Tank Chats #147 | M14/41 | The Tank Museum

I really enjoy these longer Tank Chats with David Willey - the context is fascinating and paints a clearer picture of why things were like they were. Of course I still also enjoy Davis Fletcher's shorter, more technical vignettes too. Great to have both.

Honesty, competence, reliable historical sources. Nothing more is asked and that's what I always find here. Thank you David.

Looking at the state of WW II tanks it makes you realise how large a set of balls every tank crewman had to go to war in those things.

One correction. Italy did in fact have the skills and capabilities to weld armor vehicles, what they did not have was enough trained individual to weld both ships and tanks, so they chose ships.

I never doubted the bravery of the Italian army, just the Italian weaponry.

The Italian mechanics worked wonders keeping these vehicles running in North Africa. “Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts” by Ian W. Walker gives examples, like at El Alamein that these mechanics actually increased the number of running vehicles before the defeat there. FIAT and its subsidiary companies had a near monopoly on equipment to all the military branches.

I am deeply grateful to David Willey for this very objective and balanced review. It serves well the thousands of Italian tankers that died in these machines. And it well balances the smear that the likes of Liddel-Hart have piled up on our armed forces. Grazie.

Good to see you defend the Italian soldiers, the common soldier who often pays with his life deserves recognition for his valour and achievement regardless of their nationality.

Read ‘Iron Hulls and Iron Hearts’ by Ian Walker. This gives a great insight into Italy’s armoured doctrine at the time. I Might add there was no lack of courage from the Italians in ww2.

Our tankers, considering all the limitations, really did wonders. And Italy as a whole country, considering the industrial base as shown here, did MIRACLES to fight from 1940 to 1943 and to have battleships like the Littorio class and excellent other ships as well, not to mention aircraft... Sadly the Army couldn't really keep up.. great video as always! I would love to go back there one day! Was there a few years ago... it's the Meccah for tankers lovers for sure!

23:30 Also, in 1940 Italian troops in Africa were mainly low quality troops with very poor training, equipment and discipline, mainly part of the Fascist party's militia. A true story to be told is that the Italian military, some say under the suggestion of Mussolini in person, decided to form units to be sent to Africa exclusively with people of the Southernmost regions of Italy (like Sicily and Calabria) just because they said that they were used to the heat of the Southern Mediterranean. The problem was that those regions had a shockingly low level of alphabetization (probably the lowest in Europe at that time) and therefore it was extremely difficult to find trained specialists for communications and vehicle operations, leading to the actual impossibility of operating an efficient communication network just because there were too few people that could actually read and write.

I didn’t realize the economic situation in Italy before WW2. Its a good history lesson as well as a lesson about tanks. Thanks!

Read “Iron Hulls, Iron Hearts” by Ian W. Walker about the 3 Italian armor divisions which were small in size, equivalent to a British armored brigade. The Ariete Division was part of the Afrika Korps in fact and was basically the only fully mechanized unit in North Africa. Ariete was the only fully functional of the 3, getting replacement armor by taking from the other 2. The infantry units lacked organic transport which was why they surrendered once abandoned in a retreat, no food or water and hundred of miles to friendly lines.

You have done a great service with this video, exposing facts and dispelling wartime myths!

Thank you so much for this, a fair take on this issue. Italian soldiers did well and made the best of what they had to work with. They were not the "cowards" or slackers that common myth and propaganda has portrayed. A good man or a good crew takes what weapons or vehicles they are issued, and despite the faults carry on and do the best they can.

I believe a museum recently built a working replica of a Fiat 2000. Another great video as always, thanks David.

That Italians used three engined bombers because they had not powerful engines is a mith. The Vickers Wellington had two 1050 hp engines. The Bristol Beaufort, two 1060 hp engines. The Bristol Blenheim, two 920 hp engines. The SM.79 had three 950 hp engines (later equipped with "etilizzatori", an equivalent of the MW50, to have a temporary 100hp boost, to disengage after torpedoing attacks). The Cant Z.1007 had three 1000 hp engines. The BR.20 had two 1030 hp engines. The performances of the twin engined Br.20 compare very well with those of the Wellington and Blenheim. The Br.20 was faster and with an higher ceiling than the Wellington, although with a lower bomb load, and had performances in line with those of the Blenheim, but with a better bomb load. In 1939 had been omologated the 1500 hp Piaggio P.XII. That used standard 87octane fuel. Probably the best radial engine that used standard fuel up to that point. The Italians used two models of three engined bombers simply because they were faster that way, and could still fly with an engine failure, while, for a two engined bomber, an engine failure meant a long descent. That's why they were preferred to the Br.20 too.

Basically everyone at the start of the war had fairly poor tanks by comparison to mid/late war designs. The issue is Italy didn't have the manufacturing capability to get rid of those designs quickly enough, where as everyone else did.

This episode has been a historical eye-opener. Thank you.

The British army used a lot of captured Italian tanks, because they had acquired them, and because their own had serious reliability issues, were broken down and not available. The British crews were not any happier about being in them than the Italians had been. It is another reason why Rommel had success when he showed up.