THEL6 / 40 was an Italian light tank used in the Second World War. The main users of the vehicle were the Royal Army, the German Army and some departments of the National Republican Army.
The vehicle was designed and developed by Fiat and Ansaldo around 1939 and was produced until 1943/44; Overall, around 400 examples were built.
Various armored vehicles were made from the tank's hull: ammunition tank, flamethrower tank and the 47/32 self-propelled gun.
It is worth specifying that the design of the tank L6 / 40 arose from a transformation of the chariot L3 / 35.
A first prototype appeared around 1936 armed with a 37 mm cannon, but the vehicle had no turret.
Subsequently, a turret with two machine guns was inserted on the hull, keeping the cannon in the casemate; “then this was transferred to the turret which acquired a new shape on this occasion”.1
Subsequently, other changes were made which led to the streamlining of the hull and improvements to the turret (whose armament had returned to a pair of machine guns, while the 37 mm cannon definitively disappeared).
Finally, in 1939 the final model was reached; the vehicle was equipped with a 35 mm Breda Model 20 anti-aircraft gun and an 38 mm Breda 8 machine gun.
The Royal Army, during the Second World War, used the vehicle in campaign of the Balkans, in North Africa, on the eastern front against the Soviets and on the Italian front.
The tank L6 / 40 it remained in service even after 1945, only to be definitively withdrawn in the early XNUMXs.
THEL6 / 40 it had a length of 3,78 m, width 1,92 m, height 2,03 m and weighed 6,8 tons.
The armor was 6-40 mm and the armament consisted of a 35 mm Breda Model 20 cannon and an 38 mm Breda 8 machine gun.
Engine: SPA 4-cylinder petrol engine, 70 HP.
The maximum speed was 42 km/h.
The vehicle could count on a crew of two men.
1 C.Falessi-B.Pafi, The L.6/40 tank, in Illustrated History n°155, 1970, p.85
Photo: Bundesarchiv / web
