title: M60 tank

text: The 105mm gun M68 as standardized for the M60 tank was considered as an alternate armament system. It had the advantage of being immediately available and its ammunition was already in production. Of the several turrets drafted, one of the earliest was the driver-in-turret integrated fighting compartment. This design was further developed using the MBT-70. Another proposal was a more compact turret design of the T95E7.


title: M60 tank

text: During the development of the M60A2, three different turret types were considered, the Type A, Type B and Type C. The Type A turret would be constructed based on the T95E7 turret and then further modified and produced as the Type B standard. The Type C turret was essentially a larger M551 Sheridan-style turret. A mock-up of this turret was built, but the design was never seriously considered and soon abandoned. All of these conceptual variants were referred to as the XM66.


title: M60 tank

text: On 10 January 1964, the Army reviewed all three variants and selected the Type A variant for further development. Initially two Type A turrets were built in 1964. The M60A1 hull was used starting in 1966 to develop the new compact turret design using the 152mm M162/XM81E13 rifled barrel main gun. These developmental tanks were designated as the M60A1E series.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A1E1 referred to vehicles based on the modified T95E7 Type A turrets with M60 hulls used through 1965. The M60A1E1 variant was used to evaluate the XM81 dual purpose gun and its compatibility with the XM13 Guided Missile, Armor Defeating together with the XMTM51 training round. During the early testing of the XM81 main gun it was noted that misfires and premature detonations of the M409 conventional case ammunition were caused by unburnt propellant in the bore and breech.


title: M60 tank

text: This flaw was often catastrophic as it set off the projectile in the barrel as it was fired. To remedy this the guns were equipped with a traditional fume extractor on the barrel. The XM81 Gun/Launcher also experienced frequent faulty breeches, often not closing correctly during a missile firing, allowing the exhaust of the launching Shillelagh to vent hot noxious gases into the crew compartment.


title: M60 tank

text: As the M60A1 hull became available in 1966, it was decided to upgrade these prototype vehicles to the M60A1 hull standard. Vehicles using the M60A1 hull and chassis received the M60A1E2 designation, and were used to develop the Type B compact turret and the XM81E13 gun variant. The M60A1E2 finalized the turret design with the use of a compact turret which reduced exposed frontal area by 40% compared to the M60A1 and continued development of the M51 Missile Guidance System (M51MGS).


title: M60 tank

text: These were later standardized as the M60A2. Initial plans called to retrofit the turret of every M60 with the new A2 turret, and use them in the mobile anti-armor role alongside the M60A1 tanks. But the continual technical and reliability difficulties with the dual purpose gun caused this to be abandoned. The M60A1E3 variant was a prototype mounting the M68 105 mm rifled gun to the turret of the M60A1E2. This was evaluated due to several earlier faults noted in the M60A1E1's main gun. Compared to the Shillelagh system, the use of the 105mm gun increased the overall tank weight by about .


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A1E4 was a conceptual variant that explored the use of various remote controlled weapons, including a 20mm gun as secondary armament. A mock-up of this design using the Type C turret was constructed. All variants of this series underwent evaluations and trials at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. The M60A1E2 was finally accepted by the Army in 1970 and given the designation Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 152-mm Gun/Launcher, M60A2.


title: M60 tank

text: Initial orders were submitted by the Army in 1971 however production did not start until 1973 and continued until 1975. All were built at the Chrysler Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan with a total of 540 M60A2s produced. The M60A2 was intended to serve as the stop-gap solution until its projected replacement, the MBT-70 completed its development. The M60A2 was deployed to Army units in Europe starting in June 1975 when B Company, 1-32 Armor Battalion received its first M60A2 tanks.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A2 featured a unique low profile turret, mounting the M162 Gun/Launcher that drastically reduced the turret's frontal arc in comparison to the A1's. It consisted of a large disk with a narrow channel in the center with each crew member in the turret having their own hatch. The gunner and loader were located to the right and left of the gun, respectively, and the commander was in a turret basket up and behind the main gun.


title: M60 tank

text: As a result, each crew member was effectively isolated from one another with the gunner and loader separated by Shillelagh missiles in their storage position. The commander was in the rear compartment under a large redesigned cupola, which somewhat negated the low profile silhouette of the turret.


title: M60 tank

text: The M162 gun was fully stabilized in both turret traverse and gun elevation using the same upgrade kit as the M60A1 AOS, allowing the gunner to effectively scan the battlefield while the tank was in motion. This system could be used by the gunner to engage targets with unguided M409 rounds while the vehicle was in motion, but the tank had to remain stationary when firing and tracking an MGM-51 missile. The turret interior also received Kevlar spall liners. Four M226 smoke grenade launchers were mounted on each side of the turret bustle.


title: M60 tank

text: Additionally there was a mounting point on the left side of the turret for an AN/VSS-1(V)1 Infrared Spotlight and M19E1 IR periscope providing first generation night vision for night operations. A basket was fitted to the rear of the turret to stow the spotlight when not in use. Late production versions replaced the bore evacuator with the Closed-Bore Scavenger System (CBSS), a compressed air system that pushed the fumes and gases out of the muzzle when the breech was opened.


title: M60 tank

text: Initial production M60A2s used the M60A1 hull powered by an AVDS-1790-2A TLAC engine, CD-850-5 cross-drive transmission and the T97 track assembly. Many of these hulls were later upgraded to the RISE standard.


title: M60 tank

text: The M51 Missile Guidance System (MGS) for the Shillelagh missiles was designed by Ford's Aerospace Division. The M51 MGS consisted of an infrared (IR) direct beam guidance and control system to track the missile mounted to the turret over the mantel of the gun with a telescopic sight and a Raytheon AN/WG-1 Flashlamp Pumped, Ruby Laser range finder, accurate to 4,000 meters, for the gunner.


title: M60 tank

text: The gunner aimed the cross-hairs in his direct telescopic sight at the target and fired the missile. After acquiring a target a small charge would propel the missile out of the barrel. The missile's solid-fueled sustainer rocket then ignited and launched the Shillelagh. For the time of flight of the missile, the gunner had to keep the cross-hairs pointed at the target. A direct infrared beam missile tracker in the gunner's sight detected any deviation of the flight path from the line-of-sight to the target, and transmitted corrective commands to the missile via an infrared command link. The MGM-51A was stabilized by flip-out fins, and controlled by hot gas jet reaction controls.


title: M60 tank

text: The gunner also employed an M219 (later replaced with a M240C) to the gun mantle's right with 2,000 rounds. The commanders cupola was redesigned causing the M85 to be mounted in the inverted position in order to provide access to its feed cover and mounted a single M34 periscope carrying 600 rounds. The M60A2's combat load for the M162 main gun consisted of 33 M409 rounds and 13 MGM-51 Shillelagh missiles.


title: M60 tank

text: This weapon system had several drawbacks. First the gunner had to keep the target in the crosshairs of the sight during the entire flight time of the missile. This meant that only one target could be tracked and engaged at a time. Furthermore, the M60A2 could not fire or track a missile while moving.


title: M60 tank

text: Secondly was the high minimum range of about 730 m (2,400 ft). Until the missile reached this range it flew beneath the tracking system's infrared beam and could therefore not be guided by the infrared command link. Also minimum range was slightly above the maximum effective range of the M60A2's conventional unguided munition. This created a dangerous gap area that could not be adequately covered by fire known as a "dead zone".


title: M60 tank

text: It was also discovered that structural cracks in the barrel occurred after several missile firings. This defect was traced to a flaw in the missile's longitudinal key, which fitted into a keyway inside the gun barrel. It was determined that a less deep key would significantly extend the service life of the barrel.


title: M60 tank

text: The Missile Control System was also very fragile owing to its dependence on vacuum tubes which often broke when firing the gun. Finally a Shillelagh missile was considerably more expensive than the M409 round. The vehicle was one of the most technologically complex of its era, eventually garnering an unofficial nickname of "Starship". This also contributed to its failure, largely due to difficulties with maintenance, training, and complicated operation.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A2 proved a disappointment, though its technical advancements would pave the way for future tanks. Its intended successor, the MBT-70, was canceled in 1971 and its funding diverted into the conceptual development of the XM1 Abrams. The Shillelagh/M60A2 system was phased out from active units by 1981, and the turrets scrapped. The main replacement for the Shillelagh missile in the mobile anti-armor role was the more versatile BGM-71 TOW. Most of the M60A2 tanks were rebuilt as M60A3s, or the hulls converted to armored vehicle-launched bridge (AVLB) vehicles and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles with a few M60A2s retained as museum pieces.


title: M60 tank

text: Due to the rapidly developing advancements in anti-armor capabilities and solid-state electronics of the 1970s, along with the general dissatisfaction of the M60A2, an upgrade of the M60A1 was needed. In 1976 work began on the M60A3 variant which featured a number of technological enhancements.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A3 version of the M60-series had the same mobility, performance, and weapons systems as the M60A1 RISE and RISE Passive tanks and incorporated all of their engineering upgrades, improvements and capabilities.


title: M60 tank

text: The electronics and fire control systems were greatly improved. The turret's hydraulic fluid was replaced with a non-flammable one. This updated turret configuration was mated to the M60A1 RISE hull using the AVDS-1790-2D RISE engine and CD-850-6A transmission along with a Halon fire suppression system. It was designated as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60A3.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A3 tank was built in two configurations. The earlier version, sometimes referred to as the M60A3 Passive, uses the same passive gunner's sight as the A1 RISE Passive and the latest version has a Tank Thermal Sight (TTS). The M60A1, RISE, and RISE Passive tanks used a coincidence rangefinder and the mechanical M19 ballistic computer. The M60A3 uses a laser based rangefinder and the solid state M21 ballistic computer.


title: M60 tank

text: The M21 FCS for the M60A3 was made up of a Raytheon AN/WG-2 flash-lamp pumped ruby-laser based range finder, accurate up to 5000 meters for both the commander and gunner, a solid-state M21E1 gun data computer incorporating a muzzle reference sensor and crosswind sensor, ammunition selection, range correction and superelevation correction were inputted by the gunner, an improved turret stabilization system along with an upgraded turret electrical system and solid-state analog data card bus. The M10A2E3 ballistic drive is an electro-mechanical unit.


title: M60 tank

text: The commander had an M36E1 passive periscope and the gunner an M32E1 passive sight. The TTS configuration replaced the gunner's sight with the Raytheon AN/VSG2 Tank Thermal Sight (TTS), a Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride (HgCdTe) IR detector. This sight allows the gunner to see through fog, smoke and under starlight conditions without the aid of an IR searchlight. This system provided improved night fighting capabilities.


title: M60 tank

text: The first M60A3s were assembled at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in February 1978, where the first of a low-rate of initial production quantity of 296 M60A3s were produced through October with fielding to Army units in Europe starting in May 1979. The M60A3 was seen by the US Army as a stop-gap measure as the development of the XM1 Abrams MBT was already well advanced with fielding to Europe planned to start in 1981 and notified Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers of its near-term plans to discontinue M60-series tank production.


title: M60 tank

text: In March 1982 General Dynamics Land Systems purchased Chrysler Defense. The procurement of M60A3 and M60A3 TTS tanks for the Army concluded and hull production ceased in May 1983, with a total of 1,052 M60A3 and TTS tanks built as new vehicles. However the conversion of earlier models to M60A3/E60B tanks continued for FMS, with the last tanks delivered to Israel in May 1986 and a conversion total of 3,268 E60Bs. These late-production examples were upgraded from existing surplus inventories of M60A1 RISE tanks.


title: M60 tank

text: The Army also increased its M60A3 TTS fleet through the M60A1 Product Improvement Program (PIP) and the M60A3 tank field retrofit program conducted by the Anniston Army Depot and the Mainz Army Depot (MZAD). Depot field teams retrofitted all of the Army's 748 M60A3 tanks to the TTS configuration by the end of 1984. In addition, both depots converted a total of 1,391 M60A1 RISE tanks to the M60A3 TTS. These M60A1 RISE PIP conversion programs concluded in 1990.


title: M60 tank

text: Italy, Austria, Greece, Morocco, Taiwan and other countries upgraded their existing fleets with various E60B component upgrades under several FMS defense contracts with Raytheon and General Dynamics during the mid to late 1980s. In 1990, M60A3/E60Bs from Army surpluses were sold to Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A3 replaced the M60A1 in the US Army and any remaining M48A5s in ARNG service on a one-for-one basis. The Marine Corps continued to use the M60A1 RISE Passive until they were withdrawn from combat use in 1991. They were phased from ARNG service between 1994 and 1997, being replaced with the M1 MBT. The Detroit Tank Plant was closed in 1996 with production of the M1A1 Abrams continuing at the Lima Tank Plant in Ohio.


title: M60 tank

text: M60s for use in foreign military service were designated as the E60 series by the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS). These were essentially M60s with minor modifications requested by approved foreign purchasers. Some of the modifications included removal of the M19 cupola, different models of machine guns, electronics, fire control systems or radios, external armor plates, smoke launchers and power packs. Israel purchased many of these tanks forming the basis for the Magach 6 series.


title: M60 tank

text: Priority in initial M1 Abrams unit allotments was given to Active Army armored units in Europe. The Army National Guard's armored assets were key strategic elements, approximated at 3,000 tanks, and were important for reinforcing Active Army units in Europe in case of conflict. (This was particularly critical to the ARNG 86th Armor Brigade.) Without an inventory available to provide the ARNG with M1 Abrams tanks, unfunded Requests for Proposals (RFPs) were circulated by the ARNG Tracked Vehicle Task Force starting in 1983. Teledyne Continental developed the first RFP upgrades to the suspension, power pack and transmission. It was demonstrated and tested at Fort Knox in January 1985. The upgrade was not evaluated for US military service or assigned a designation. GDLS acquired Teledyne and by 1987 had pursued the RFP improvement to the armor, mounted the M68A1, and called it the Super 60. It was the reference point for the ARNG upgrade decisions submitted to the Department of the Army to upgrade its M60A3 TTS fleet. In the actual report, the upgrade is referred to as the M60AX. $90 million was requested for prototyping and $2.8 billion to complete the fleet conversion by 1999.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60A4 was the proposed upgrade of the M60A3 TTS for the National Guard that emerged from the M60AX study conducted by the ARNG Tracked Vehicle Task Force with a projected cost of $750,000 per tank. The upgrade would have included improved protection, automotive performance and combat effectiveness, but retained the same M68E1 gun as the M60A3. Since the M60AX evaluation vehicle was not in the US Army Logistical system the requested components for the upgrade were inferred to by FSCM part numbers. After examining more than two dozen possible upgrade components for the M60A3 TTS, the task force decided on the 15 subsystem upgrades that made up the M60A4 overhaul. Survivability upgrades included both appliqué and wraparound armor, internal spall liners, laser protection, an automatic fire suppression system, an engine smoke generation kit and a new low-profile cupola. Mobility enhancements included a new 1050 horsepower engine, a new automatic transmission, improved final drives, an improved vehicle suspension and a modification to the air cleaner. The M60A4's key target acquisition and fighting improvements were an upgraded laser rangefinder, an enhancement of TTS optical performance, a modified fire control system and an improved turret drive and stabilization system. After reviewing the proposal it was declined by Chief of Staff of the United States Army General Carl E. Vuono in 1988. No prototype was ever constructed.


title: M60 tank

text: The US Army did not view the M60A4 as a cost effective proposition for the National Guard with only a limited increase in crew survivability and the same firepower as the M60A3. The M60 tank was superseded in ARNG service by the M1 version of the Abrams tank beginning in 1990. The M60A3 was phased out from ARNG service and was fully replaced by the M1A1 by 1997. Most of the M1 Abrams tanks were upgraded to the M1A1 configuration.


title: M60 tank

text: A US Congressional Report in November 1993 stated that there were 5,522 serviceable M60A1 and M60A3 tanks in the US Army's inventory available for sale or transfer to US allies or foreign nations. Of these 111 were in Korea, 1,435 were in Europe, and 3,976 located in CONUS. The average age of these tanks was 16 years and an expected peacetime service life of 20 years. The average price was US$212,898 per tank as is, without radios or machine guns and they were not mechanically overhauled. Tanks located in Korea were inspected and sold to Bahrain and Taiwan.


title: M60 tank

text: Of the 1,435 tanks in Europe, 1,311 have been cascaded to other NATO countries under the terms of the Conventional Forces Europe Agreement (CFE), 18 reserved for non-combat use and 106 returned to CONUS. Egypt inspected 411 tanks at Fort Hood and 91 at Fort Knox and tentatively selected 299 of those. An additional inventory of tanks from the CONUS M60 fleet were available at the same unit price for other approved purchasers.


title: M60 tank

text: The United States chose not to pursue further upgrades to the M60 tank series after 1978. Its near-term replacement by the Army with the M1 MBT were scheduled to start production in 1980. M60 series tanks were phased out of US service by 1997 and Opposing Force (OPFOR) training use in 2005. Together with the large number of M60 MBTs still in foreign service and a large US Army surplus inventory, several upgrades for the tank were offered starting in 1985.


title: M60 tank

text: There are three basic approaches to upgrade decisions for the M60 MBT. Some countries, such as Taiwan and Jordan, have sought to modernize the M60 as a frontline MBT. Turkey is seeking a middle-ground, keeping it useful as it develops more modern designs. Other countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Thailand are modernizing their M60 fleets for counter-insurgency type operations.


title: M60 tank

text: While the market for M60 modernization is somewhat limited, because the tank is generally operated by poorer countries or has been relegated to secondary tasks, other companies have come up with more advanced Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) upgrade solutions. Additionally, several countries also funded their own design upgrades, notable examples are the Magach, Sabra and Phoenix variants. In 2005, M60 variants were in service with Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Taiwan and some 20 other nations to varying degrees.


title: M60 tank

text: The High Performance M60, also called "Super M60", was a comprehensive update package for the M60A1 and A3 tanks, first offered in 1985 by Teledyne Continental. The vehicle was developed as a private venture for the export market and was never evaluated for US military service. Unofficially called the M60AX, the upgrade offered to increase the protection, firepower and mobility for the M60A1 and A3 tanks.


title: M60 tank

text: Although the US Army chose not to adopt the installation of a new power pack or suspension system in the M60 series, General Dynamics formed a co-operative private venture with Teledyne Continental to develop a comprehensive upgrade package. The Super M60 prototype was based on an M60A1 leased from the US Army. It featured the AVCR-1790-1B engine producing coupled to a Renk RK-304 transmission with four forward and four reverse gears. This High Performance configuration was demonstrated and tested at Fort Knox in January 1985 but was not designated.


title: M60 tank

text: The torsion bar suspension system of the M60 was replaced with a hydropneumatic suspension system (HSS) developed by the National Waterlift Company as seen on the HIMAG, General Motors XM1, and the Jordanian Centurion (Tariq). Over the M60A1, the Super M60's top speed increased to and power/weight ratio increased to , despite the increase in weight. Survivability was enhanced with a layer of Chobham spaced applique armor built around the turret and frontal arc of the hull that noticeably changed its appearance.


title: M60 tank

text: The applique armor consisted of an outer layer of high-hardness steel armor panels and an inner layer of ceramic inserts covering the base M60A1 vehicle. Track skirts consisted of Sitall and high-hardness steel for the hull sides as well as Kevlar spall liners for the fighting compartment. Like the vehicle it is based on, it retained a crew of four: the commander, loader and gunner positioned in the turret and the driver in the front of the hull.


title: M60 tank

text: The weapons of the Super M60 are similar to those of the M60A3. The main gun is the rifled 105 mm/L52 M68A1E2 with a thermal sleeve. The 7.62 mm M73 coaxial machine gun used on the M60A1 was replaced with a 7.62 mm M240C, with the same number of rounds. The M19 cupola was replaced with a low silhouette model with a pop-up hatch for the commander and a 12.7 mm M2HB machine gun on a pintle mount with 600 rounds. The Fire Control System (FCS) used was designated the Advanced Laser Tank Fire Control System (LTFCS).


title: M60 tank

text: The FCS configuration was largely similar to that used on the M60A3, but instead of replacing the optical rangefinder with an AN/VVG-2 laser rangefinder, a emitter was installed on the roof and the M35 gunner's sight was modified to include a laser visual unit. Also, the stabilization configuration was changed to that of the M1 Abrams where the sight itself was fully stabilized and the gun followed the sight. The prototype did not have an optical range finder but one could have been easily installed.


title: M60 tank

text: After initial tests with only the new engine and suspension, additional modifications such as the armor upgrade intended to increase protection from shaped charged projectiles were applied. Testing conducted not only showed that the new suspension system smoothened the off-road ride, but also allowed the Super M60 to handle well in spite of its considerable weight increase over the original M60A1. As one of the first upgrade packages offered for the M60 series, the Super M60 prototype demonstrated the potential for upgrading the M60A1/A3 and was offered by Teledyne Continental as one of their many possible upgrade packages.


title: M60 tank

text: Even though this update package offered M60 users an opportunity to dramatically increase the combat capabilities of their tank fleets, no country ever bought the update and the program effectively ceased by the end of the Cold War. Only one prototype was built. The overall failure of the Super M60 program was likely due to the lack of immediate necessity for such a vehicle. This design was similarly developed independently by Israel in their Magach 7 series. Additionally the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann offered the Super M48, applying this design's technology to the M48A2/A3.


title: M60 tank

text: The General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) M60-2000 or 120S was an upgrade of the M60A1 tank. The development of the M60-2000 was primarily due to the large number of M60 Main Battle Tanks in service with many Middle Eastern nations unable to afford a sufficient force of more modern main battle tanks. The upgrade was marketed at those M60 users with the industrial capability to convert the tanks themselves. The M60-2000/120S was a GDLS supplied conversion kit that married the M1A1 turret of the M1 Abrams to the M60A1 RISE hull, offering many features of the M1A1 Abrams to existing M60 users at a reduced cost.


title: M60 tank

text: It was first referred to the M60-2000 Program and design work began in late 1999 by General Dynamics Land Systems as a private venture for the export market and was never evaluated for US military service. Later the M60 designation was dropped because of the extensive changes and to highlight this as a new vehicle to potential customers thus changing the name to the 120S Project. The M60-2000 was test-marketed during 2000 and a number of countries in NATO and the Middle East were briefed on the vehicle. Following customer feedback, detailed engineering work was carried out and in December GDLS decided to build a functional prototype. The company rolled out the proof of concept prototype of the 120S tank at their Detroit, Michigan, facility in August 2001. It was shown at the IDEF Exhibition held in Turkey in October 2001.


title: M60 tank

text: The 120S was initially aimed at the Turkish Land Forces Command (TLFC) M60 upgrade requirement but this competition was subsequently won by IMI Military Industries with their Sabra II upgrade. The Egyptian Army was considering this offer until it was finally rejected in favor of a licensed contract to build M1s in Egypt. Only one prototype was made. As of early 2009 there were no sales of the 120S tank and was no longer mentioned in General Dynamics marketing literature. The prototype was disassembled and the hull and turret returned to the US Army in 2003.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60 Phoenix Project was Jordan's modular upgrade of the M60A3TTS to better address both immediate and emerging threats to the M60MBT. The tank is armed with a RUAG Land Systems L50 120 mm smoothbore Compact Tank Gun (CTG) with a firing rate of 6-10 rounds per minute. 20 ready rounds are stored in the turret bustle. The M21 FCS is replaced with Raytheon's Integrated Fire Control System (IFCS). The system consists of an eye safe laser rangefinder, second generation night sight, digital ballistic computer, cant sensors and a MIL-STD 1553 data bus. The M10 ballistic drive is upgraded with a fully electrical superelevation resolver.


title: M60 tank

text: The maneuverability and acceleration of the Phoenix is improved with the use of the General Dynamics AVCR-1790-2C engine producing 950 hp increasing available power by 20%, an upgraded CD-850-B1 transmission, new air cleaner and air induction systems, improved suspension and new and improved final drives. Survivability is improved through the addition of various modular armor protection schemes for both the M60's turret and hull. The upgrades include armor protection with STANAG 4569 Level 6 protection plates to the frontal arc, passive and reactive armor panels and side skirts and slat armor added to the bustle, protecting the rear of the turret from RPG attack.


title: M60 tank

text: The protection scheme can be reconfigured to changing threat conditions. It also has a 12 tube High Speed Directed Launcher (HSDL) smoke screen system using a multi-spectral smoke hardxill providing protection against thermal detection. On 15 April 2004 Raytheon Company was awarded a $64.8 million contract by the Jordan armed forces to upgrade three tank battalions.


title: M60 tank

text: Raytheon has been working with Jordan's King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) on its Phoenix Level 1 Independent Fire Control System (IFCS) upgrade and Level 2 Lethality upgrade efforts for the M60 main battle tank. Some of the upgrades included passive spaced armor packages, IR jammers and an ammunition containment system for the turret bustle. A $46.6M contract with the Jordan Armed Forces was authorized in 2012 to upgrade one battalion of their Phoenix main battle tanks.


title: M60 tank

text: Raytheon in conjunction with other partners offered the M60 Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) for the M60A3 in May 2016. It has been marketed for export to nations that need the performance improvements to take on modern armor threats. The SLEP is offered as a collection of modular upgrades for the tank's firepower, mobility, and protection. This allows for SLEP customization to each user's needs. Its firepower improvements features the 120-mm M256/L44 smoothbore main gun as used on the M1A1 Abrams. It is fitted with a load assist system allowing for a firing rate of 6 to 10 rounds per minute and 20 ready-rounds in the turret bustle.


title: M60 tank

text: The Raytheon Integrated Fire Control System (IFCS) integrating an eye safe laser rangefinder, second generation gunner's night sight, digital ballistic computer, cant sensors, a fully electrical superelevation resolver and a MIL-STD 1553 data bus, giving the system capabilities similar to the M1AD standard. Other turret upgrades offered are the Curtis-Wright Gun Turret Drive and replacing the M19 cupola with a Hitrole remote controlled weapon system, that enables 360° panoramic surveillance from a secure position inside the tank armed with a M2HB .50cal machine gun.


title: M60 tank

text: Suspension and mobility upgrades include an upgraded AVCR-1790-2C engine producing 950 hp and improved hydropneumatic suspension. The installation of an Automatic Fire and Explosion Sensing and Suppressing system (AFSS) that improves soldier survivability and protects the engine compartment as standard. Upgraded armor protection with STANAG 4569 Level 6 protection plates to the frontal arc and side skirts and slat armor added to the bustle, protecting the rear of the turret from RPG attack. These changes increased the vehicle weight to 62-63 tons.


title: M60 tank

text: The Leonardo M60A3 is a modular SLEP upgrade for the M60MBT offered in 2017 by the defense company Leonardo DRS. The upgrade is intended to offer nations already operating the M60 a modular upgrade solution for their vehicles to offer capabilities more in line with third-generation main battle tanks. It was unveiled 17 October 2017 at the Bahrain International Defense Exhibition and Conference (BIDEC). It has been marketed as an alternative upgrade to the Raytheon SLEP upgrade for M60MBT modernization.


title: M60 tank

text: Upgrades offered in this package include a new 120/45 gun from the Centauro II that offers a weight saving of 500 kg over the older 120/44 gun due to a redesigned light alloy cradle and muzzle brake. The old commander's cupola is completely removed and replaced instead with an armored circular ballistic plate protected with slat armor. This also offers a weight reduction compared to the original M19 cupola as used on the M60A3. For close defense, the turret is also fitted with the HITROLE-L 12.7mm remotely operated weapons system.


title: M60 tank

text: The turret has been refitted with a new set of hydraulic and servo control improving performance. The rest of the vehicle is completely overhauled including the torsion bars, brakes, fuel supply, electric system, wheels, seals, paint, and smoke grenades. The vehicle has also been retrofitted with the Automatic Fire and Explosion Sensing and Suppression System (AFSS). It is equipped with the LOTHAR gun sight, DNVS-4 Driver's Night Vision Sight and TURMS digital fire control system. a daytime TV camera, and an eye-safe Laser range finder. IED jamming systems and a laser warning receiver systems developed by Leonardo are optionally offered.


title: M60 tank

text: Armor improvements include a whole new passive protection suite fitted around the M60's existing cast armor turret and hull that is claimed to meet STANAG Level 6 standards. Protection for the turret is optimized for protection against kinetic energy (KE) weapons and artillery across the frontal arc. The hull to is upgraded to the same standard with the protection covering the hull sides extending to the third roadwheel. For the rear of the turret, slat armor is provided with an emphasis on protecting against the RPGs.


title: M60 tank

text: Mobility is improved via either a full refurbishment of the existing power packs or an upgrade. The new powertrain offered is stated to deliver up to 20% more power without high costs and avoiding the need for any modifications to the existing hull. This AVDS-1790-5T 908 hp engine replaces the 750 hp engine and is connected to an upgraded CD-850-B1 transmission. It was unveiled at the Bahrain International Defense Exhibition and Conference (BIDEC) at Manama, Bahrain in 2017.


title: M60 tank

text: Fifteen of the early examples of the M60 produced had insufficient hull armor thickness, and were therefore used by the Armor School at Fort Knox to train tank crewmembers and maintenance personnel.


title: M60 tank

text: The M60 AVLB and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle were the only variants of the M60 series deployed to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The M728 was used in fire support, base security, counter ambush fire, direct assault of fortified positions, and limited reconnaissance by fire. The AVLB provided gap crossing capabilities when required to support armored forces. M60 tanks were deployed at this time to West Germany during the Cold War to support US Army operations and participated in annual REFORGER exercises as well as Armed Forces Day parades in West Berlin until 1991. The M60 was also deployed to Korea to support US Forces Korea and participated in bi-annual Exercise Team Spirit maneuvers with South Korea notably with the US 2nd Infantry Division until 1991.


title: M60 tank

text: On 12 October 1973, President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass that transferred M60 tanks to support Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. On 21 August 1976, President Ford conferred with Henry Kissinger and green lighted Operation Paul Bunyan with a platoon of M60A1s reinforcing elements of the US 9th Infantry Regiment (Task Force Vierra) at the south end of the Bridge of No Return in response to the Korean axe murder incident.


title: M60 tank

text: M60 tanks participated in Operation Urgent Fury in 1983. Marines from G Company of the US 22nd Marine Assault Unit equipped with Amphibious Assault Vehicles and four M60A1 tanks landed at Grand Mal Bay on October 25 and relieved the Navy SEALs the following morning, allowing Governor Scoon, his wife, and nine aides to be safely evacuated. The Marine tank crews faced sporadic resistance, knocking out a BRDM-2 armored car. G Company subsequently overwhelmed the Grenadian defenders at Fort Frederick. The 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment deployed with M60A1s to Beirut and were present during the subsequent October 23 Beirut barracks bombing near the Beirut International Airport during the ongoing Lebanese Civil War.


title: M60 tank

text: M60A1s have been historically used for ground force adversarial work during Exercise Red Flag as well as in close air support trials with the F-16 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada in the 1980s. During Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War of 1991, at least one US Air Force unit was equipped with M60 tanks. The 401st TFW (P), deployed to Doha, Qatar had two M60A3 tanks for use by explosives ordnance disposal personnel. It was planned that using the tanks would allow the EOD crews to remove unexploded ordnance from tarmac runway and taxiway surfaces with increased safety.


title: M60 tank

text: M60A1s of the 1st Marine Division Task Force Ripper led the drive to the Kuwait International Airport on 27 February 1991. Task Force Ripper's M60A1 tanks destroyed about 100 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers, including T-72 tanks. The division commander Maj. Gen. J.M. Myatt said, "During the first day of combat operations 1st Platoon, D Company, 3rd Tank Battalion destroyed 15 Iraqi tanks". The Marines also destroyed 25 APCs and took 300 prisoners of war. The next day, Marine M60A1 tanks encountered a minefield and attempted to proof two lanes with the MCRS. Both were unsuccessful. One MCRS missed a mine, which blew apart a track of the tank pushing it, immobilizing the tank and blocking the lane. The 1st Marine Division encountered more Iraqi opposition as it proceeded north coming into contact with the Iraqi 15th Mechanized Brigade, 3rd Armored Division. During this engagement the Marines destroyed an additional 46 enemy vehicles and took approximately 929 POWs. Once the 1st Marine Division reached Kuwait International Airport they found what remained of the Iraqi 12th Armored Brigade, 3rd Armored Division defending it. The Marines destroyed 30 to 40 Iraqi T-72 tanks which had taken up defensive positions around the airport.


title: M60 tank

text: After the conclusion of Operation Desert Storm, FORSCOM withdrew the M60 tank series from combat use and replaced it with the M1A1 Abrams for both the Army and Marine Corps. It was relegated to CONUS use with the Army National Guard through most of the 1990s. In May 1997, at Fort Riley, 1st Battalion, 635th Armor, Kansas Army National Guard, retired the last M60 series tanks in the US military. The 58 M60A3 tanks of the Kansas Guard's only armor battalion were unceremoniously parked in a holding pen at the Camp Funston Mobilization and Training Equipment Site (MATES), in the Kansas River Valley, down the hill from Fort Riley's main post. They were later transferred to the Jordanian Army.


title: M60 tank

text: Due to the restructuring of forces at the end of the Cold War, surplus US Army M1A1s were absorbed by the US Marines replacing their M60A1s on a one for one basis, allowing the Marine Corps to quickly become an all-M1 tank force at reduced cost. Except for a small number in TRADOC service for the combat training of units in Europe, most M60s were placed in reserve. Some 1,400 were transferred to NATO allies from 1991 to 1993 under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and some were sold, mainly to Middle Eastern countries. Tanks were given to a few nations under governmental grants. They were finally declared as excess to US needs in 1994. They were superseded in National Guard service by the M1 version of the Abrams MBT and fully replaced by the M1A1.


title: M60 tank

text: After being retired from combat use in 1991, 18 M60A3s, with the M19 cupola removed, continued in active Army service to provide tactical combat training to US and NATO forces in Europe. They were fitted with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES), given the mission to provide tactical engagement simulation for direct fire force-on-force training and were maintained at the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC) near Hohenfels, Germany. They were used in the OPFOR Surrogate (OPFOR(S)) role by D Company 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (Team Dragon) until May 2005. After their service as training aids, these examples were demilitarized and placed as target hulks on various firing ranges at the Grafenwoehr Training Area. They were replaced in this role by the Tonka tank (unofficial name) – an M113 OSV-T with a mock turret.


title: M60 tank

text: The large number of M60 series tanks still in the Army's CONUS inventory in 1994 were declared as excess to requirements and disposal of them began through grant programs or demilitarization at additional costs to the US government. As of 2015, the US Army and Air Force continue to use QM60s on a limited basis as targets for the testing of radar and weapons systems. They are also salvaged for parts to maintain other vehicles still in service. One M60A1 hull was leased to General Dynamics for development of the M60-2000/120S during 2000–2001.


title: M60 tank

text: The M68 105 mm Gun has been used for the M1128 Stryker MGS. Many are on public display in parks and museums or veteran service organizations as well as gate guards at military bases. Some 100 M60s are to be placed as artificial reefs off New Jersey and the Gulf coasts of Florida and Alabama accessible to scuba divers. The United States Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM-LCMC) has directed that the M728, M60AVLB and QM60-series target vehicles are to be withdrawn from use and logistical support by 2024 with any units remaining to be demilitarized and sold for scrapping through the DLA Disposition Services Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DLADS-DRMO).


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. He also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–1941) and King of the Albanians (1939–1943). During his reign of nearly 46 years, which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I, the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two world wars. His reign also encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of Italian Fascism and its regime.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: During the First World War, Victor Emmanuel III accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Paolo Boselli and named Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (the "premier of victory") in his place. Despite being on the winning side of the First World War, Italy did not get all the territories which had been promised to it in the 1915 Treaty of London; the Treaty of Versailles, ending the war, failed to give Italy its demands for Fiume and Dalmatia. This mutilated victory led to the resignation of Orlando. Domestically, the loss of these territories proved to be politically disastrous for Orlando's several short-serving successors. As a result, even the well-respected Giovanni Giolitti, serving an unprecedented fifth term as prime minister, could not unify the country in the face of the growing Fascist movement. Strengthened by the economic downturn facing the country, the Fascists led the March on Rome, and the king appointed Benito Mussolini as prime minister.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel remained silent on the domestic political abuses of the Fascist regime, though he accepted the additional crowns of the Emperor of Ethiopia and the King of Albania as a result of Mussolini's colonial exploits. When Mussolini attempted to bring Italy into World War II in 1939, Victor Emmanuel overrode him, and continued to resist Italian entry into the war until June 1940, when the King relented and granted Mussolini sweeping powers to enter and conduct the war. Mussolini at once started the Italian invasion of France (10–25 June 1940); it stalled before its primary objectives could be attained.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The war proved disastrous for Italy, as a number of offensive operations in Europe and North Africa ended in defeat. Amidst the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Victor Emmanuel deposed Mussolini and signed an armistice with the Allies in September, 1943. In the face of the coming German reprisal (Operation Achse), he and the government fled to Brindisi while the Germans established a puppet state in Northern Italy. He reluctantly switched sides and declared war on Germany in October, though he battled constantly with Allied command and, under pressure from the allies, he transferred most of his powers to his son Umberto in June 1944, effectively ending his involvement in the war and in the government of Italy.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel officially abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son, who became king Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. He then went into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year in St. Catherine's Cathedral of Alexandria. In 2017, his remains were returned to rest in Italy, following an agreement between Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel was also called by some Italians "Sciaboletta" ("little saber"), due to his height of , and "il Re soldato" (the Soldier King), for having led his country during both world wars.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel III was born in Naples in the Kingdom of Italy to King Umberto I of Italy and Margherita of Savoy, the Queen consort. He was named after his grandfather, Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia and later King of Italy. Unlike his paternal first cousin's son, the 1.98 m (6-foot 6") tall Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, Victor Emmanuel was short of stature even by 19th-century standards, to the point that today he would appear diminutive. He was just 1.53 m tall (just over 5 feet). From birth until his accession, Victor Emmanuel was known as The Prince of Naples.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 29 July 1900, at the age of 30, Victor Emmanuel acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination. The only advice that his father Umberto ever gave his heir was "Remember: to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse". His early years showed evidence that, by the standards of the Savoy monarchy, he was a man committed to constitutional government. Indeed, even though his father was killed by an anarchist, the new king showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Though parliamentary rule had been firmly established in Italy, the "Statuto Albertino", or constitution, granted the king considerable residual powers. For instance, he had the right to appoint the prime minister even if the individual in question did not command majority support in the Chamber of Deputies. A shy and somewhat withdrawn individual, the King hated the day-to-day stresses of Italian politics, though the country's chronic political instability forced him to intervene on no fewer than ten occasions between 1900 and 1922 to solve parliamentary crises.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: When the First World War began, Italy at first remained neutral, despite being part of the Triple Alliance (albeit it was signed on defensive terms and Italy objected that the Sarajevo assassination did not qualify as aggression). However, in April 1915, Italy signed the secret Treaty of London committing itself to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente. Most of the politicians opposed the war, however, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Antonio Salandra to resign. At this juncture, Victor Emmanuel declined Salandra's resignation and personally made the decision for Italy to enter the war. He was well within his rights to do so under the "Statuto," which stipulated that ultimate authority for declaring war rested with the crown.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Demonstrations in favour of the war were staged in Rome, with 200,000 gathering on 16 May 1915, in the Piazza del Popolo. However, the corrupt and disorganised war effort, the stunning loss of life suffered by the Royal Italian Army, especially at the great defeat of Caporetto, and the post–World War I recession turned the King against what he perceived as an inefficient political bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, the King visited the various areas of northern Italy suffering repeated strikes and mortar hits from elements of the fighting there, and demonstrated considerable courage and concern in personally visiting many people, while his wife, the queen, took turns with nurses in caring for Italy's wounded. It was at this time, the period of World War I, that the King enjoyed the genuine affection of the majority of his people. Still, during the war he received about 400 threatening letters from people of every social background, mostly working class. On 8 November 1917, he met with the prime ministers of Britain (Lloyd George) and France (Paul Painlevé) at the Peschiera conference, where he defended Italy's strategic decisions.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The economic depression which followed World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italy's sorely tried working classes. This caused the country as a whole to become politically unstable. Benito Mussolini, soon to be Italy's Fascist dictator, took advantage of this instability for his rise to power.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In 1922, Mussolini led a force of his Fascist supporters on a March on Rome. Prime Minister Luigi Facta and his cabinet drafted a decree of martial law. After some hesitation the King refused to sign it, citing doubts about the ability of the army to contain the uprising without setting off a civil war.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Fascist violence had been growing in intensity throughout the summer and autumn of 1922, climaxing in rumours of a possible coup. On 24 October 1922, during the Fascist Congress in Naples, Mussolini announced that the Fascists would march on Rome to "take by the throat our miserable ruling class". General Pietro Badoglio told the King that the military would be able without difficulty to rout the rebels, who numbered no more than 10,000 men armed mostly with knives and clubs whereas the "Regio Esercito" had 30,000 soldiers in the Rome area armed with heavy weapons, armoured cars, and machine guns. During the "March on Rome", the Fascist "squadristi" were halted by 400 lightly armed policemen, as the "squadristi" had no desire to take on the Italian state.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The troops were loyal to the King; even Cesare Maria De Vecchi, commander of the Blackshirts, and one of the organisers of the March on Rome, told Mussolini that he would not act against the wishes of the monarch. De Vecchi went to the Quirinal Palace to meet the king and assured him that the Fascists would never fight against the king. It was at this point that the Fascist leader considered leaving Italy altogether. But then, minutes before midnight, he received a telegram from the King inviting him to Rome. Facta had the decree for martial law prepared after the cabinet had unanimously endorsed it, and was very surprised when he learned about 9 am on 28 October that the king had refused to sign it. When Facta protested that the king was overruling the entire cabinet, he was told that this was the royal prerogative and the king did not wish to use force against the Fascists. The only politician Victor Emmanuel consulted during the crisis was Antonio Salandra, who advised him to appoint Mussolini prime minister and stated he was willing to serve in a cabinet headed by Mussolini.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: By midday on 30 October, Mussolini had been appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), at the age of 39, with no previous experience of office, and with only 32 Fascist deputies in the Chamber. Though the King claimed in his memoirs that it was the fear of a civil war that motivated his actions, it would seem that he received some 'alternative' advice, possibly from the arch-conservative Antonio Salandra as well as General Armando Diaz, that it would be better to do a deal with Mussolini.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 1 November 1922, the king reviewed the "squadristi" as they marched past the Quirinal Palace giving the fascist salute. Victor Emmanuel took no responsibility for appointing Mussolini prime minister, saying he learned from studying history that events were "much more automatic than a result of individual action and influence". Victor Emmanuel was tired of the recurring crises of parliamentary government and welcomed Mussolini as a "strong man" who imposed "order" on Italy. Mussolini was always very respectful and deferential when he met him in private, which was exactly the behaviour which the king expected of his prime ministers. Many Fascist "gerarchi", most notably Italo Balbo, regarded as the number two-man in Fascism, remained republicans, and the king greatly appreciated Mussolini's conversion to monarchism. In private, Mussolini detested Victor Emmanuel as a tedious and tiresomely boring man, whose only interests were military history and his collections of stamps and coins, a man whom Mussolini sneered was "too diminutive for an Italy destined to greatness" (a reference to the king's height). However, Mussolini told the other "gerarchi" that he needed the king's support and that one day, another fascist revolution would take place "without contraceptives".


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The King failed to move against the Mussolini regime's abuses of power (including, as early as 1924, the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti and other opposition MPs). During the Matteotti affair of 1924, Sir Ronald Graham, the British ambassador, reported: "His Majesty once told me that he had never had a premier with whom he found it so satisfactory to deal as with Signor Mussolini, and I know from private sources that recent events have not changed his opinion". The Matteotti affair did much to turn Italian public opinion against Fascism, and Graham reported to London that "Fascism is more unpopular by the day" while quoting a high Vatican official as saying to him that Fascism was a "spent force". The fact that Matteotti had been tortured by his killers for several hours before he was killed especially shocked Italian public opinion, who were much offended by the gratuitous cruelty of the "squadristi" killers. Given the widespread public revulsion against Mussolini generated by the murder of Matteotti, the king could have dismissed Mussolini in 1924 with a minimum of trouble and broad public support. Orlando told the king that the majority of the Italian people were tired of the abuses of the "squadristi", of which the murder of Matteotti was only the most notorious example, and were hoping that he would dismiss Mussolini, saying that one word from the king would be enough to bring down his unpopular prime minister. The newspaper "Corriere della Sera" in an editorial stated the abuses of the Fascist government such as the murder of Matteotti had now reached such a point that the king had both a legal and moral duty to dismiss Mussolini at once and restore the rule of law. During the Matteotti affair, even pro-Fascist politicians like Salandra started to express some doubts about Mussolini after he took responsibility for all the Fascist violence, saying he did not order Matteotti's murder, but did he authorise the violence of the "squadristi", making him responsible for the murder of Matteotti. The king affirmed that "the Chamber and the Senate were his eyes and ears", wanting the sovereign a parliamentary initiative, according to the Statuto Albertino. The knowledge that the king and the Parliament would not dismiss the prime minister led to the Mussolini government winning a vote of no confidence in November 1924 in the chamber of deputies by 314 votes to 6 and in the Senate by 206 votes to 54. The deputies and the senators were unwilling to risk their lives by voting for a no-confidence motion as the king had made it clear that he would not dismiss Mussolini even if the motion did carry the votes of the majority.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel remained silent during the winter of 1925–26 when Mussolini dropped all pretence of democracy. During this time, the king signed without protest laws that eliminated freedom of speech and assembly, abolished freedom of the press, and declared the Fascist Party to be the only legal party in Italy. In December 1925, Mussolini passed a law declaring that he was responsible to the King, not Parliament. Although under the "Statuto Albertino" Italian governments were formally answerable only to the monarch, it had been a strong constitutional convention since at least the 1860s that they were actually answerable to Parliament. In January 1926, the "squadristi" used violence to prevent opposition MPs from entering Parliament and in November 1926, Mussolini arbitrarily declared that all of the opposition MPs had forfeited their seats, which he handed out to Fascists. Despite this blatant violation of the "Statuto Albertino", the king remained passive and silent as usual. In 1926, Mussolini had violated the "Statuto Albertino" by creating a special judicial tribunal to try political crimes with no possibility of a royal pardon. Even though the right of pardon was part of the royal prerogative, the king gave his assent to the law. However, the king did veto an attempt by Mussolini to change the Italian flag by adding the "fasces" symbol to stand beside the coat of arms of the House of Savoy on the Italian tricolour. The king considered this proposal to be disrespectful to his family, and refused to sign the law when Mussolini submitted it to him. By 1928, practically the only check on Mussolini's power was the King's prerogative of dismissing him from office. Even then, this prerogative could only be exercised on the advice of the Fascist Grand Council, a body that only Mussolini could convene.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Whatever the circumstances, Victor Emmanuel showed weakness from a position of strength, with dire future consequences for Italy and fatal consequences for the monarchy itself. Fascism was a force of opposition to left-wing radicalism. This appealed to many people in Italy at the time, and certainly to the King. In many ways, the events from 1922 to 1943 demonstrated that the monarchy and the moneyed class, for different reasons, felt Mussolini and his regime offered an option that, after years of political chaos, was more appealing than what they perceived as the alternative: socialism and anarchism. Both the spectre of the Russian Revolution and the tragedies of World War I played a large part in these political decisions. Victor Emmanuel always saw the Italian Socialists and Communists as his principal enemies, and felt that Mussolini's dictatorship had saved the existing status quo in Italy. Victor Emmanuel always returned the fascist salute when the Blackshirts marched past the Quirinal Palace and he lit votive lamps at public ceremonies to honour the Fascist "martyrs" killed fighting against the Socialists and Communists. At the same time, the Crown became so closely identified with Fascism that by the time Victor Emmanuel was able to shake himself loose from it, it was too late to save the monarchy. In what proved to be a prescient speech, Senator Luigi Albertini called the king a "traitor" to Italy by supporting the Fascist regime and warned that the king would one day regret what he had done.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel was disgusted by what he regarded as the superficiality and frivolity of what he called the "so-called elegant society" of Rome, and as such, the king preferred to spend his time out in the countryside where he went hunting, fishing and reading military history books outside. A taciturn man who felt deeply uncomfortable expressing himself in conversation, Victor Emmanuel was content to let Mussolini rule Italy as he regarded "Il Duce" as a "strong man" who saved him the trouble from meeting various politicians as he had done before 1922.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel was anti-clerical, being greatly embittered by the refusal of the Catholic Church to recognize Rome as the capital of Italy, but he realized that as long as the Catholic Church remained opposed to the Italian state, that many Italians would continue to regard the Italian state as illegitimate and that a treaty with the Vatican was necessary. However, when Orlando attempted to open negotiations with the Vatican in 1919, he was blocked by the king who was furious at the way in which the Catholic Church had maintained pro-Austrian neutrality during World War I. Aside from championing the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, which belonged to the House of Savoy, the king had little interest in religion. In private Victor Emmanuel regarded the Catholic Church with a jaundiced eye, making remarks about senior clerics as being greedy, cynical and oversexed hypocrites who took advantage of the devout faith of ordinary Italians.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In 1926, the king allowed Mussolini to do what he prevented Orlando from doing in 1919, giving permission to open negotiations with the Vatican to end the "Roman Question". In 1929, Mussolini, on behalf of the King, signed the Lateran Treaty. The treaty was one of the three agreements made that year between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. On 7 June 1929, the Lateran Treaty was ratified and the "Roman Question" was settled.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The Italian monarchy enjoyed popular support for decades. Foreigners noted how even as late as the 1930s newsreel images of King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Elena evoked applause, sometimes cheering, when played in cinemas, in contrast to the hostile silence shown toward images of Fascist leaders.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 30 March 1938, the Italian Parliament established the rank of First Marshal of the Empire for Victor Emmanuel and Mussolini. This new rank was the highest rank in the Italian military. His equivalence with Mussolini was seen by the king as offensive and a clear sign that the ultimate goal of the fascist was to get rid of him.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: As popular as Victor Emmanuel was, several of his decisions proved fatal to the monarchy. Among these decisions was his assumption of the imperial crown of Ethiopia, his public silence when Mussolini's Fascist government issued its notorious racial purity laws, and his assumption of the crown of Albania.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Prior to his government's invasion of Ethiopia, Victor Emmanuel travelled in 1934 to Italian Somaliland, where he celebrated his 65th birthday on 11 November. In 1936, Victor Emmanuel assumed the crown as Emperor of Ethiopia. His decision to do this was not universally accepted. Victor Emmanuel was only able to assume the crown after the Italian Army invaded Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Ethiopia was annexed to the Italian Empire. The League of Nations condemned Italy's participation in this war and the Italian claim by right of conquest to Ethiopia was rejected by some major powers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union, but was accepted by Great Britain and France in 1938. In 1943, Italy's possession of Ethiopia came to an end.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The term of the last acting Viceroy of Italian East Africa, including Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, ended on 27 November 1941 with surrender to the allies. In November 1943 Victor Emmanuel renounced his claims to the titles of Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania, recognizing the previous holders of those titles as legitimate.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The crown of the King of the Albanians had been assumed by Victor Emmanuel in 1939 when Italian forces invaded the nearly defenceless monarchy across the Adriatic Sea and caused King Zog I to flee.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In 1941, while in Tirana, the King escaped an assassination attempt by the 18-year-old Albanian patriot Vasil Laçi. Later, this attempt was cited by Communist Albania as a sign of the general discontent among the oppressed Albanian population. A second attempt by Dimitri Mikhaliov in Albania gave the Italians an excuse to affirm a possible connection with Greece as a result of the monarch's assent to the Greco-Italian War.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Under the terms of the Pact of Steel signed on 22 May 1939, which was an offensive and defensive alliance with Germany, Italy would have been obliged to follow Germany into war in 1939. As the Pact of Steel was signed, the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, told Mussolini that there would be no war until 1942 or 1943, but the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Baron Bernardo Attolico, warned Rome that the information he was hearing from sources in the German government suggested that Hitler was intent on seeing the Danzig crisis escalate into war that year. Between 11 and 13 August 1939, the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, visited Hitler at the Berghof, and learned for the first time that Germany was definitely going to invade Poland later that same summer. Mussolini at first was prepared to follow Germany into war in 1939, but was blocked by Victor Emmanuel. At a meeting with Count Ciano on 24 August 1939, the king stated that "we are absolutely in no condition to wage war"; the state of the "Regio Esercito" was "pitiful"; and since Italy was not ready for war, it should stay out of the coming conflict, at least until it was clear who was winning. More importantly, Victor Emmanuel stated that as the king of Italy he was the supreme commander-in-chief, and he wanted to be involved in any "supreme decisions", which in effect was claiming a right to veto any decision Mussolini might make about going to war. On 25 August, Ciano wrote in his diary that he informed a "furiously warlike" Mussolini that the king was against Italy going to war in 1939, forcing "Il Duce" to concede that Italy would have to declare neutrality. Unlike in Germany where officers from 1934 onward took an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler, officers of the "Regio Esercito", "Regina Marina" and the "Regia Aeronautica" all took their oaths of loyalty to the king, not Mussolini. The vast majority of the Italian officers in all three services saw Victor Emmanuel as opposed to Mussolini as the principal locus of their loyalty, allowing the king to check decisions by Mussolini that he disapproved of.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Italy declared neutrality in September 1939, but Mussolini always made it clear that he wanted to intervene on the side of Germany provided that this would not strain Italy's resources too much (the costs of the wars in Ethiopia and Spain had pushed Italy to the verge of bankruptcy by 1939). On 18 March 1940, Mussolini met Hitler at a summit at the Brenner Pass and promised him that Italy would soon enter the war. Victor Emmanuel had powerful doubts about the wisdom of going to war, and at one point in March 1940 hinted to Ciano that he was considering dismissing Mussolini as Ciano wrote in his diary: "the King feels that it may become necessary for him to intervene at any moment to give things a different direction; he is prepared to do this and to do it quickly". Victor Emmanuel hoped that a vote against Italy entering the war would be registered in the Fascist Grand Council, as he knew that the "gerarchi" Cesare Maria De Vecchi, Italo Balbo and Emilio De Bono were all anti-war, but he refused to insist upon calling the Grand Council as a precondition for giving his consent to declaring war. On 31 March 1940, Mussolini submitted to Victor Emmanuel a long memorandum arguing that Italy to achieve its long-sought "spazio vitale" had to enter the war on the Axis side sometime that year. However, the king remained resolutely opposed to Italy entering the war until late May 1940, much to Mussolini's intense frustration. At one point, Mussolini complained to Ciano that there were two men, namely Victor Emmanuel and Pope Pius XII, who were preventing him from doing the things that he wanted to do, leading to state he wanted to "blow" the Crown and Catholic Church "up to the skies".


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel was a cautious man, and he always consulted all of the available advisors before making a decision, in this case, the senior officers of the armed forces who informed him of Italy's military deficiencies. On 10 May 1940, Germany launched a major offensive into the Low Countries and France, and as the Wehrmacht continued to advance into France, the king's opposition to Italy entering the war started to weaken by the second half of May 1940. Mussolini argued all through May 1940 that since it was evident that Germany was going to win the war that here was an unparalleled chance for Italy to make major gains at the expense of France and Britain that would allow Italy to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean. On 1 June 1940, Victor Emmanuel finally gave Mussolini his permission for Italy to enter the war, though the king retained the supreme command while only giving Mussolini power over political and military questions. The ten-day delay between the king's permission to enter the war and the declaration of war was caused by Mussolini's demand that he have the powers of supreme command, an attempt to take away a royal prerogative that Victor Emmanuel rejected, and was finally settled by the compromise of giving Mussolini operational command powers.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 10 June 1940, ignoring advice that the country was unprepared, Mussolini made the fatal decision to have Italy enter World War II on the side of Nazi Germany. Almost from the beginning, disaster followed disaster. The first Italian offensive, an invasion of France launched on 17 June 1940, ended in complete failure, and only the fact that France signed an armistice with Germany on 22 June, followed by another armistice with Italy on 24 June allowed Mussolini to present it as a victory. Victor Emmanuel sharply criticized the terms of the Franco-Italian Armistice, saying he wanted Italy to occupy Tunisia, Corsica, and Nice, though the fact the armistice allowed him to proclaim a victory over France was a source of much pleasure to him. In 1940 and 1941, Italian armies in North Africa and in Greece suffered humiliating defeats. Unlike his opposition over going to war with major powers like France and Britain (who might actually defeat Italy), Victor Emmanuel blessed Mussolini's plans to invade Greece in the fall of 1940, saying he expected the Greeks to collapse as soon as Italy invaded. Through the "carabinieri" (para-military police), Victor Emmanuel was kept well informed of the state of public opinion and from the autumn of 1940 onward received reports that the war together with the Fascist regime were becoming extremely unpopular with the Italian people. When Mussolini made Marshal Pietro Badoglio the scapegoat for the failure of the invasion of Greece and sacked him as Chief of the General Staff in December 1940, Badoglio appealed to the king for help. Victor Emmanuel refused to help Badoglio, saying that Mussolini would manage the situation just always as he had in the past. In January 1941, the king admitted to his aide-de-camp, General Paolo Puntoni, that war was not going well and the Fascist regime was becoming very unpopular, but he had decided to keep Mussolini on as a prime minister because there was no replacement for him. Because the king had supported Fascism, he feared that to overthrow the Fascist system would mean the end of the monarchy as the anti-Fascist parties were all republican.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: During the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Victor Emmanuel moved to a villa owned by the Pirzio Biroli family at Brazzacco in order to be close to the front. In May 1941, Victor Emmanuel gave permission to his unpopular cousin, Prince Aimone, to become King of Croatia under the title Tomislav II, in an attempt to get him out of Rome, but Aimone frustrated this ambition by never going to Croatia to receive his crown. During a tour of the new provinces that were annexed to Italy from Yugoslavia, Victor Emmanuel commented that Fascist policies towards the Croats and Slovenes were driving them towards rebellion, but chose not to intervene to change the said policies. On 22 June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Mussolini had the king issue a declaration of war, and sent an Italian expeditionary force to the Eastern Front, through Victor Emmanuel was later to claim that he wanted only a "token" force to go to the Soviet Union, rather than the 10 divisions that Mussolini actually sent.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In late 1941, Italian East Africa was lost. The loss of Italian East Africa together with the defeats in North Africa and the Balkans caused an immense loss of confidence in Mussolini's ability to lead, and many Fascist "gerarchi" such as Emilio De Bono and Dino Grandi were hoping by the spring of 1941 that the king might sack him in order to save the Fascist regime. In the summer of 1941, the "carabinieri" generals told the king that they were prepared to have the "carabinieri" serve as a strike force for a coup against Mussolini, saying if the war continued, it was bound to cause a revolution that would sweep away both the Fascist regime and the monarchy. Victor Emmanuel rejected this offer, and in September 1941, when Count Ciano told him the war was lost, blasted him for his "defeatism", saying he still believed in Mussolini. On 11 December 1941, Victor Emmanuel rather glibly agreed to Mussolini's request to declare war on the United States. Failing to anticipate the American "Europe First" strategy, the king believed that the Americans would follow an "Asia First" strategy of focusing all their efforts against Japan in revenge for Pearl Harbor, and that declaring war on the United States was a harmless move. The king was pleased by the news of Japan entering the war, believing that with Britain's Asian colonies in danger that this would force the British to redeploy their forces to Asia and might finally allow for the Axis conquest of Egypt. Marshal Enrico Caviglia wrote in his diary that it was "criminal" the way that Victor Emmanuel refused to act against Mussolini despite the fact that he was clearly mismanaging the war. One Italian journalist remembered that by the fall of 1941 he did not know anyone who felt anything other than "contempt" for the king who was unwilling to disassociate himself from Fascism.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The British historian Denis Mack Smith wrote that Victor Emmanuel tended to procrastinate when faced with very difficult choices, and his unwillingness to dismiss Mussolini despite mounting pressure from within the Italian elite was his way of trying to avoid making a decision. Moreover, Victor Emmanuel had considerable respect for Mussolini, who he saw as his most able prime minister, and appeared to dread taking on a man whose intelligence was greater than his own. In a conversation with the papal nuncio, the king explained that he could not sign an armistice because he hated the United States as a democracy whose leaders were accountable to the American people; because Britain was "rotten to the core" and would soon cease to be a great power; and because everything he kept hearing about the massive losses sustained by the Red Army convinced him that Germany would win on the Eastern Front at least. Another excuse used by Victor Emmanuel was that Mussolini was allegedly still popular with the Italian people and that it would offend public opinion if he dismissed Mussolini. The Vatican favoured Italy exiting the war by 1943, but papal diplomats told their American counterparts that the king was "weak, indecisive and excessively devoted to Mussolini".


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In the summer of 1942, Grandi had a private audience with Victor Emmanuel, where he asked him to dismiss Mussolini and sign an armistice with the Allies before the Fascist regime was destroyed only to be told to "trust your king" and "stop speaking like a mere journalist". Grandi told Ciano that the king must be either "crazy" and/or "senile" as he was utterly passive, refusing to act against Mussolini. In late 1942, Italian Libya was lost. During Operation Anton on 9 November 1942, the unoccupied part of France was occupied by the Axis forces, which allowed Victor Emmanuel to proclaim in a speech at long last Corsica and Nice had been "liberated". Early in 1943, the ten divisions of the "Italian Army in Russia" ("Armata Italiana in Russia", or ARMIR) were crushed in a side-action in the Battle of Stalingrad. By the middle of 1943, the last Italian forces in Tunisia had surrendered and Sicily had been taken by the Allies. Hampered by lack of fuel as well as several serious defeats, the Italian Navy spent most of the war confined to port. As a result, the Mediterranean Sea was not in any real sense Italy's "Mare Nostrum". While the Air Force generally did better than the Army or the Navy, it was chronically short of modern aircraft.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: As Italy's fortunes worsened, the popularity of the King suffered. One coffee-house ditty went as follows:


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: By early 1943, Mussolini was so psychologically shattered by the successive Italian defeats that he was so depressed and drugged out as to be almost catatonic at times, staring blankly into space for hours while high on various drugs and mumbling incoherently that the war would soon turn around for the Axis powers because it had to. Even Victor Emmanuel was forced to concede that Mussolini had taken a turn "for the worse", which he blamed on "that woman" as he called Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci. On 15 May 1943, the king sent Mussolini a letter saying Italy should sign an armistice and exit the war. On 4 June 1943, Grandi saw the king and told him that he had to dismiss Mussolini before the Fascist system was destroyed; when the king rejected that course under the grounds that the Fascist Grand Council would never vote against Mussolini, Grandi assured him that it would, saying the majority of the "gerarchi" were now against Mussolini. Using the Vatican as an intermediary, Victor Emmanuel contacted the British and American governments in June 1943 to ask if they, the Allies, were willing to see the House of Savoy continue after the war.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 19 July 1943, Rome was bombed for the first time in the war, further cementing the Italian people's disillusionment with their once-popular King. When the King visited the bombed areas of Rome, he was loudly booed by his subjects who blamed him for the war, which caused Victor Emmanuel to become worried about the possibility of a revolution which might bring in a republic. By this time, plans were being discussed within the Italian elite for replacing Mussolini. Victor Emmanuel stated that he wanted to keep the Fascist system going after dismissing Mussolini, and he was seeking to correct merely some of "its deleterious aspects". The two replacements that were being mooted for Mussolini were Marshal Pietro Badoglio and his rival, Marshal Enrico Caviglia. As Marshal Caviglia was one of the few officers of the "Regio Esercito" who kept his distance from the Fascist regime, he was unacceptable to Victor Emmanuel who wanted an officer who was committed to upholding Fascism, which led him to choose Badoglio who had loyally served Mussolini and committed all sorts of atrocities in Ethiopia, but who had a grudge against "Il Duce" for making him the scapegoat for the failed invasion of Greece in 1940. In addition, Badoglio was an opportunist who was well known for his sycophancy towards those in power, which led the king to choose him as Mussolini's successor as he knew that Badoglio would do anything to have power whereas Caviglia had a reputation as a man of principle and honour. The king felt that Badoglio as prime minister would obey any royal orders whereas he was not so certain that Caviglia would do the same. On 15 July 1943, in a secret meeting Victor Emmanuel told Badoglio that he would soon be sworn in as Italy's new prime minister and the king wanted no "ghosts" (i.e. liberal politicians from the pre-fascist era) in his cabinet.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On the night of 25 July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism voted to adopt an "Ordine del Giorno" (order of the day) proposed by Count Dino Grandi to ask Victor Emmanuel to resume his full constitutional powers under Article 5 of the "Statuto." In effect, this was a motion of no confidence in Mussolini.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The following afternoon, Mussolini asked for an audience with the king at Villa Savoia. When Mussolini tried to tell Victor Emmanuel about the Grand Council's vote, Victor Emmanuel abruptly cut him off and told him that he was dismissing him as Prime Minister in favour of Marshal Pietro Badoglio. He then ordered Mussolini's arrest. Victor Emmanuel had been planning this move to get rid of the dictator for some time.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Publicly, Victor Emmanuel and Badoglio claimed that Italy would continue the war as a member of the Axis. Privately, they both began negotiating with the Allies for an armistice. Court circles—including Crown Princess Marie-José—had already been putting out feelers to the Allies before Mussolini's ousting. The king was advised by his generals to sign an immediate armistice, saying the time to act was now as the number of German troops in Italy were still outnumbered by Italian troops. But Victor Emmanuel was unwilling to accept the Allied demand for unconditional surrender, and as a result, the secret armistice talks in Lisbon were dragged out over the summer of 1943. Besides rejecting unconditional surrender as "truly monstrous", Victor Emmanuel wanted from the Allies a guarantee that he would keep his throne; a promise that Italian colonial empire in Libya and the Horn of Africa would be restored; that Italy would keep the part of Yugoslavia that had been annexed by Mussolini; and finally the Allies should promise not to invade the Italian mainland, and instead invade France and the Balkans. Mack Smith wrote that these demands were "unrealistic" and caused much time to be wasted in the Lisbon peace talks as the Allies were willing to concede that Victor Emmanuel could keep his throne and rejected all of his other demands. In the meantime, German forces continued to be rushed into Italy.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 8 September 1943, Victor Emmanuel publicly announced an armistice with the Allies. Confusion reigned as Italian forces were left without orders, and the Germans, who had been expecting this move for some time, quickly disarmed and interned Italian troops and took control in the occupied Balkans, France and the Dodecanese, as well as in Italy itself. Many of the units that did not surrender joined forces with the Allies against the Germans.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Fearing a German advance on Rome, Victor Emmanuel and his government fled south to Brindisi. This choice may have been necessary to protect his safety; indeed, Hitler had planned to arrest him shortly after Mussolini's overthrow. Nonetheless, it still came as a surprise to many observers inside and outside Italy. Unfavourable comparisons were drawn with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who refused to leave London during the Blitz, and of Pope Pius XII, who mixed with Rome's crowds and prayed with them after Rome's working-class neighbourhood of Quartiere San Lorenzo had been destroyed by bombing.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Despite the German occupation, Victor Emmanuel kept refusing to declare war on Germany, saying he needed a vote by Parliament first, though that had not stopped him from signing declarations of war on Ethiopia, Albania, Great Britain, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and the United States, none of which had been sanctioned by Parliament. Under strong pressure from the Allied Control Commission, the king finally declared war on Germany on 8 October 1943. Ultimately, the Badoglio government in southern Italy raised the Italian Co-Belligerent Army ("Esercito Cobelligerante del Sud"), the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force ("Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana"), and the Italian Co-Belligerent Navy ("Marina Cobelligerante del Sud"). All three forces were loyal to the King. Relations with the Allied Control Commission were very strained as the king remained obsessed with protocol, screaming with fury when General Noel Mason-Macfarlane met him wearing shirt sleeves and shorts, a choice of attire he considered very disrespectful. Victor Emmanuel was ultra-critical of the slow progress made by the American 5th Army and the British 8th Army as the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, saying he wanted to return to Rome as soon as possible, and felt that all of the Allied soldiers fighting to liberate Italy were cowards. Likewise, Victor Emmanuel refused to renounce the usurped Ethiopian and Albanian crowns in favour of the legitimate monarchs of those states, claiming that the Fascist-dominated Parliament had given him these titles and he could only renounce them if parliament voted on the matter.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 12 September, the Germans launched Operation Eiche and rescued Mussolini from captivity. In a short time, he established a new Fascist state in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic ("Repubblica Sociale Italiana"). This was never more than a German-dominated puppet state, but it did compete for the allegiance of the Italian people with Badoglio's government in the south.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: By this time, it was apparent that Victor Emmanuel was irrevocably tainted by his earlier support of the Fascist regime. At a 10 April meeting, under pressure from ACC officials Robert Murphy and Harold Macmillan, Victor Emmanuel transferred most of his constitutional powers to his son, Crown Prince Umberto. Privately, Victor Emmanuel told General Noel Mason-MacFarlane that by forcing him to give power to Umberto, the Allies were effectively giving power to the Communists.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: By this time, however, events had moved beyond Victor Emmanuel's ability to control. After Rome was liberated on 4 June, he turned over his remaining powers to Umberto and named him Lieutenant General of the Realm, while nominally retaining the title of king.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Within a year, public opinion forced a referendum on whether to retain the monarchy or become a republic. In hopes of helping the monarchist cause, Victor Emmanuel formally abdicated on 9 May 1946. His son ascended to the throne as Umberto II. This move failed. In the referendum held a month later, 54 per cent of voters favoured a republic, and the Kingdom of Italy was no more. Some historians such as Sir Charles Petrie, have speculated that the result might have been different if Victor Emmanuel had abdicated in favour of Umberto shortly after the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, or at the latest had abdicated outright in 1944 rather than simply transferring his powers to his son. Umberto had been widely praised for his performance as "de facto" head of state beginning in 1944, and his relative popularity might have saved the monarchy. The Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini declared that he would not come back to Italy as a subject of the "degenerate king" and more generally as long as the house of Savoy was ruling; Benedetto Croce had previously stated in 1944 that "as long as the present king remains head of state, we feel that Fascism has not ended, ... that it will be reborn, more or less disguised."


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In any event, once the referendum's result was certified, Victor Emmanuel and all other male members of the House of Savoy were required to leave the country. Taking refuge in Egypt, where he was welcomed with great honour by King Farouk, Victor Emmanuel died in Alexandria a year later, of pulmonary congestion. He was interred behind the altar of St Catherine's Cathedral. He was the last surviving grandchild of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. In 1948, "Time" magazine included an article about "The Little King".


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: On 17 December 2017, an Italian air force military plane officially repatriated the remains of Victor Emmanuel III, which were transferred from Alexandria to the sanctuary of Vicoforte, near Turin, and interred alongside those of Elena, which had been transferred two days earlier from Montpellier, France.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: The abdication prior to the referendum probably brought back to the minds of undecided voters the monarchy's role during the Fascist period and the King's own actions (or lack of them), at the very moment monarchists hoped voters would focus on the positive impression created by Umberto and his wife, Maria José, over the previous two years. The "May" King and Queen, Umberto and Maria José, in Umberto's brief, month-long reign, were unable to shift the burden of recent history and opinion.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: Victor Emmanuel III was one of the most prolific coin collectors of all time, having amassed approximately 100,000 specimens dating from the fall of the Roman Empire up to the Unification of Italy and in 1897 becoming honorary president of the new Italian Numismatic Society, of which he was a founder member. On his abdication, the collection was donated to the Italian people, except for the coins of the House of Savoy which he took with him to Egypt. On the death of Umberto II in 1983, the Savoy coins joined the rest of the collection in the National Museum of Rome. Between 1910 and 1943, Victor Emmanuel wrote the 20-volume "Corpus Nummorum Italicorum," which catalogued each specimen in his collection. He was awarded the medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1904.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: After World War I, Avenue Victor-Emmanuel III in Paris was named after him in honour of Italy's alliance in that war, but the king's support of the Axis Powers led the road to be renamed Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue in 1946 following the end of World War II.


title: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

text: In 1896 he married princess Elena of Montenegro (1873–1952), daughter of Nicholas I, King of Montenegro. Their issue included:


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi, sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylon. The primary copy of the text is inscribed on a basalt stele tall.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The stele was rediscovered in 1901 at the site of Susa in present-day Iran, where it had been taken as plunder six hundred years after its creation. The text itself was copied and studied by Mesopotamian scribes for over a millennium. The stele now resides in the Louvre Museum.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The top of the stele features an image in relief of Hammurabi with Shamash, the Babylonian sun god and god of justice. Below the relief are about 4,130 lines of cuneiform text: one fifth contains a prologue and epilogue in poetic style, while the remaining four fifths contain what are generally called the laws. In the prologue, Hammurabi claims to have been granted his rule by the gods "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak". The laws are casuistic, expressed as "if... then" conditional sentences. Their scope is broad, including, for example, criminal law, family law, property law, and commercial law.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Modern scholars responded to the Code with admiration at its perceived fairness and respect for the rule of law, and at the complexity of Old Babylonian society. There was also much discussion of its influence on the Mosaic Law. Scholars quickly identified —the "eye for an eye" principle—underlying the two collections. Debate among Assyriologists has since centred around several aspects of the Code: its purpose, its underlying principles, its language, and its relation to earlier and later law collections.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Despite the uncertainty surrounding these issues, Hammurabi is regarded outside Assyriology as an important figure in the history of law and the document as a true legal code. The U.S. Capitol has a relief portrait of Hammurabi alongside those of other lawgivers. There are replicas of the stele in numerous institutions, including the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Hammurabi (or Hammurapi), the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon, ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC (middle chronology). He secured Babylonian dominance over the Mesopotamian plain through military prowess, diplomacy, and treachery. When Hammurabi inherited his father Sin-Muballit's throne, Babylon held little local sway; the local hegemon was Rim-Sin of Larsa. Hammurabi waited until Rim-Sin grew old, then conquered his territory in one swift campaign, leaving his organisation intact. Later, Hammurabi betrayed allies in Eshnunna, Elam, and Mari to gain their territories.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Hammurabi had an aggressive foreign policy, but his letters suggest he was concerned with the welfare of his many subjects and was interested in law and justice. He commissioned extensive construction works, and in his letters, he frequently presents himself as his people's shepherd. Justice is also a theme of the prologue to the Code, and "the word translated 'justice' []... is one whose root runs through both prologue and epilogue".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Although Hammurabi's Code was the first Mesopotamian law collection to be discovered, it was not the first written; several earlier collections survive. These collections were written in Sumerian and Akkadian. They also purport to have been written by rulers. There were almost certainly more such collections, as statements of other rulers suggest the custom was widespread. The similarities between these law collections make it tempting to assume a consistent underlying legal system. As with the Code of Hammurabi, however, it is difficult to interpret the purpose and underlying legal systems of these earlier collections, prompting numerous scholars to question whether this should be attempted. Extant collections include:


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: There are additionally thousands of documents from the practice of law, from before and during the Old Babylonian period. These documents include contracts, judicial rulings, letters on legal cases, and reform documents such as that of Urukagina, king of Lagash in the mid-3rd millennium BC, whose reforms combatted corruption. Mesopotamia has the most comprehensive surviving legal corpus from before the "Digest" of Justinian, even compared to those from ancient Greece and Rome.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The first copy of the text found, and still the most complete, is on a stele. The stele is now displayed on the ground floor of the Louvre, in Room 227 of the Richelieu wing. At the top is an image of Hammurabi with Shamash, the Babylonian sun god and god of justice. Below the image are about 4,130 lines of cuneiform text: One fifth contain a prologue and epilogue, while the remaining four fifths contain what are generally called the laws. Near the bottom, seven columns of the laws, each with more than eighty lines, were polished and erased in antiquity. The stele was found in three large fragments and reconstructed. It is high, with a circumference is at the summit and at the base. Hammurabi's image is high and wide.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Louvre stele was found at the site of the ancient Elamite city of Susa. Susa is in modern-day Khuzestan Province, Iran (Persia at the time of excavation). The stele was excavated by the French Archaeological Mission under the direction of Jacques de Morgan. Father Jean-Vincent Scheil published the initial report in the fourth volume of the "Reports of the Delegation to Persia" (). According to Scheil, the stele's fragments were found on the tell of the Susa acropolis (), between December 1901 and January 1902. The few, large fragments made assembly easy.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Scheil hypothesised that the stele had been taken to Susa by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nakhunte and that he had commissioned the erasure of several columns of laws to write his legend there. Roth suggests the stele was taken as plunder from Sippar, where Hammurabi lived towards the end of his reign.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Fragments of a second and possibly third stele recording the Code were found along with the Louvre stele at Susa. Over fifty manuscripts containing the laws are known. They were found not only in Susa but also in Babylon, Nineveh, Assur, Borsippa, Nippur, Sippar, Ur, Larsa, and more. Copies were created during Hammurabi's reign, and also after it, since the text became a part of the scribal curriculum. Copies have been found dating from one thousand years after the stele's creation, and a catalogue from the library of Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (685–631 BC) lists a copy of the "judgments of Hammurabi". The additional copies fill in most of the stele's original text, including much of the erased section.