Ravioli tank
Some 85 years ago this week. North Africa. The Western Desert Campaign, fighting near the Libyian Wire Line.
Official period caption: “On the battlefield at Ghiba [Nezuet Ghirba?]. An abandoned Italian Fiat Ansaldo CV33 light tank pictured on the Libyan frontier, left behind after a battle with British armored cars, 26 July 1940.”
Photo by No. 1 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (E 396)
Developed from the British Carden Lloyd Mark VI tankette, the above armored vehicle is an upgraded Carro Veloce 33 model dubbed the L3/33 in Italian service, judging from its twin Fiat Model 14 8mm machine gun rig and 3,200 rounds ready, which differentiates it from the original CV-33 standard which only packed a single 6.5mm LMG.
Just 2.7 tons, the Italians purchased over 2,500 of these small vehicles, followed by another 1,200 very similar L3/35s, which were slightly heavier as they utilized marginally thicker but easier-to-apply bolt-on armor rather than riveted armor.
While they could make 25 mph on their tiny 43hp Fiat-SPA CV3 engine, and proved useful in the Abyssinian War, Spanish Civil War (with Franco), in the occupation of Albania and the Greco-Italian War, North Africa proved to be a whole ‘nother story as they could be knocked out by even the man-portable .55 caliber British Boys anti-tank rifle.
The Italian tankette Carro Veloce CV35
Italian Bersaglieri and L3 33 tankettes attacking Greek positions on the Albanian front, 1940-1941.
Greek soldier sitting on a disabled L3 33 Italian tankette during the invasion of Greece, 1940
Italian lieutenant sitting on his L3 35 tankette in Val Stretta, on the border between Italy and France, June 1940, note the twin 8 mm machine guns
Three-tone camouflaged Italian-made Ansaldo-Fiat 35M tankette in the WWII Hungarian Army, shown on an obstacle
They typically finished the war in second-line constabulary units, fighting partisans in the Balkans and the unruly areas behind the Eastern Front. By 1943, Allied troops were only encountering them while advancing into new areas.
82nd Airborne paratroopers, Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, began on the night of July 9, 1943. “All Americans” seen here with captured Italian tankettes
And, as they were made in serious quantity, they continue to show up in odd places.
Fiat L3 35 light tank tankette found in Iraq.