The Saurer Tartaruga (Turtle) was a prototype of an armored personnel carrier from the Adolph

Saurer Adolph Saurer AG was a Swiss manufacturer of embroidery and textile machines, trucks and buses under the Saurer and Berna (beginning in 1929) brand names. Based in Arbon, Switzerland, the firm was active between 1903 and 1982. Their vehicles were ...

AG. The Saurer Tartaruga was built in 1959. Together with the

Mowag Pirat The MOWAG Pirat is an armored Infantry tank made by the Swiss company MOWAG. History and development Eleven prototypes in different versions were built from 1960 to 1975. Together with the Saurer Tartaruga the MOWAG Pirat was tested by the Swis ...

it was tested by the

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...

. But unexpectedly the Swiss Army decided to buy the American M113. A prototype is now in the Thun tank museum.

References

* Kurt Sahli: ''Saurer. Geschichte einer Nutzfahrzeugfabrik''. Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern 1987 * Stefan Keller (Historiker): ''Die Zeit der Fabriken. Von Arbeitern und einer roten Stadt''.

Rotpunktverlag Rotpunktverlag is a Swiss publishing house, headquartered at ''Hohlstrasse 86A'', 8004 Zürich, Switzerland. Founded in 1976 in Zürich, it is specialized in political history. History and publishing fields The publishing house was founded in 19 ...

, Zürich 2001 * Hans Ulrich Wipf, Mario König, Adrian Knoepfli: Saurer. Vom Ostschweizer Kleinbetrieb zum internationalen Technologiekonzern, hier+jetzt, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, * Markus Mäder: Drei Generationen Saurer. Franz Saurer (1806-1882), Adolph Saurer (1841-1920), Hippolyt Saurer (1878-1936). Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik, Band 48, herausgegeben vom Verein für wirtschaftshistorische Studien, Meilen 1988 {{Commons category, Saurer Tartaruga Armoured fighting vehicles of Switzerland Abandoned military projects of Switzerland