Carro Veloce L.3/33 Series II Italian tankette

Two man Carro Veloce L.3/33 Light tank. The driver is seated on the right hand side, and a gunner on the left. The gunner would have used twin machine guns (probably 8mm Fiat 14/35 machine guns with spade grips, although later models also used Breda 8mm guns) mounted in a gimballed side-by-side mount. The mount on this example is able to traverse, but is locked in its verical travel. The machine guns are not present. Normally, the guns would have been fed from 80 round spools mounted below the guns, with fixed stowage inside the tankette for 29 spools, and another 10 spools loose. The driver's forward visor is missing. The tankette is also missing its engine controls and both seats, and the periscope fittings on both driver's hatch and gunner's hatch are missing. Both left and right hand mud-guards are missing. To the rear of the crew compartment above the tracks are mounted two supports for spare bogies. Neither spare bogie is present. The armour consists of flat plates, rivetted together over angle iron supports. The rivets are largely countersunk, with flush heads.

The tankette is powered by a 4 cylinder 2.7 litre petrol engine, with 4 forward and one reverse gear, with front drive sprocket. The vehicle has a semi circular radiator, with the fan mounted centrally. The suspension is articulated, on the Carden Lloyd principle. This example has a separate track tension wheel in front of the idler, marking it as a Series II. The suspension is fitted with a 50mm strip of acacia wood in place of return track rollers.

The vehicle is painted in a post-war applied mottled sand finish, with a white crew compartment. Engine is painted in a light grey.

These vehicles were used extensively by the Italian army in its campaigns in Ethiopia, Spain, North Africa, East Africa, Albania and Greece before and during the Second World War. Numerous examples were captured by the AIF in North Africa, and the type was also exported to numerous countries. This example is on loan from the Canadian War museum, but its exact provenance is subject to on-going research.

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