining vehicles were captured by German troops. Also, a number of L6 / 40s were captured by the Yugoslav partisans, who later used them in battles.

At one time, I got a box from Italeri (it seems that Tamiya also packs / packed the same set). Even a photo-etched board was found inside. Molding quality is quite average, there is some misalignment of the molds. However, all traces of the pushers are located so that after assembly they are not visible. Yes, and there were no special problems in the assembly. From myself I added only a chain and parts of elf headlights. In general, the quality of the set, in my opinion, approximately corresponds to the average star.

Coloring is more or less standard. I primed Surface Primer from a Tamiya can. Then I tried to do preshading, which, unfortunately, is almost invisible. Blowed out the base color - sand

Official designation: Carro Veloce CV33 \ CV35 \ CV38
Alternative designation: Carro Veloce CV3/33, CV3/35, CV3/38, L3
Start of design: 1929
Date of construction of the first prototype: 1930
Stage of completion: mass-produced in 1933-1939.

The great success that initially accompanied the British Vickers-Carden-Lloyd Mk.VI tankette did not leave the Italian army indifferent to it. This machine, having high mobility, fit well into the then accepted theory in Italy of using tank units, which could only act in the interests of the infantry. After purchasing four tankettes in the UK, the Regio Esercito management ordered to organize the production of Mk.VIb at their own enterprises, and in 1929 Ansaldo-Fossati commissioned a batch of 24 Carro Veloce CV 29 tankettes.

However, back in 1928, Regio Esercito announced a competition for a light infantry support tank designed to replace the obsolete FIAT 3000. Work on such a vehicle was also carried out at Ansaldo under the general supervision of engineer Rosini. Having at their disposal the documentation for the VCL Mk.VIb, the Italian designers borrowed some technical solutions used in the undercarriage of the British tankette, while the hull was designed from scratch. So, the Italian tankette could hardly be called an “improved” Mk.VIb.

wedge model Carro Veloce CV3, made of wood, was introduced already in 1929. Unlike the British counterpart, the CV3 undercarriage consisted of six road wheels on one side, mounted on a common beam. At the same time, the first and last pair were interlocked into bogies, and the 3rd and 4th rollers had an independent suspension. The drive wheels were located in front, the guides at the back. There were no supporting rollers, and a special guide chute was used instead. Each caterpillar consisted of 72 small-link tracks.

The hull of the tankette was riveted and assembled from rolled armor plates with a thickness of 5 to 12 mm. The layout of the CV3 was completely similar to the Mk.VIb. In the front was the transmission, in the middle - the fighting compartment, in the aft - the engine compartment. The driver was located on the right side, the commander of the vehicle (he is also a shooter) - on the left. The armament of the prototype consisted of one 6.5 mm FIAT machine gun. The machine-gun mount ensured firing horizontally within 40 ° (20 ° left-right) and vertically within the range from -20 ° to + 20 °.

The wedge controls were extremely simple. There were two levers to the left and right of the driver, and in front of him were the gas and clutch pedals. With the help of the levers, the onboard clutches were blocked, which ensured the turn of the wedge to the left and right. In case of need for quick braking, the levers could block both clutches.

The CV3 tankette prototype entered testing in 1930, and the following year an improved version of it appeared (according to some reports, it was a modified first prototype), which featured a modified undercarriage with the addition of a 7th track roller. During 1932, the second and third prototypes underwent intensive tests at the training ground near Genoa. In general, representatives of the Italian army were satisfied with the new machine, which made it possible to issue a contract for the production of 4 pre-production tankettes. They differed from the prototypes with a 6.5 mm machine gun FIAT aircraft type.
After conducting a new series of tests, Regio Esercito signed a new contract for the assembly of the next 10 tankettes, which from that time were referred to as Carro Veloce Ansaldo CV33 serie I. Instead of 6.5 mm machine guns, 8 mm 14/35 modifications were installed, and the 7th track roller received an additional fixing plate.

next version Carro Veloce Ansaldo CV33 serie II appeared in 1934 (sometimes there is a designation CV33 mod.1934), but it was mass-produced only in 1936. In addition to minor modifications to the hull, this modification was equipped with a twin mount of two 8-mm machine guns FIAT mod.14 / 35 and the absence of additional armor plates on the rear wheels. Subsequently, some of the machines of the 1st series were re-equipped according to the same model.

In fact, the release of the modification was launched in parallel CV35 series I, the first prototype of which was tested in 1935. The new vehicles differed from the previous version by twin 8-mm Breda mod.38 machine guns with an improved rifle mount, as well as a SPA CV.3-005 4-cylinder engine with a working volume of 2748 cm3. and a maximum power of 43 hp. The thickness of the armor in the frontal part of the hull was increased to 13 mm. Wedges of the next modification CV35 series II equipped with additional side armor. Despite such minor changes, the combat weight of tankettes model range CV35 was 3300-3450 kg, against 2700 kg for CV33 wedges. At the same time, the cruising range on the highway was brought up to 150 km.

Latest wedge version CV38, due to the introduction in 1938 new system designations, received an index L3/38(other modifications became known as L3/33 And L3/35 respectively) and was first demonstrated at the 1937 maneuvers held on the island of Sicily. This option had the strongest differences in the chassis. On this variant, a running gear was installed, which included 4 track rollers on board, interlocked in pairs, and 2 support rollers were used instead of the upper chute. Accordingly, the suspension system has changed. The tankette's armament consisted of one 13.2 mm Breda mod.31 machine gun, which was undoubtedly more effective than a pair of rifle-caliber machine guns. Since this modification was considered the most successful during 1942, the army ordered Ansaldo to rearrange older versions of wedges on a new undercarriage.

It is also worth noting that since 1940, the abbreviated designations for wedges have been used - L33, L35 And L38. The total number of tankettes built is estimated at 1,400 vehicles, although in a number of sources one can find a figure of 2,000 copies.

Sources:
Nicola Pignato, Philippo Capellano "Autoveicoli da combattimento dell'Esercito Italiano Vol I: dalle origini al 1939". 2002
Comando Supremo - CV 33 (L3/33) and CV 35 (L3/35)
Beute.narod.ru - Carro veloce L3 (CV 3/33, 3/35, 3/38)
Italie1935-45 - Carro veloce L3

Color projections from the WW2Drawings website:

Carro Veloce CV3 (first prototype)

Carro Veloce CV3 (second prototype)

Carro Veloce CV33

Carro Veloce CV35 (with Breda machine guns)

Carro Veloce CV35/r (radio version)

Carro Veloce CV35 Lanciaflamme (with tank on the hull)

Carro Veloce CV35 Lanciaflamme (with trailer)

Carro Veloce CV35 Recupero (ATV with 8mm Breda machine guns)

Carro Veloce CV38
Carro Veloce CV35 (export version for Brazil)

ACTICAL AND TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TANKETKOK
L3 model 1933-1938

(Italy) First experimental model Ml3/40 was assembled in 1940. This Italian medium tank was based on its predecessor Ml 1/39. The new car also inherited some shortcomings from him - thin armor and low firepower. Despite these shortcomings, which new tank in many respects inferior to British tanks, Ml3 / 40 was widely used in battles in North Africa. The Italian army used the same tank classification system as other countries: the letter “L” meant leggero (“light”), “M” - mezzo (“ medium") and "P" -pesante ("heavy"). The numbers in the designation indicated the weight of the machine in tons and the year of creation, the start of mass production or delivery. Medium tank М13/40 weighing 13 tons was created in 1940.

Back in the early 1930s, the Italian tank industry was one of the leading ones, but by the beginning of the 1940s, when the country entered the war, all military equipment countries are completely outdated. Outdated equipment was not improved and not replaced by a new one. Certainly the Italian light tanks could deal with the light vehicles of the colonial troops, but they could not compete with the British tanks they had to face in North Africa. The medium tank did not deserve its name. Marshal Erwin Rommel, who commanded the Axis tank forces deployed in the desert, called it a "coffin on wheels" and did not hide his admiration for the crew members who risked their lives every minute. The only heavy Italian-made tank, the P26/40, was produced only in September 1943, after Italy had withdrawn from the war. The production of Italian tanks during World War II can be described in three words: obsolete, insolvent, belated... This situation was a direct consequence of the paradoxical Mussolini era. The country had competent developers and engineers, and the industry suffered from limited budgets and deplorable working conditions. At the same time, Mussolini expected from these talented people achieve their goals and did not take into account the shortage of raw materials and lack of funding.

The first experimental model Ml 1/39 was assembled by Fiat in 1937. In front of the hull, the tank was equipped with a 37-mm cannon. Two machine guns were mounted in a cramped turret, which could barely accommodate two crew members. Like most Italian tanks of this type, the light tank was equipped with too thin armor and had low firepower. By the time mass production began, the tank was largely outdated. Despite this, 70 copies of the new tank were deployed in North Africa: they fought with much more advanced British tanks (in particular with the Valentine and Matilda Mk II tanks). In addition, these light tanks, which were intended to support infantry, had to perform the tasks of medium tanks. Such strategic choice did not improve the situation in any way, and the tanks turned into easy prey for the enemy.

After the unsuccessful Ml 1/39 tank, the Italian military command ordered the creation of a more powerful tank. Its development was entrusted to Ansaldo Fossatti. The developer took as a basis existing model, but changed the shape of the hull and strengthened the armor. The tower was equipped with a new 47-mm cannon, which was controlled by the commander. The improved tank was also equipped with a twin 8mm machine gun, which was installed in the front (on the right side of the hull), a coaxial machine gun in the turret and another machine gun on the roof, which was used as an anti-aircraft weapon. This tank, which was originally conceived as a formidable weapon, is very quickly showed all his shortcomings during the hostilities in North Africa. Its engine power was insufficient for desert deployment, sand getting into the internal mechanisms. Subsequent models began to be equipped with more powerful engines and dust filters, the thickness of the armor remained the same. The Italian unit lost all its Ml3 / 40 tanks in just ten days of fighting in Cyrenaica. Later, the six vehicles that survived this massacre were destroyed by a British 2-pounder anti-tank gun.

The second high-wheel armored vehicle is the Ansaldo tank, developed in 1929 under the influence of the Pavesi tank, but at the same time its designer Giovanni Ansaldo implemented his own system. It reverted to a rigid, one-piece hull and rear-wheel steering, resulting in the hull above them being very narrow towards the stern, which became a narrow appendage. On the second project, it did not reach the rear wheels at all, which resulted in an uneven load on the wheels.

In order to ensure that the wheels were always in contact with the ground, even on very uneven terrain, the rear axle, which had a T-shape in terms of plan, was made to swing near the propeller shaft tube. The axle formed a housing for the rear differential and transmission to the rear wheels and was suspended on two leaf springs from the rear end of the frame so that the action of the springs swayed the rear axle on a ball joint. The full deflection of the spring was 15 cm, the maximum inclination of the axis reached 30 ° in each direction from the horizon, and the wheels for turning the machine could turn in the horizontal plane by 40 °.

	High-wheeled tank "Ansaldo" model 1929

The rotational moment was transmitted to all four wheels. The average speeds of both differentials were so different that it was simply impossible to do without a middle differential, so the Ansaldo tank had three differentials. Through the clutch, a 110-horsepower motor actuated a four-speed gearbox located below the motor, and through the differential, which, when one of the wheels rotated without resistance, could be blocked by a cam clutch, transmitted forces to a pair of wheels that worked normally. From here, the rotation was transmitted in one direction through the cardan joints to the front longitudinal shaft, to the other - to the rear shaft, each connected to its own differential, from which all four wheels rotate, each separately. The front wheels (which could swing on leaf springs and coil springs near the axis of the drive gears) were driven by the drive gears that rotated the ring gears, while the rotation was transmitted back through the conical intermediate gear drive to two bevel gears that rotated the large ring gear on the rear wheel. The intermediate drive also allowed the wheels to oscillate about the rear axle via tie rods gripped by a bellcrank that sat on the axle of the worm gear.
Thus, if the axle located in front of the steering wheel is turned, thereby, by means of an intermediate gear drive, the shaft leading back is turned to transfer control. and with it a drive worm that drove the worm wheel and control lever.
Brakes with internal pads were available only on the front wheels, but in addition there was a brake on the gearbox.
The high-wheeled Ansaldo 1929 tank was not among the small and light ones: with a length of 4.6 m, a width of 2.6 m and a height of 2.9 m, it had a combat weight of 8250 kg.
Access to the car was provided by a door on the right side of the hull. On the left in front of the case was the driver of the car. Behind his workplace in the fighting compartment, which included a circular turret, were the gunner and machine gunner. In a tower driven by a rotary mechanism. a short-barreled 45 mm was installed. either a long-barreled 37-mm cannon in a simple cylindrical mask that did not allow accurate horizontal aiming and one 6.5-mm Fiat 14 machine gun in a ball mount at the rear; the machine gun could also be fired through a sunroof and serve as an anti-aircraft machine gun when needed. A periscope sight was used to aim the gun. The fighting compartment narrowed at the rear of the vehicle to give room for the angular movements of the rear wheels, which provided control of the tank. The wheels had a diameter of 1.5 m and a width of 400 mm; on their rims there were rubber curtain-grousers of the cranked shape, which ensured the uniform rolling of the wheels.

On the right in front of the hull was a 110-horsepower liquid-cooled engine. The symmetrically located radiator was cooled by air, which was sucked in through slots cut in the armor. The torque from the engine to the wheels was transmitted using a mechanical gearbox with overhead gears, which provided four gears forward and one reverse. In addition, the transmission included three differentials that could be blocked. Thanks to a fairly powerful engine on a good road, the car developed a top speed of 43.5 km / h. from a standstill, she took a slope of 45 °, which was a great achievement for a wheeled vehicle. The wheel engagement height reached 1 m, and in terms of its ability to overcome ditches, the Ansaldo machine was not inferior to the high-wheeled Pavesi tank - 1.2 m.
It is noteworthy that even then the designers took care of the collective protection of the crew of a wheeled tank from the use of chemical warfare agents by the enemy, the gas tightness of the hull was ensured by sucking air through filters and creating excess pressure in it. In addition, to a height of up to 1.5 m, the hull was waterproof, like the 2C tank.

	High-wheeled tank destroyer "Ansaldo" armed with a 45-mm cannon.

Both vehicles, Pavesi and Ansaldo, were out of the ordinary fighting vehicles that cannot be considered as ordinary tanks Pavesi once stated that his vehicle, in terms of cross-country ability, is not inferior to the Italian Fiat light tank, and one cannot but agree with this, especially considering that Pavesi expected to switch to wheels with a diameter of 2 m. To this should be added greater speed and unconditional operational mobility, so that these machines even had advantages over those that existed at that time time light tanks. The military departments were prevented from adopting them, primarily by their novelty and unusual appearance and not for any good reason. The inertia of thinking of officials in uniform has once again played its part. negative role in the history of the development of military technology.

The autotechnical properties of high-wheeled vehicles, characteristic of the motorization of the Italian army, represented for some time a solution to the problem of combining operational and tactical mobility not only for transport vehicles, but also for armored vehicles. And although the outstanding qualities of the chassis of high-wheeled vehicles are quite obvious, their weak side was the impossibility of installing hulls on them with the dimensions of the fighting compartment sufficient for combat vehicles. In addition, driving high-wheeled vehicles was so tedious that regardless of the speed limit, their actual operational mobility looked very doubtful. However, in the 20-30s, high-wheeled vehicles were widely used as tractors in the armies of Italy, England, Greece, Poland, Sweden and Spain, and therefore their design features deserve due attention.