Italian World War II Tanks

Italy was slow to develop tanks and armored fighting vehicles, partly because Italy had not being involved in any major fighting since the invention of the tank and partly because it did not have much money for tank development.

When the Italians did begin designing tanks, they focused on producing lightly armored vehicles because they were less expensive to build and they had achieved minor successes with them in their North African colonies.

In fact, at the beginning of World War Two, a large portion of the Italian tank force in North Africa consisted of upgraded versions of the British Carden-Lloyd Mark VI tankette, a two-man AFV that was designed for reconnaissance and was armed with only a machine gun.

By the end of 1941, it had become apparent that Italy's tanks could not cope with the demands of battle. They were poorly armed, their armor was too thin, their engines were weak and they did not have good suspensions.

Italian tanks were among the few tanks that were inferior to British tanks at the start of World War Two.

(Weights are in long tons and kilograms.)