The Carro Armato M11/39 was an Italian medium tank first produced prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The M11/39 saw service in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and Italy (1939–1944). The official Italian designation was Carro Armato (armoured vehicle) M11/39. The designation for the M11/39 is as follows: "M" for ''Medio'' ("medium"), followed by the weight in tonnes (11) and the year of adoption (1939).

Development

The M11/39 was developed as a "breakthrough tank" (). The design of the M11/39 was influenced by the British

Vickers 6-Ton The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner" was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not adopted by the British Army, but was picked up by many foreign armed forces. It was licen ...

. This influence is reflected particularly in the track and suspension design. A novelty of the design was the placement of the final reduction gears inside the front-mounted drive sprockets, eliminating the need for enlarged final drive housings in the bow armour. Service use of the M11/39 was short due to several deficiencies in its design, particularly the placement of the main 37 mm gun in the hull. The design concept was to use the main gun against other tanks and to defend the tank with the turret armament. The gun was in a fixed position with traverse restricted to 15° to port and starboard. Dual 8 mm machine guns were housed in a small rotating one-man turret, with manual controls. The original intent was to place the 37 mm /L40 armament in the turret but there was insufficient space. The gun placement followed the French

Char B1 The Char B1 was a French heavy tank manufactured before World War II. The Char B1 was a specialised break-through vehicle, originally conceived as a self-propelled gun with a 75 mm howitzer in the hull; later a 47 mm gun in a turre ...

and anticipated the early versions of the

Churchill tank The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, its ability to climb steep slopes, a ...

s, although in these tanks the hull guns were howitzers, rather than high-velocity guns. The M11/39 had other shortcomings: its endurance and performance were poor, it was relatively slow, it was mechanically unreliable and its 30 mm maximum riveted steel armour, designed to withstand 20 mm fire, was vulnerable to British 2-pounder guns at any range at which the M11/39s main gun was effective. The tank was designed to carry a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

but none were fitted to the production vehicles. The M11/39 hull was modified for use its successor the

Fiat M13/40 The Carro Armato M13/40 was an Italian World War II tank designed to replace the M11/39 in the Italian Army at the start of World War II. It was the primary tank used by the Italians throughout the war. The design was influenced by the British Vi ...

, which was redesigned to put the main gun in the turret; an order for 100 M11s was placed as a stop-gap.

Units

Only two battalions received the M11/39 tank before production was switched to the better

M13/40 The Carro Armato M13/40 was an Italian World War II tank designed to replace the M11/39 in the Italian Army at the start of World War II. It was the primary tank used by the Italians throughout the war. The design was influenced by the British Vi ...

: * I Tank Battalion "M",

32nd Tank Infantry Regiment The 32nd Tank Regiment ( it, 32° Reggimento Carri) is a tank regiment of the Italian Army based in Tauriano in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Originally the regiment, like all Italian tank units, was part of the infantry, but since 1 June 1999 it is pa ...

* II Tank Battalion "M", 32nd Tank Infantry Regiment Both battalions were sent to North Africa for the Italian invasion of Egypt and assigned for the campaign to the 4th Tank Infantry Regiment. The regiment and both battalions were destroyed during

Operation Compass Operation Compass (also it, Battaglia della Marmarica) was the first large British military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) during the Second World War. British, Empire and Commonwealth forces attacked Italian forces of ...

, with the last remnants extinguished during the

Battle of Beda Fomm The rapid British advance during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941) forced the Italian 10th Army to evacuate Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya. In late January, the British learned that the Italians were retreating a ...

Combat

In Libya 72 × M11/39s were used in the North African Campaign, 24 operated in the East Africa Campaign and the first four prototypes remained in Italy. The M11 was vastly superior to the 36 ×

L3/33 The Carro Veloce 33 (CV 33) or L3/33 was a tankette originally built in 1933 and used by the Italian Army before and during World War II. It was based on the imported British Carden Loyd tankette (license-built by Italy as the CV 29). ...

and

L3/35 The L3/35 or Carro Veloce CV-35 was an Italian tankette that saw combat before and during World War II. Although designated a light tank by the Italian Army, its turretless configuration, weight and firepower make it closer to contemporary tan ...

tankettes stationed in East Africa. The M11/39 proved somewhat successful in early encounters with the British

Light Tank Mk VI The Tank, Light, Mk VI was a British light tank, produced by Vickers-Armstrongs in the late 1930s, which saw service during the Second World War. Development history The Tank, Light, Mk VI was the sixth in the line of light tanks built by Vi ...

. The 37 mm gun of the M11 acted as a deterrent against attacks by these relatively fast but thin-skinned vehicles, armed only with machine guns. The tank was outclassed by heavier British cruiser and Infantry tanks, the Cruiser Mk II (A10), Cruiser Mk III (A13) and

Matilda Matilda or Mathilda may refer to: Animals * Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder * Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse * Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...

North Africa

On 13 September 1940, M11s participated in the Italian invasion of Egypt. On 9 December 1940, M11s also operated defensively in the opening stages of the British counter-offensive,

. When Operation Compass was launched, many of the M11/39s were damaged, broken, or immobilized inside some of the static Italian positions. The British used Matilda tanks to overrun many of the Italian positions and the M11s could do little against the heavy armour of the Matildas. From 10 April 1941, during the siege of Tobruk, some captured M11s were employed by the 6th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment over some months. The Australians painted large white kangaroo symbols on the tanks and used the captured M11s, together with several M13s, until they ran out of diesel fuel. The tanks were then destroyed to deny them to the advancing

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

forces in the spring of 1941.

East Africa

In 1940,

Italian East Africa Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the S ...

received 24 M11/39s. In East Africa, the M11s fought as the only medium tank available to the Italians. On 3 August 1940, M11s participated in The Italian Invasion of British Somaliland. By January 1941, M11s were used on the defensive in Eritrea when the British launched their counter-offensive there. Unfortunately for the Italians, the British had a small number of Matilda tanks available to them during the

Battle of Keren The Battle of Keren ( it, Battaglia di Cheren) took place from 3 February to 27 March 1941. Keren was attacked by the British during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. A force of Italian regular and colonial troops defended th ...

and this negated any value that the M11s may have added. By the end of May 1941, the Italian forces were defeated on the East African fronts where M11s were deployed. By the end of November, organized Italian resistance in East Africa was over. There is no indication that captured M11s were re-used by the captors in East Africa.

References