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From: military@cbnews.att.com
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: WWII Italian Armor, Why so Bad?
Keywords: design questions?
Message-ID: <1991Apr29.051623.5663@amd.com>
Date: 26 Apr 91 01:36:19 GMT
References: <1991Apr23.053445.22865@amd.com>
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From: military@cbnews.att.com


hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo) writes:
>I began to wonder why most, if not all, of the Italian tanks and
>armored vehicles were so bad and poorly designed. 

I believe some of this can be credited to the lack of a real armor
proponent in the Italian military between the wars.  Germany, France,
Britain, the USSR, and the USA all had tank advocates who did much to
advance the design of AFV's.  To varying extents, they all progressed
beyond the theory of tanks for pure infantry support, and thereby pushed
the designers to their limits.

Italy simply missed this boat.  At the beginning of the war, most of their
armor was machinegun-armed, with only a few carrying antitank weapons.
It shouldn't be forgotten that for much of the world, infantry support was
still perceived as the tank's most important mission.  In fact, Italy sold
tanks to many of these countries, including Afghanistan, Albania, Austria,
Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Greece, and Latvia.

Japan can be viewed in a similar manner.  Neither Italy nor Japan
had to fight tanks in WWI, so they made less of an impression upon them.
Japan, in fact, took the Italian example to the extreme.  While the
Japanese navy was able to keep pace with the times, their army remained
steadfastly prepared to fight WWI.  The campaign in China did little to
change this thinking, and the Pacific islands campaigns added no practical
experience.  

>Why did the Italian military industrial complex fail to supply their 
>land forces with modern weapons?

This is a larger extrapolation of the tank question.  With the possible
exception of their navy, in no field of military hardware were the Italians
able to remain up to the standard of the day.  The Italians were prepared 
for a continuation of the pre-WWI colonial era, so perhaps the possibility
of fighting another world power simply didn't enter into their
calculations; in which case second-class equipment was sufficient.

-- 
Bill Thacker   Moderator, sci.military  military-request@att.att.com
(614) 860-5294      Send submissions to military@att.att.com