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The Italian defence industry of the 30 was, for a time, quite advanced in some fields (such as field artillery) wich makes it a bit surprising how they managed to make the Carro Armato M11/39 quite so bad.
Since dreaming up wonder tanks and inserting them in an imposible time frame is too open to flying furry mammals irritating the more conservative AH members, I propose a pratical alternative to that horrendous waste of steel that was the 11/39.
The Italians encountered in Spain some of the best tanks of the world of the time. Not the germans, of course, but the fast, well armed, christie suspended BT5. Getting a BT5 in a Italy bound ship, axing the projected M11/39, and going for a Italianized copy of the soviet design should have been a no brainer. The alterations required would be:
1. Take one of the existing execellent 6 cilinder diesel truck engines and join two blocks to create a V12 diesel. If the basis is the alfaromeo from the 800 truck that gives a 16l V12 with 220HP.
2. Drop the wheel/track requirement and keep the tank track only.
3. Use the 47/32 gun as a base, when reports of the Matilda armour came back from Germany upgrade to a longer barrel version. Copy the soviets and issue a support version with a turet mounted 75/18, in the style of the BT5A.
The resulying tank would be slower than the BT5 (less horsepower) but would be a long ranged, decently armed tank with a good suspension avaible in the M11/39 time frame, and therefore avaible in Africa in large numbers in time for operations from 1940. Upgrades would be better than the later M13/40, 14/41 and 15/42 designs. Only the name would be the same, since it would still be a 11 ton tank issued for service in 39. And it would set a precedent for the, you guessed it, Carro Pesante 26/42, the Italian "unlicensed" copy of the T34, armed with their 75/34 gun, and firing hollow charge "effeto pronto" HEAT ammo.
Far fetched, yes, but a 11ton tank with a hull mounted 37mm in 1939 was just too bad not to try and AH it...
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