The Story of Italy's Killdozer | Cursed by Design

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They may already have the Tonk, but Italy also has their own version of the infamous Killdozer. Today we look at the Tanko and Tanko II and their creation.

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1997 Tanko:

2014 Tanko II:

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#cursedbydesign #italy

[ConeOfArc]

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[stirfrywok]

I absolutely love the finish these guys put on their vehicles. Clean welds, symmetry, cool paint job and even pioneering tools attached! I bet they had great fun designing and building them.

[FilippoFontanella]

Just some points to add:
1) Yes, the cannon on the Italian killdozer was functional, the media reported it from an interview with one of the activists, they tried it and they also made some other working prototypes, which were also of different calibers.
2) the Carabinieri is not police, or better, it is both a military police and a paramilitary force, in fact it is also part of the armed/defense forces of Italy with the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Guardia di Finanza (for y’all from the US, the last one is much like DEA and US Customs and Border Prot., but a Gendarmerie, so they also took part in defense capabilities of the state). The ROS Carabinieri you see imprinted on some videos of the Killdozer is the Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (Special Operations Group) responsible for counter terrorism (both internal and external) as well as other types of dangerous crimes like the ones of the biggest criminal organizations.
3) No, apparently there was no proof that they copied and pasted the concept of Meyer’s Killdozer, even tho back then, I do remember reading something about it from a Colonel of the Carabinieri. My point is, considering the feasibility of doing it, many people that seek to build an improvised armor, end up with a tractor, a bulldozer or a heavy weight truck, and that brings us to the high probability that they will all end up to be similar looking.
Apart from this, super interesting video from an outsider’s point of view!

[demnchild]

The story of the killdozer(Colorado) is actually really sad people will look at him negatively but the people who drove him that far are the real monsters

[TheSlamburger]

Someone needs to create a simulated showdown between this and the Killdozer.

[korbell]

Chief Inspector: "Okay, we'll go in an confiscate the tank and then..."

assistant: "Destroy it?"

Chief Inspector: "No no, we sell it back to them, that way instead of buying two tanks, they buy one tank twice!"

12mm CANNON? Talk about delusions of grandeur!

[cropathfinder]

i recently recalled that there was something similar in serbia where a group was planning to create another "killdozer" but they didn't get far before they were discovered, i do recall that they had procured some serious hardware including a GSh-23 cannon from a mig-21 or hind (reports differed) which by the time police caught them was modified to use on a ground mount. If i recall correctly this was why they were eventually got them caught as a inventory discrepancy caused a investigation that tracked it to the group. This was in the 2000s so i found it hard to find any information digitally where i am but maybe someone who is in serbia might be able to look it up via news archives.

[apertureemployee]

The tanko sold for less than 6000$? That’s a pretty good deal for any used truck, let alone an armored ome

[Mr_Bunk]

To be honest, the story of the Tanko I is far more interesting than the Tanko II, with the former seeing action in Venice and the other being captured before completion.

[casematecardinal]

They may claim to not be Italian but its pretty damn Italian to even make their homemade armored bulldozer look professional and clean.

[richardm]

The Italians were by far the best dressed and most stylish "killdozer" builders.

[paulosborne]

I think videos on this sort of improvised AFV are every bit as valid as those on actual military prototypes / production models... The politics behind them are historical context, the actual vehicles - whether Middle Eastern IEVs, KillDozers or whatever... are interesting from a technical / practical point of view. Just like the Bob Semple Tank, or the myriad of 'Technicals' now being posted all over Reddit... A stripped out Hummer, with a ZPU-23-2 AA gun on the back is crazy-cool and interesting, whether it is ISIS or made for TV by MacGyver.

[WFASPigeonGang]

Hey, a random venetian there to say a few things:
- Even tought you call it "killdozer" to let the audicence imagine about the video's argument, it's formal name is "nuovo tanko" aka new tanko.
- The Carabinieri are theoretically police but in fact they're a military branch with miscellaneous types of tasks (both military and civilian ones). Funnily enought even tought they're considered more of a public order force than a military one they're larger in number respect the normal police forces.
- The "Serenissimi" term is originated by the "Most Serene" title that the thousand years long republic of Venice internationally gained due to the republic's political stability.
- Even tought the venetian indipendentist cause revamped during the 70' (after the Veneto's economic boom) it is much older, since it originally was born shortly after the Veneto's conquest of Napoleon and continued until the disputed annexation to Italy, that caused a mass immigration to south america and widespread poverty. It was renewed after the 70' because Veneto quickly recovered from the war and rapidly switched from a mass agricultural area to a mass industrial area, becoming one of the richest and most productive lands of the peninsula with Lombardia and Piemonte. That being said, the venetians started to suffer more and more the ineffective centralization of the peninsula and the money wasted into helping the south of the peninsula.
- Their action gained the effect that the indipendentists desired: soon after the 1997 events various nordist political parties started to fight for the autonomy and the indipendence of the whole north that culminated in the referendums for the Lombardy and Veneto autonomy (99% yes with almost 60% affluence in Veneto, a 98% yes with 35% of affluence in Lombardy).

[mattwilliams]

Amazing fabrication, and of course for Italian vehicles they also had to be aesthetically pleasing.
That base truck is interesting as well. I’d never seen a commercial truck with that axle and steering layout.

[riccardobalbo]

I'm italian and it's the first time I see the videos of the tanko moving! I wasn' expecting to see a video on it and as always you did a great job

[adrianzanoli]

9:05 in the background U can see a Fiat Punto (199 or Mk2) from 1999. So definetly this is a video took after the 1997 event.

[samwill]

Is venetian separatism even that much of a popular idea? I've never talked to any Italians about this but I didn't think that THAT would be the nationalistic schism they were dealing with when Sicily and Sardinia are right there.

From everything I've read, North Italian culture is ALREADY given a HUGE leg up in the Italian nation, so why would Venetians want to leave a system that already favors them?

[NonkelGans]

Killdozer, never forgotten, his spirit lives on.

[cheecheneg]

“All we did was make a bulldozer a bit sturdier”
Lol

[JGCR]

It is not the italian Killdozer but the decidedly Venetian Killdozer :) That's the whole point of the thing