Vehículos militares - Italia: libros - historia, modelos y técnica

Ce livre de référence présente les voitures, les camions, les voitures blindées, les chars et les autres véhicules utilisés par l'armée italienne entre 1916 et 1945.

Chaque type est présenté à l'aide d'une photo, d'une description historique et d'une fiche technique.

This book provides a detailed account of the specialised light gun trucks produced by the Italian industry in response to a specific request of the Regio Esercito between mid-1942 and mid-1943, known as the AS42 and the AS43.
'AS' was standing for 'Autocarro Speciale' or 'Automezzo Speciale' (Special truck), or more currently, camionette. These vehicles were meant to be used in desert warfare, issued to the unit called the Raggruppamento Sahariano, (Saharan Group), to be used in action against the British Long Range Desert Group, or for special operations behind enemy lines, in force to the Italian special forces designated the X Reggimento Arditi.

In point of fact, they came too late and in too small a number to make a real impact in that theatre, and after the fall of Africa into Allied hands they were diverted to several different units as anti-paratroopers companies or anti-bridgehead mobile battalions either in Sicily or in the Italian mainland.
After the Italian Armistice, they served both with German troops and with the armed forces of the Republica Sociale Italiana.

In 2014 the Carabinieri, one of the top corps in the Italian armed forces, celebrated its 200th anniversary. Theirs is a story of great achievements in both the civil and military fields; one of great men and, of course, the most diverse means of transport of the corps in these first two centuries of its history.
There has never been a book published that focuses on this subject, one that covers the history of Carabinieri transport from the horse to the automobile.

Written by an authoritative student of the sector, Giuseppe Thellung di Courtelary, this book catalogues and conducts a census of the most diverse vehicles: from the first Fiat cars and trucks of the start of the 20th century to the models that became part of four-wheel history, like the Fiat 500 C Coloniale, the Campagnola and Alfa Romeo "Matta" right through to the more recent Alfa Romeo 75, 155 and 156, looking in on unforgettable icons like the Giulia and Alfetta on the way.

This monumental work is completed by the various on/off road and safety vehicles used by the corps over the last century. All the historic and modern photographic material for this book has been made available by the Carabinieri archives in Rome.

Text in Italian.

On behalf of the Italian Defense Ministry, Alfa Romeo produced in 1951 a utility van, designed by Giuseppe Busso and based on the Alfa 1900. The vehicle was offered in two different versions: the "Military" AR 51 and the "Civilian" AR 52, but the model was nicknamed Alfa "Matta" ("crazy" in Italian).
The book offers a wide range of informations - technical datas and the sporting history of some units (the car also took part to the 1952 Mille Miglia) - as well as a large amount of illustrations which will be absolutely useful for restoring vintage models.

Text in Italian.

A very detailed analysis of the Italian armoured vehicles up to World War II. Their main features and deployment during the WW II are described in comparison with the ones of the allied forces.

Encyclopedic work dedicated to Italian armored cars, divided into three parts. The first part is dedicated to the doctrinal classification of the subject and to the operational use of wheeled combat vehicles. In the second part all the vehicles built both adopted and tested by the Italian Army from 1912 to the present day are described chronologically, i.e. armored cars, protected trucks, vans and crawlers, half-tracks and trucks.

Each model is illustrated with several black and white and color photos (mostly unpublished), technical drawings on a constant scale and a summary of the features and services available. Text, captions and tabs are bilingual.

The first Italian armoured cars were used in the war in Libya in 1911-12 against the Ottoman Empire. With few tanks being developed, the Italians relied instead on the development of more mobile armoured cars like the Ansaldo Lancia 1 Z, during World War I, but post-war the army, focusing on the Alpine battlegrounds of Italy's northern borders, did not consider armoured cars suitable for reconnaissance duties.

The experience of the Spanish Civil War would provide the much needed last push for the Italians to develop modern armoured cars.
The result were the famous AB 41-43 models, which fought against the British in North Africa and Marshall Tito's forces in Yugoslavia, along with other vehicles such as the AS 36 light armoured car.

Using detailed colour plates and contemporary photographs, this book examines the development of the Italian armoured car in the two world wars and the inter-war years, from the deserts of North Africa to the slopes of the Alps.

Although clearly the efforts of the Italian armored weapon never reached the levels achieved by the Germans or the Americans, the Italians made some first-class combat vehicles, especially with regard to self-propelled material, and made a substantial contribution to Axis operations in North Africa, the theater where they were mostly employed.
The courage, determination, and sacrifice of the Italian tank and self-propelled artillery crews are beyond doubt, especially given the numerical and technological disparity with respect to those they had to face.
This book is neither a justification for the defects of Italian tanks nor a revisionist history, but, on the contrary, it considers many factors intertwined in an understandable and realistic panorama.

Text in English and Italian.

Über die Panzer der Verbündeten des Dritten Reichs in Europa und deren praktischen Einsatz ist auch 75 Jahre nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges erstaunlich wenig bekannt. Dabei setzte etwa Italien bereits im Ersten Weltkrieg Panzer ein und besaß mit Fiat und Ansaldo sogar zwei eigene Hersteller?rmen. Später baute Italien eine Reihe selbstkonstruierter leichter und mittelschwerer Modelle. Mit dem Typ P40 entstand sogar ein schwerer Typ.

Ungarn orientierte sich bei seinen Eigenentwicklungen an tschechischen oder schwedischen Modellen. Rumänien verfügte über leichte Panzer tschechischer sowie französischer Herkunft. Bulgarien kaufte nicht nur leichte Panzer, die in Italien bzw. England hergestellt wurden, sondern auch tschechoslowakische Typen. Finnland setzte hauptsächlich Panzer sowjetischen Ursprungs ein.

Gabriele Faggioni beschreibt ln diesem einmaligen Band alle wichtigen Panzertypen die bei den europäischen Verbündeten des Deutschen Reichs wie Italien, Finnland, Slowakei, Ungarn, Rumänien, Bulgarien und Kroatien in den Kriegsiahren 1939 bis 1945 an die Fronten geschickt wurden.
Er beantwortet die Fragen, wie die Panzer militärisch eingesetzt wurden, wie sie bewaffnet waren und wie sie sich bewährten. Illustriert wird dieses Buch von rund 200 historischen, meist seltenen Aufnahmen.

Ce livre décrit les chars légers, moyens et lourds utilisés par l'armée italienne entre 1919 et 1945. Texte en italien.

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. Consequently, during the 1920s the Italian army had just one single tank type in its armoured inventory - the Fiat 3000. Only in 1927 was the first tank unit formed as a branch of the infantry and not as an independent organization, while the cavalry rejected the idea of both tanks and armoured cars and decided to stand by the use of horses for its mounted units.
Between 1933 and March 1939, a further 2,724 CV 33 / L 3 tanks were built, 1,216 of which were exported all over the world. By the time Italy entered the war in June 1940, the army had 1,284 light tanks, 855 of which were in combat units, including three armoured divisions. Variants of the CV 33 / L 3 tanks included flame-throwers, bridge-layers, recovery vehicles, and a radio command tank. Some L 3 tanks were still in use in 1945, by both the Germans and the German-allied Italian units of the Repubblica Sociale.

This book deals with this topic.

Contents: Introduction - Design & Development - Operational History - Bibliography - Index.

Questo lavoro presenta la nascita dei primi reparti corazzati italiani, le loro macchine e armi, gli uomini che vi si sono dedicati con spirito pionieristico. Il protagonista principale è il carro Fiat 3000, che non può essere considerato semplicemente un derivato del francese FT.

Gli aspetti storici e tecnici vengono presentati in dettaglio e con rigore documentale, grazie anche a quindici inserti d'approfondimento al testo; più di centodieci immagini d'epoca, molte delle quali inedite, e trentanove tavole a colori mostrano interessanti schemi mimetici, anche relativi ad altre nazioni, e numerosi dettagli, sempre utili ai modellisti.
Inoltre, una quindicina di disegni in bianco e nero illustrano le varie configurazioni assunte dal Fiat 3000 durante i suoi lunghi anni di servizio. Non mancano accenni alle uniformi degli equipaggi e alle loro dotazioni.

The first prototype of an Italian medium tank - the M 11 - would only appear in 1937 and did not enter production until 1939. Although technically inferior to their German and Allied counterparts in 1941-43, the Italian M tanks proved to be quite effective when used by experienced crews with adequate combat tactics. In fact, their major shortcoming actually proved to be their limited production figures.
While production was limited, innovation was not and, between 1941 and 1943, several experiments were carried out on the Italian tanks that produced interesting prototypes such as the anti-aircraft semovente.

This book describes the development and use of the Italian medium tanks.

Contents: Introduction - Design & Development - Operational History - Bibliography - Index.

The German Army used tanks to devastating effect in their Blitzkrieg campaigns during the early years of the Second World War and in the intense defensive battles leading up to final defeat in 1945.

It may be a surprise to many that the Japanese Army had more tanks than Nazi Germany in 1938; these included the Type 95 light tank and the Type 89 and 97 medium tanks. Co-belligerents in the Axis Alliance that built their own tanks included Italy, Romania and Hungary.
The latter was responsible for the Toldi and Turan light tank series.

As can be seen from the descriptions and images in this classic Images of War series work, the Axis powers had drawn on British and, in some cases, French design for their tanks in the period leading up to the Second World War: the Carden-Loyd tankette suspension was used in the Panzer 1 series and the light Italian and Japanese tanks.
German engineering talent resulted in the original and ingenious designs of the Panzer II, III and IV series and, later in the War, the Panther Medium and Tiger heavy tanks.

This latest work by author and expert Mike Green will fascinate and inform historians, engineers and war gamers.