page_title: Tanks in the Italian Army
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Tanks in the Italian Army / World War II
context_page_description: The current C1 Ariete is the current main battle tank of the Italian Army.
context_section_description: The Fiat 3000s that were first updgraded and officially designated as the carro d'assalto Fiat 3000, Mod. 21. or Carro Armato L5/21 and the later upgrade the up-gunned version of the 3000, armed with a 37/40 gun, was tested in 1929 and was officially adopted in 1930 with the designation of carro d'assalto Fiat 3000, Mod. 30 or L5/30 light tank  still were in use when World War II started. With Italy's entry into World War II in June 1940, a limited number of Fiat 3000s still in service with the Italian Army were employed operationally on the Greek-Albanian front. They were also among the last Italian tanks to oppose the Allies, as in July 1943, when the Allies landed in Sicily, two Italian tank companies on the island were still equipped with the 3000. One company was dug in and their vehicles were used as fixed fortifications, while the other company was used in a mobile role at the Amphibious Battle of Gela, with few of the tanks surviving the Allied drive. 
  In addition to seeing action in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Spanish Civil War, the Slovak-Hungarian War, and the Anglo-Iraqi War, the L3 tank was used almost everywhere that Italian troops fought during World War II. L3s were found on the Italian/French border, North Africa, Italian East Africa, the Balkans, USSR, Sicily, and Italy.
  A further development of the Fiat L3 light tank, the Fiat L6/40 went through a number of prototypes during the late 1930s and used the Italian army from 1940 and on through World War II. The L6/40 light tanks were used by the Italians in the Balkans Campaign, in the war against the Soviet Union, in the latter stages of the North African campaign, and in the defense of Sicily and Italy. The L6/40 was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front. The L6 fought alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. Although a good light tank for its size and an improvement over the tankettes that were common within the Italian army, it was already obsolete by the time of its introduction.
  On paper, the Royal Army was one of the largest ground forces in World War II, though in reality it could not field the numbers claimed. Italian 'medium' M11, M13, M14 and M15 tanks were at a marked disadvantage against the comparatively heavily armed American Sherman tanks, for example. More crucially, Italy lacked suitable quantities of equipment of all kinds and the Italian high command did not take necessary steps to plan for possible setbacks on the battlefield, or for proper logistical support to its field armies. There were too few anti-aircraft weapons, obsolete anti-tank guns, and too few trucks.
  When Italy entered World War II, the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito) possessed around one-hundred M11/39 medium tanks in two tank battalions. L3 tankettes still equipped all three Italian armored divisions, they equipped the tank battalions in the motorized divisions, the light tank squadron group in each "Fast" (Celere) division, and  numerous independent tank battalions.
  The Fiat-Ansaldo M11/39 medium tank was used from 1940 through the early period of World War II. The M11/39 was developed as a "breakthrough tank" (Carro di Rottura). It was replaced by the Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 medium tank which was used in the Greek campaign and in the North African Campaign. The first of over 700 M13/40s were delivered following a rate of production of about 60-70 a month, before the fall of 1940. They were sent to North Africa to fight the British. Its baptism of fire came with a special unit, the Babini Brigade. Arriving too late to fight in the September offensive, this unit was ready the next December, for a major British offensive operation. Further action took place in Derna, where the V battalion had just arrived. Tanks of III battalion were also present near this position, at the battle of Bardia. In two days of fighting (January 3–4, 1941), the Australians suffered 456 casualties while the Italians lost 45,000 men captured or killed. On February 6–7, the British offensive penetrat
caption: Italian L3/35 in the Balkans, August 1943.
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