Why were Italian Tanks so bad? (World War II)

While the Italian Army tank crews of World War II were undoubtedly brave in combat, they lacked decent, modern day equipment and were hampered by extremely poor leadership.

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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script: Conan White
Narrator:

Bryan 'Lazlo' Beauregard

Animation: Maja Djokic

Music Credit:

Sources:

Books
Italian Medium Tanks 1939-45 by F. Cappellano & P.P. Battistelli
Copyright 2012 Osprey Publishing Ltd.

Italian Light Tanks 1919-45 by F Cappellano & P.P. Battistelli Copyright 2012 Osprey Publishing Ltd.

The Italian Army in North Africa by Walter S. Zapotoczny Copyright 2018

Iron Arm - The Mechanization of Mussolini’s Army 1920-1940 by John Joseph Timothy Sweet Copyright 1980

The Italian Army 1940-45 : Africa 1940-43 by Philip Jowett
Publisher Bloomsbury USA 2001

[ComicalRealm]

Jesus, imagine being a young Italian man who enlists with the promise of glory and conquest and they stick you in a go-kart with sheet metal riveted on...

[cannonball]

Italian tanker: "Can you fix my tank?"
"Nope. Try the Fiat dealership in Palermo"

[vincenzochianese]

When FIAT cars are more effective tanks than FIAT tanks

[DementedDaedric]

Imagine being a german tank commander in your shiny Panzer, then suddenly this office chair with tracks and styrofoam armour rolls up next to you like "Hey wassup, Nice tank ye?"

[vasilisgm]

The thing is, when the Italians used these tanks against the Greeks to NO great capacity and abandoned them, the Greeks just hauled them on the road, fixed them, and used it against the Italians! Unbelievable.

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

"In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy"

- Giovanni Boccaccio

[chgaming]

Italian tank designer: **slaps roof of the tank**
The tank: **combust into flames**

[Tiberius_I]

Another factor that is not often mentioned, regarding how the Axis manufactured war goods is this: The Italians (and to a lesser extent the Germans) had a self-inflicted handicap that made itself apparent, as soon as the war dragged on after 1940. Italian manufacturing was good at making high-quality goods, using slow hand-crafted techniques - but they could only make a few of them. The Italians had a long tradition of making finely made products (one of the oldest companies is Beretta Firearms, that have been making guns since the 17th century, for instance). This craftsman tradition meant that while goods would be finely made, they could not make many of them, since they were slow to produce but the Italians suffered worse shortages of resources than even the Germans did. Naturally such methods were completely unsuited to a world war, where the numbers needed of guns and bullets alone were measured in the millions or billions. It also meant Italy was slow to modernize designs and, except for a few excellent aircraft types, the Italian army was stuck with too many obsolete small arms, machine guns, and tanks and too many ammo types, that had no commonality with their German allies.

[yader]

my grandfather drove the cv 33 in ww2, he told me that even when a small shot reached him the bolts that held the plates together jumped. he lost an eye for the splinters.

[erikjimenez]

The problem was that the Italians had we fought the war syndrome just like every Main land European nation had. The Italian battled in the mountains during the first war so they made their tanks accessible to fight in the Alps or Rocky terrain. It didn’t help the Italians one bit because the whole country wasn’t industrialize to fight a mobile war.

[Thethblock]

"when i joined the corps, we didn't have any good tanks like the Ariete! we had sticks, two sticks and a rock for the whole platoon, and we preferred the rock over the tank!"

[jamesp]

It would also be important to mention the mountainous terrain of the Italian country side as well and narrow roads for why they mostly produced light and medium tanks and almost no heavy tanks. decent versions were in the pipeline but surrender ended those projects.

[Mrkabrat]

"The risk we took was calculated. But boy do we suck at math" Italian tank designers

[bubbyscott]

It sounds like Italians are playing free to play while everyone else is playing pay-to-win

[Doyle_Custom_Superevents]

World: Did you make a good tank?
Italy: Yes.
World: What did it cost?
Italy: Dignity, pride and a war.

[randomexcessmemories]

It is really interesting to look at the prototypes Italy had in the works during the war. The P40 and P43 were medium/heavy tanks which carried 75mm or 90mm guns respectively. They were designed to counter the Sherman and other similarly sized allied tanks, and would have been incredibly powerful had they come to fruition. Additionally, the Italian Panther would have been an interesting product, as the Italians only negotiated for the license to produce the tank, not the armament or propulsion. This means that it could have been an almost new vehicle with a 75 or even 90mm gun, local 7.7mm or 6.5mm machine guns, and a local engine, along with subtle design differences. Imagine a Panther armed with the 90/53 gun!

[deadlockraven]

I was so confused why there were people who were here a week ago but then I forgot about Early Access members. Good reward for being a member.

[blitzzkrieg]

Bob Semple tank: "Finally, some worthy opponents."

[boomervibes]

I mean you won’t feel like a real tank commander considering you’re sitting in a gaming chair but in a tank it’s extremely hot and cramped

[claudiograssi]

I don't argue on the poor quality of the italian tanks. But when I hear that italian tanks had one gear forward and four reverse I think that you should study the battle of El Alamain where the Ariete division was totally destroyed. They fought up to the end and sacrificed themselves, even if inferior in quality. Respect to them.