Mussolini's Heavy Tank, the P26/40 | Cursed by Design 

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How ironic, tanks designed for rough mountainous terrain ended up being used in the desert

10:48 Mussolini demonstrates the function of a helicopter for his supporters.

When you find the answer AFTER the test...

"I cant lift it with my hands, its obviously a heavy tank"

I remember this tank in a game called R.U.S.E, it being Italy's only "Advanced Heavy Tank", this was pretty much what an Italy would solely deploy in terms of tanks (Maybe the M15 on occasion) since every other vehicle Italy had in that game was a medium tank with light tank level armour, fun game

One of my favorite tanks in Warthunder by a long shot! The funny Italian meatball launcher, so cool to learn its history!!

"Free" Warthunder only costs your soul, your unborn child, several years of your life span, your sanity, your phone number and all of your private information. None of these is exaggeration.

This opened my eyes a lot about Italian tank design. I never took into account them designing tanks specifically for there mountainous terrain. a lot less of a meme now that i know more of there history...

I personally think the Italian idea of pursuing cross-country performance and light weight were excellent ideas for a nation such as Italy. You didn't have ton of experience in producing vehicles like these, so having something that's easy to transport and recover would lend itself well to dealing with any other shortcomings the vehicles might have. (Service time shorter? Just move them close by rail and truck.) If the task of the tanks were to knock out pillboxes and machine gun nests in difficult terrain as during WW1 and you might have interest in fighting colonial wars in Mediterranean, specializing in light tanks and tankettes wasn't the worst idea, assuming rest of your forces could catch up the slack. It also makes export markets far simpler.

You can argue that Italian tanks are bad but their Semovente series with 75mm guns and caliber above are seriously underrated

If it was completed 5-7 years earlier, it may have been pretty good.

The P26/40 is one of my favourite tanks, its such a pretty lil guy

Love the P40, such a cool tank and a great “what if” if they had some of these earlier in the North Africa campaign

"Unreliable FIAT engines requiring constant maintenance..." History often rhymes with today's reality...or matches exactly.

In WarThunder the M13/40 is a terror at low tiers, while the P40 is quite comparable to other medium tanks. I quite enjoyed playing the italians. Should talk about the semoventes too. Italian for StuG.

The p40 is probably one of Italy's most fascinating tank designs from ww2. it's a shame there are very few accounts of the tank's service (although i suppose it's the usual "tank was outclassed by more advanced designs") . Still, it's interesting to think how the tank could have performed if it was produced earlyer in the war.

Anchovy's secret weapon to achieve Anzio superiority! Only to not make much of a difference and just make their flag tank a much bigger target to shoot at.

Thank you for covering another Italian tank! And even more for not cracking jokes like how everyone does, it would be great if you covered Italy’s semoventi, I would love to hear you explain their history in your usual format

The idea of Italy being a joke is so pervasive that it birthed an anime.

That thing looks like a panzer 4 and a t-34 combined

Italy: Look at our new Heavy Tank! Germany: Laughs in King Tiger. 😄🐯

Italian tanks are always seen as a meme But honestly the P40 would’ve been a decent “medium” tank, good armor, good gun And the other tanks did ok-pretty well in Africa.

This tank is absolutely awesome to use in War Thunder, it goes very well against tanks like the panzer 4 and T-34. I'm sure had it been completed earlier, it would probably see considerable success.

i do think Italian Semovente’s don’t get enough credit for their performance in WW2

The old British squaddie joke was Italian tanks had 5 reverse gears, implying cowardice. To anyone who knows tank design this means they can continue to fight forwards while repositioning and is a positive design characteristic. What happened to the Italians in North Africa, that gave them a bad reputation (apart from being tricked & outflanked by the Nigerians in Ethiopia), was their infantry wasn’t motorized and so left behind in retreat from Egypt by the Germans and Italian fighting vehicles. While their elite troops fought on, their mass infantry mainly surrendered when outflanked by motorized Allied infantry in the Western Desert.

Doesn’t stop it from being an absolute unit in war thunder, love this tank

Great video, happy to have helped!

Excellent video, truly well researched, but there are a few things I think you should have mentioned: the fiat 3000, the performance of the 47mm and 75mm guns and the fact that the M series was inspired by the Vickers Mark E.

Good overall video, but I spotted some mistakes so here are notes and corrections. 1:15 The tank was never known as the P26/40. It was called the P.75 in really early development, then Carro P., and finally P.40. I know you mention this later but might have been worth it at the start as well. 5:11 sort of, in the early '30s there were other companies developing armored vehicles (OTO, Moto Guzzi, Pavesi, Caproni) but they soon moved to other fields. This was potentially due to corruption and strategic division of armaments commissions. You have to consider all Italian armaments companies at the time, except Fiat, had been nationalized during the '20s following several financial crisis, and were controlled by assigned Fascist hierarchs. while all part of the same party, this created an intense fight for power among companies. There is a ton more to say, and this is just an incredibly short summary. 5:24 light tank, not tankette. Semantics but it is what it is, and the L stands for Leggero. 7:12 use of bolts was not in fact due lack of industrial base, as even the first SV33 series was partially welded. Ansaldo also experimented with a welded M13 turret, and was fully capable of producing a welded armored car in the Lince in 1943, as well as most of the casemate of the Semovente M43 105. The use of bolds was an economic choice by Ansaldo, taken after all other players quit the game and left them with a monopoly. Officially they managed to justify it saying it was so that damaged plates could be easily replaced even on the field. 7:56 the layout is certainly the same but the chassis is not. It is slightly enlarged, 10 cm wider, 20cm longer, the wheels are 5cm larger in diameter. 8:25 fun fact here, crew disliked the space the powered traverse took and removed them frequently, believing manual traverse was enough. 9:06 M15 was also never officially called such, since by the time of its introduction the naming scheme changed and it was officially adopted as the M42. 11:09 the events surrounding the mockups are not well known, and the most recent book by the best author on the matter states that both were made to Ansaldo specs, by the CSM (army institute), with 4 total designs submitted, 2 by each. The model chosen was the one with the driver on the side. 11:45 The tank was again not built on the same chassis. The tank is 50cm wider, 80cm longer, and uses roadwheels that are 7cm wider in diameter. 11:57 Just as an additional detail, relating to the previously mentioned lack of material on the mockups, some of the mockups sported a longer gun, some a shorter one, when looking at the 20mm gun for comparison. For example the two you show had a 75mm gun as long as the 20mm, while another mockup photographed alongside an M13 one showed a stubbier 75. A 1:10 model of by Ansaldo showed instead a 75 longer than the 20mm. 12:34 the T-34 studied in Italy had a much funnier story behind it. The Italian mission to Russia was in many ways under orders of the German command structure, which had granted Italian units possibility to keep captured material to replenish attrition. This did not include any material in excess of those strictly immediately necessary, which is the case for a tank sent back to the motherland. Somehow the T-34 still reached Italy in August 1942, and was studied there. In September 1942 General Rossi telegraphed the Italian High Command stating "The German side is incessantly and urgently asking for the T-34 back, necessary for armor penetration testing. They are open to leaving the engine system in Italy. We [Italy] need it as well, try asking to keep it entire and pay them instead." 13:15 again as at 7:12 13:28 Even the first specifications for the tank state 20-25t, potentially a highly optimistic range due to the then in service bridge tanks having a weight limit of 20t. Even as far back as the mockups the predicted weight was around 25t. And even before those, at least one of the projects that converged into the P40 (as mentioned the early phase is really lacking in documentation), was listed at 30t. 13:35 no P40 was equipped with the gasoline SPA 343 developing 420 hp. That was just a proposal. 13:48 This is not the second prototype, this is a production sample sent by the Germans to Germany after the armistice. The first prototype built with angled armor, which should be the second prototype in general, still retained a curved plate in front of the transmission area, sometimes photographed with a wooden mockup of the angled plates used in production. It's actually the one you shown the next. 14:21 turret traverse was still hydraulic, just electrically triggered. 14:34 Hadn't heard this before, and from the distant view of the Crusader cooling system I can see in some factory photos, I wouldn't say modeled after, but I can see how it has elements of it applied to the previous SPA 15TB equipping the M42. That one had radially expulsion air ducts as previous Italian tanks, while the P40 had curved ducts with air expelling axially. As far as I can see Crusader has two fans between the engine and transmission compartments, moving backwards and down. Not sure if ducts were present as the photos are mid production. Edit. I think with the help of Nicho we found the mistake, miscommunication. The system copied over from the Crusader were the air filters, that indeed look almost identical. For reference, look at the boxes at the rear corners on the mudguards on a Crusader, and the boxes on a P40 on the mudguards right behind the casemate. As for the cooling system itself, from some scale model interior set I see the radiators are put on the sides of the engine, similar to how they were on a KV or T-34, which is significantly different from the system on P40, that had radiators at the rear engine compartment roof vent, making it almost the same as previous Italian tanks in comparison. 15:02 P43 bis. P43 was the heavier project started in 1941. P43 was originally supposed to approximately copy the T-34, but the industry managed to convince the army an aviation engine like on the T-34 (according to them it was) was not adequate, especially not a diesel one. So the project redirected to wards improving the P40 with a gasoline engine. 15:56 I am not sure what to say here as I never heard of a P40bis, but I saw online stories about a P34/43, which is fake. I'll just report briefly what I know, there were side projects to P40, of which we know nothing other than the provisional names. These were the P40 Celere and the P40 Coloniale. It is possible the first was equipped with an uprated, and the second with a smaller gun, but these are just book authors speculations. The P43 bis was indeed intended to carry a 90mm gun derived from the 90/53 anti air gun, the 90/42. The shorter barrel was due to undersized recoil buffers to fit in the tank. A full size mockup was built and can be partially seen in one photo. There is a brief documented feedback on this mockup stating the driver position was questioned. As a note here, I 3D modeled the P43 bis from the available rough preliminary blueprints and I can see what they meant. The longer ammunition meant that the driver was moved forward and had less than half the space it had on the P40. I doubt the tank could have been driven in that state. A later revision to the blueprint shows the driver even further forward, presumably with legs going over the transmission-to-sprocket shaft instead of trying to fit behind it. 17:10 the project motivation for the Semovente 149 was to reduce the number of vehicles required to move the artillery, from several trucks moving a disassembled gun, to just one self propelled vehicle. 17:28 It was not built on the P40 hull. It used P40 hull parts, namely the suspension, but the base vehicle was custom built. It also used M tanks parts, it was initially meant to use the Sahariano engine but was eventually equipped with the 15TB of the M42. 18:33 by the armistice only 5 P40 had been built, and were assigned to training duties. 20:00 there is no documentation about P40 in use by Italian forces. The Leoncello commander states two were recovered from the factory in Milan but were abandoned a few days later to partisans. 20:20 Linking back to what I mentioned for 5:11, while the army was in charge of setting requirements, the head designer and Fossati plant manager at Ansaldo, Giuseppe Rossini, has a considerable amount of sway, as he in practice lead all Italian WW2 tank projects. We have a few written articles by his, and it is clear he preferred fast and hard to hit tanks (he literally describes the holy trinity of tank design, and states mobility is a form of protection) armed with MGs so to maximize volume of fire and hit chance. He also first states mountains are obviously a factor to Italian designs, but later denounces the myopic of the Italian authorities on the matters saying he never wanted to abide by those. 21:05 Rossini participated to an Italian tank designers expedition to Germany in July 1940, and later wrote one of the texts we have, in which he talks about the Panzer 4 calling it the German heavy tank. Evidently to him heavy tanks were infantry support tanks with large caliber guns. 21:23 AAAAHHHHHHH

I think one of my favorite parts of military is history is learning about the industrial logistics behind the weapons. Like why Italy's steel quality was what it was or why they couldn't weld their tanks together. It's things like that that you can really learn the core "why?" answers to design decisions and doctrines not to mention it brings up those questions to be asked of today's wars and weapons.

00:29 The Tiger wasnt designed to fight the T 34 it was designed to punch trough the front lines so light tank divisions could slip trouh and continue the advanche, than the tigers would have a long resting phase were they were repaired untill the next mission.

I mean… It’s not _REALLY_ cursed if you look at it, because it actually looks quite standard to be a tank during the time

I think most people laughing at Italy would not do better designing and producing tanks themselves. Then again, I think it all shows how much Italy was lacking in resources, development and in general industrialization.

The picture @ 14:55 where the p26 is standing beside the Jagdtiger is pure comedy gold

FIAT 3000 and 2000 are the best of Italian Tank Naming

A video of the Piyo Piyo, Annzu must be proud!

I like how Cone chan is studying the schematics of different cursed looking tanks, she's working hard.

Its funny how when, like in War Thunder, it's classed as a medium tank and put up against early war Shermans, T-34s and Panzer IVs, its a really good tank. A tank far past its time.

Tiger was absolutely NOT in any way, shape or form used to COUNTER ANY specific enemy tank. It was created as a BREAKTHROUGH tank. The fact that it was effective against T-34 was just a bonus extra. . Excellent detailing of the background for Italy's tank design ideas. . And what do i think of the P26? I think it had quite a lot of potential, none of which was ever realised.

When I saw this tank the first thing that come to my mind is the GLA's Scorpion Tank. Very good and fast tank (in the game).

Enjoyed the cameo by GundP’s Anchovy 😉😄

I learn so much from these videos about logistics. It never occurred to me about Italian industries limited in their abilities to produce tanks and having to use bolted construction. Size and weight limited by terrain and available engine size.

I'm a Artillerymen and when I went to Ft. Sill for training I visited the USAFAM multiple times, and when I saw the Semevonte 149/40, even at a distance I knew what it was and I blurted out loud "JESUS CHRIST ITS ITALIAN!"

“They were found to be unreliable due to their Fiat engines” Some things never change

when this came out in WT i was seeing a girl from italy .. so i started their tech tree and got the premium version. was good fun playing could bully others. i got to Ariete then split up now working on other tech trees hahaha

4:34 pronounced "Rèjo Esèrchito" for y'all Yankees

Italian engine design during the war was bizarre, reading the secret horsepower war book pre war they were making all sorts of engines especially for air racing. However during the war it was like they forgot all about engine development, literally never getting past pen and paper design for lots of them, most likely the reason why they had to use a maybach engine in their latter tanks.

So basically a pizza t34

That SPG looks pretty advanced for WWII

Fun fact: German heavy tanks such as the Tiger series were not built as a response to the soviet T34 tank. Hitler requested a heavy tank with the 88mm gun to be designed before operation Barbarossa and the encounters with the Soviet medium and heavy tanks. German tanks such as the Panzer III's, Panzer II's, and Panzer 38t were designed with speed and mobility in mind, which was great for the late 30s and early 40s, but there was a concern that they would struggle against new vehicles with heavier armor. This concern was confirmed when the common Panzer II's were put against the heavier T34's which had enough armor to lessen the effectiveness of the German guns, and held enough fire power to deal significant blows to the more maneuverable German panzers.

As an Italian I thought you had a stroke while trying to pronounce "Museo della motorizzazione militare"😂 Still, really a great video on a very interesting and not really well-known vehicle, well done

I love light tanks, and tankettes in particular. The Carro Veloce may be my all time favourite. So I have no disrespect whatsoever for Italian armour

I'll arguably say that the fins are more the butt to any joke do to the fact they are rarely ever mentioned. In history and war stories.

I like that all Italian tanks are basically bigger versions of themselves until they got their hands on T34s to study

One of my favorite Italian tanks in war thunder. It is very underrated. And if you play Sim, its armor can shrug off any number of sherman rounds. But in real life, italy really suffered with tanks. which is a shame. If only they were as good as their navy.

In Command & Conquer Generals, the Light Tank of the GLA was based on the P40.

shame the link doesn't add the skins and deco to existing players like those of other CC's

> Makes tanks specifically for use in the mountainous, snowy terrain of Central Europe. > Deploys them in the flat sandy deserts of North Africa instead.

Hearing you say "Cannone di 90/53" half in Italian and half in English made me laugh - mostly because I do the same thing. I can (mostly) read French and German, but if I hit numerals I reflexively switch back to English. Still, I think the ideal would be to pick one language, neh? Either translate the entire thing to "Cannon ninety / fifty-three" or stick to Italian with "Cannone di novanta / cinquantatre." In my opinion, that would sound more professional and be less jarring. (Jarring because the level of research and fidelity in your videos tends to be very high.)

17:07 Add a biggass frontal shield to that and it becomes a proto Basilisk from W40K.

The Carro Veloce L3/35 is my favourite tank of all time. It's an absolute beauty. I would love to have one. It's a personal dream of mine to get a replica made of one. Imagine zipping around on the farm in your mini tank, if I had one with a live armament it would have to be a single shot cannon or AT rifle for UK legal reasons not a MG, but I'm fine with that. Give me a copy of a 20mm autocannon which is a single shot. It's also one of the most practical tanks to own, it could fit in your garage or not attract attention under a tarp. I'd be ready to fight Libyans and Ethiopians in my baby death machine 😂

The Tiger was NOT developed to counter the T-34. Already in the late thirties, the German armed forces demanded a heavy breakthrough tank of more than 40 tonnes and with a heavy gun. This vehicle eventually became the Tiger. Although it was great at smashing T-34s under the right circumstances it was not originally intended as such.

The artillery park at Fort Sill is really cool.

The P26/40 wasn't a bad tank compared to the medium tanks of 1941-42, however as you said it was too little too late by 1943. Italy's lack of advanced industry and welding meant they couldn't follow the Allied strategy of producing a good enough tank in large quantities nor use quality to make up for a lack of quantity.

The only contemporary opponent that the P26/40 could effectively go up against was the M6 Heavy.

It weighs about the same as a M4 Sherman, more a medium tank. Italian tanks were called higher classes than they should be. The M13/41 series was comparable to the M3 Stuarts in size, weight and armament What was said of the Italian tank mechanics was different. They were stellar in their performance of keeping vehicles working. It’s just that they had to work on “sow’s ears” quality of tanks. The first M11’s were sent to Ethiopia/Abyssinia with terrible results. There were many steep ravines and ambushes on these convoys resulted in routs and destruction of these vehicles. “Iron Hulls Iron Hearts” by Ian W. Walker is a good reference especially on the Ariete Division the only operational Italian Armor Division in WWII.

Every time I see this tank, I can't help but think of Anchovy from GuP.

Generally the video is really good, but I've noticed few errors: 0:33 Idk where this myth originated, but Tiger had nothing to do with countering masses of Soviet tanks. Whole project started beofre the war and acted as mobile support/reserve on the battlefield, it was never supposed to be Germany's main vechicle. 5:19 You merged two different names here. Till 1938 these vechicles were called "Carro Veloce CV3", and after that year "Carro Armato L3/33, 35, 38". 7:55 M40 chassis was slightly different from previous one, main changes included idler and transmission section. 8:40 M13 wasn't as bad tank as often portrayed, it was pretty average. The main problem with Italian army in North Africa were their officers corps and logistics services, not vechicles themselves which were later used with successes untill the end of the campaign. 11:58 75/18 was howitzer, not a cannon. 12:32 Italians captured many Soviet vechicles themselves, one T-34 was even used as command vechicle of artillery squadron in Duca d'Aosta division. 15:00 P43 was vechicle projected almost parallel to P40, only major difference between them was better engine in P43. The so called "P43 bis" was improved version supposed to house propably 90/53 gun (as length of the barrel on vehicle's mockup would indicate) There was also 3rd P43 design derived from German Panther. 17:47 Actually 🤓 whole crew of the vechicle was protected, as cannon operators were considered separate artillerymen, transported by ammunition vechicle. 18:45 As far as I know none P40s were deployed by the Italian Army, as both heavy tank battalions didn't even begin training before the armistice. First of them started forming on 1st August 1943 and stationed far away from Rome (Varcelli) and 2nd beggined the process near Rome, but only on September 1st, so it remained mostly on paper. Later mentioned 2 P40s of the GC Leoncello were also never deployed by that unit, as it surrendered before they arrived. On the other hand at least one was used by Germans against Soviets near Kümmersdorf.

British and Russian designs incorporated...but not German?

With a huge delay Italy successfully achieved what can be only described as T-34 without most of its benefits and with most of its drawbacks plus some more.

🗣️: everyone the tank man has posted

I've been playing War Thunder for years. I went through the entire US aircraft tree back when the F-86 Sabre was the top dog. I didn't spend a dime on that game until I finished my first line

Mamma mia thats a spicy meatball

I think you got that wrong on Tiger. Tiger 1, at least. Tiger 1 was intended as a breakthrough tank from the start. Durchbruchwagon program predates any knowledge of the T-34 and if I remember my Panzerwaffe doctrine, practise. Tiger is an offshoot, outreach of that program. The heavy tank broke the lines for the medium tanks, lighter tanks to get then go through and exploit. They weren't meant to be specifically anti-tank. I can't think of the exact break up of each unit was, but I have a feeling each gruppe was meant to have at least one heavy tank section, company attached to it for the break through. Time to check my sources and maybe have a word with Nick Moran.

Interesting as always. Glad to see that business (and content) is back to usual after the long drama.

Riveted plates, ouch! The SPAWLING from those rivets exploding apart inside would be obliterating to the crew..😮

I love the P.40 so much (mostly because it is an absolute monster in war thunder but shhh its still cool)

Italian Tank: 🫤 Anchovy: OOOOHHHHHH!😱

I have a weird soft spot for Italian tank design during WW2, and the 26/40 is my favourite tanknof the war due to that soft spot. There's just something about the general inadequacy of most of their designs that I find charming.

Ahhh the Piyo-Piyo, as Anzu called it 😂😂😂😂

I gotta say I like it a lot I have a model of it. It does seem more like a heavy medium than a true heavy. If it had appeared a few years earlier, it surely would have been a more effective weapon. It appeared in Girls und Panzer as well where I learned about its existence. I'm a big fan of it's looks too, it looks a bit chubby, but I like it.

I penned one of these from the front in warthunder and I was like wtf? Then I looked it up and I was like ohhh, it’s Italian.

Thank you for focusing on other countries! People forget everyone made tanks according to the needs of that country.

Bruh is this thing gonna fire hardened pasta and meatballs at me lol

I have to wonder how the initial prototype with the 75/18 would have fared if introduced into service. No doubt it would have been worse performing but considering how the P40 was only just going into production when Italy surrendered, I feel like the intital prototype would have done far better just because it could have gone into production a year or more earlier while most alled tanks still had 40mm guns. Then again production might have been delayed just in time for it enter service as Sherman's began to be introduced and would easily outclass it, so maybe it would still have not had much affect on the war.

Ansaldo manufactured the most reliable reverse gearboxes for tanks in WW2.

Despite the italian tank jokes, this is still one of the most beautiful tanks that came from ww2 in my eyes

That tank is one of the rare Italian tanks that are FUN to Play

Could you do a video on Soviet Objekt tanks that are less well known?

We was like 'italy go home we dont take u seriously at all'😂😂

Pizza tonk

Had they actually been able to get this tank in the production earlier it might have been equal to what was currently on the battlefield. The long process to get it built definitely made it outdated before the first one ever rolled off the assembly line. My other takeaway is about Fiat. Even back then they had engines that fell apart and vehicles that fell apart and required frequent maintenance. During the '70s my dad bought a Fiat 128 sedan. For the first 14,000 miles it was the sweetest running most comfortable car he had ever owned. Then it became a fiat. First the motor conked out and actually it was just past the warranty period. When it suffered a broken timing belt and hosed itself. The dealership where he bought it was owned by a close friend that friend was able to get Fiat to replace the engine under warranty even though it was technically out of warranty. The timing belt was still within the recommended period of operation and was not yet due for major service. So Fiat replaced it. After he got that fixed literally every other month something else broke on it. Fast forward to modern day Fiats. My nephew got one of the little 500 sedans when they came out. A cute little car but the engine had nothing but issues. I guess that's what you expect if you have something that has the name of Fiat tacked on it. Whether it be a tank or a car.

Will watch after my exam

0:25 can we just take a second to appreciate how sexy and mean and tough that Super Pershing looks? 👌🏻

First

10:45 My hands are helicopter, your argument is invalid!

The Waffle House has found it’s new host

Correction; Italy was on vanguard of automotive technology.

21:23 amazing pronunciation bro 💪🏻👍🏻