Overview
The Italian army, unlike those of the British and French, did not use tanks in combat during World War I and, by November 1918, only one training unit equipped with French Schneider and Renault tanks had been formed. This would largely influence the development of Italian armor during the interwar period--having not had any chance to evaluate firsthand the use of armor on the battlefield, and given the overall strategic settings that saw Italy preparing for a possible war against either France or Yugoslavia (whose borders with Italy were set in mountainous terrain), the armored and mechanized component of the Italian army was sidelined and considered of secondary importance. Consequently, during the 1920s the Italian army only had one single tank in its armored inventory--the Fiat 3000. This was an improved Italian-built version of the French FT 17 light tank of which some 100 samples were built, but no experiments were carried out in the field of armor, with the exception of the development of wheeled AFVs for use in the African colonies. Only in 1927 was the first tank unit formed as a branch of the infantry (as with other specialist troops such as the Alpini or Bersaglieri) and not as an independent organization, while the cavalry rejected the idea of both tanks and armored cars and decided to stand by the use of horses for its mounted units. Consequently, the Italians went into World War II without a tank capable of taking on medium tanks in the North African desert. In their 1st campaign against them, an army of 30,000 British troops destroyed an Italian army of over 250,000.
Full Product Details
Author: Filippo Cappellano ,
Pier Paolo Battistelli ,
Richard Chasemore
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Osprey Publishing
Volume: 191
Dimensions:
Width: 18.40cm
, Height: 0.50cm
, Length: 24.80cm
Weight: 0.166kg
ISBN: 9781849087773
ISBN 10: 1849087776
Pages: 48
Publication Date: 20 June 2012
Audience:
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
General
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.
Language: English
Reviews
I immensely enjoyed this convenient compendium. Photos, extended captions, color plates and informative illustrations season OSPREY's savory study. Bibliography and index complete contents. Grab this entertaining little book. - David L. Veres, www.cybermodeler.com
Author Information
Filippo Cappellano is a lieutenant-colonel of the Fanteria Carrista (tank corps) currently serving at the army historical branch (Ufficio Storico Esercito) in Rome. He is the author of several books and essays on the history of weapons, organization and tactics of the Italian army in the twentieth century. He frequently collaborates with Italy’s defense industries and military history journals. Pier Paolo Battistelli earned his PhD in Military History at the University of Padua. A scholar of German and Italian politics and strategy throughout World War II, he is active in Italy and abroad writing titles and essays on military history subjects. A contributor to the Italian Army Historical Office, he is currently revising his PhD thesis for publication: The War of the Axis: German and Italian Military Partnership in World War Two, 1939-1943.
