AFV
Italy’s MBT Ariete
Italy’s MBT is the Ariete, developed beginning in 1982. A half-dozen prototypes were produced by 1984, and the Ariete entered service in 1995. The Italian Army ordered 200. The Ariete weighs about 119,000 pounds, has a crew of four, is powered by a 1,300-hp engine, and has a maximum speed of 40 mph. It mounts a 120mm smoothbore main gun,…
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Second World War AFVS IV
All the British as well as US tank units in Italy were equipped with Shermans, except for a number of US-built M5 light tanks, which were a direct development of the earlier M3 light tanks, and the Churchill infantry tanks of the two British independent tank brigades. The same types…
Saladin and Saracen
Saladin British armoured car. Following the success of the AEC Mk III and Daimler Mk II armoured cars during World War II the British army issued a requirement for a new armoured car with a 2-pdr gun. But it was soon decided that this weapon would be ineffective against the…
Self-Propelled Mortar Carriers I
M21 81mm Mortar Carrier at tests Half-track carriers were one of the most versatile designs of all armoured fighting vehicles to be used during the Second World War. The Japanese Army had this type of vehicle, as did the French Army, but it was the German and American armies which…
Self-Propelled Mortar Carriers II
SdKfz 251/2 Mortar Carrier The SdKfz 251 was developed into a range of different purposes, from ambulance duties to anti-tank roles. By late 1944, around 16,000 vehicles had been built to serve in no fewer than twenty-three different roles. Depending on the role, each version had a different length of…
Tatra-engined Hetzer “Starr”
The ‘Starr’-mount did work – in a way. As far as I know the main reason for the mount was to get rid of the complicated shock absorbing mechanism in the gun cradle which would have led to an increase in gun output at the factory. The drawback was a…
Panzers in Italy I
Italian officers stood dumbfounded before the German General Westphal. He had just delivered an ultimatum: they must not resist Hitler’s occupation of their country or Rome would face the wrath of the Luftwaffe. The Italian leader Benito Mussolini had first courted his Nazi counterpart in 1939 with the Pact of…