[WWII] Fiat L3/35 tankette (Italy)

[copeab]

A VE2 write-up by Michele Armellini appeared May 4, 2001 in Pyramid, but is no longer available for viewing.
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Fiat L3/35 tankette
Copyright 2011 by Brandon Cope *

The L3/35 (3 tonnes, 1935 model) was development of the earlier L3/33, which itself was developed from British Carden-Lloyd tankettes. Some 300 of the CV-33 were used in Ethiopia. These tankettes represented the bulk of the Italian armored force leading up to WWII but were hopelessly obsolete by then.

Some 2,500 of all L3 types were built. Apart from Italy, it was used by 11 other countries. After Italy and nationalist Spain, the most significant users were Austria (72) and Hungary (65).. The tankettes were originally designated CV-33 and CV-35, but the designations were changed in 1938.

The L3/35 has a crew of two, driver and commander/gunner. It uses 1.45 gallons per hour at routine usage.

Subassemblies: Very Small Tank chassis with Light option +3, tracks +2.
Powertrain: 32-kW gasoline engine w/32-kW tracked drive train and 12 gallons fuel in standard fuel tank [body]; 4,000-kWs batteries.
Occupancy: 2 CS Body Cargo: 4.4 Body

Armor
Body: F 4/55. RLB 4/35, TU 4/25
Tracks: 4/15

Weaponry
2xGround LMG/8mm Breda Model 38 [Body:F] (1,600 each).*
* linked

Statistics
Size: 10’¥5’¥4’
Payload: 0.31 tons
Lwt:* 3.5 tons
Volume: 32
Maint.: 124 hours
Price: $2,600

HT: 8
HP: 100 [Body], 35 [Each Track]

gSpeed: 30
gAccel: 2
gDecel: 20
gMR: 0.25
gSR: 4
GP: Very Low (4/5)

Design Notes
Historical speed was 26 mph. Track DR was arbitrarily halved for better realism.

An unknown (but small) number had a Ground LMG in an AA mount added.

Variants
The L3/33 originally mounted two 6.5mm Breda or Fiat machine guns (later replaced by 8mm guns) and used riveted armor. Lower hull DR in all locations by 5. 760 built.

The CV-29 was similar to the L3/33, but mounted a single 6.5mm MG. 21 were built.

A very small number of the L3/38 were built, armed with a single 13.2mm Madsen machinegun (Ground HMG)

The L3 cc replaced the two machine guns with a Solothurn 20mm anti-tank rifle. Not many were converted and they appear to have only been used in North Africa.

The L3 lf replaced one machinegun with a medium vehicle flamethrower and carried the fuel (195 shots) in a armored (DR 25), wheeled trailer, replacing a highly vulnerable tank over the engine in later ones.

There were several other versions (command tank with radio equipment, bridge layer, etc,) built in fairly small numbers or prototypes that failed to lead to production orders (turret with a 20mm cannon, tank destroyer with 47mm anti-tank gun, etc.).

[Þorkell]

Isn't this the tank from the article "The Worst Tank in the World" or something similar to that?

[Joseph Paul]

The armor ratings are 3ed PD/DR?

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

The armor ratings are 3ed PD/DR?

Yes. That's the article I referenced at the start of the post. If you have that article, it goes into far more detail than I do (I, alas, never printed out the article when I had the chance, so i had to design it from scratch).

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

The armor ratings are 3ed PD/DR?

Yes, all the stats are for 3e.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Wasn't this in either the 3rd ed Motor Pool or Grim Legions?

[copeab]

Originally Posted by fredtheobviouspseudonym

Wasn't this in either the 3rd ed Motor Pool or Grim Legions?

Sonufa...

Yeah, it is in Grim Legions. I don't know why I thought it hadn;t been published yet.

Sorry all.