The internal layout was poor, with the commander isolated in the cramped one-man turret, while the two remaining crew members – gunner and driver – sat side by side in the hull. Weaknesses: limited-traverse main armament, poor internal layout, thin armour Cramped layout (A total of 2,808 rounds were carried for the machine-guns, whose effectiveness was limited by their 24-round box magazines, each of which held enough ammunition for barely four seconds of continuous fire.) The 37mm gun was powerful enough to deal with most contemporary AFVs, but its traverse was limited to only 30°, even though the secondary weapons – twin 8mm Breda machine-guns – had full 360° manual traverse. These factors led to the decision to fit a machine-gun turret while mounting the 37mm Vickers-Terni L/40 main armament in the hull front to keep the weight within design limits.
In several actions in Spain, the machine-gun-armed 元s were found to be helpless against Republican T-26 tanks with their 45mm guns. Subsequent combat experience in the Spanish Civil War had shown the urgent need for the new design to incorporate an effective anti-tank gun. The design was heavily influenced by the Italian campaigns of the 1930s, such as the conquest of Ethiopia, when the limited arc of fire of the 元 machine-gun carrier led to several vehicles being destroyed by flank and rear attacks launched by infantry anti-tank teams with improvised demolition charges.
Image: Wikimedia CommonsĪ requirement for a new 10-ton medium tank was finally issued in 1936, and the prototype M11/39 was completed two years later.
The type’s limitations rapidly became apparent after Italy entered the war, and it was quickly phased out. The Italian M11/39 during the Western Desert Campaign, September 1940.
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