Fiat 2000
| Fiat 2000 | |
|---|---|
Fiat 2000, probably around 1920 |
|
| General properties | |
| crew | 10 |
| length | 7.40 m |
| width | 3.10 m |
| height | 3.80 m |
| Dimensions | 40 t |
| Armor and armament | |
| Armor | 15-20 mm |
| Main armament | 1 on-board cannon 65 mm L / 17 |
| Secondary armament | 7 machine guns 6.5 mm |
| agility | |
| drive | Fiat A12 177 kW (240 PS) |
| Top speed | 7 km / h (road) |
| Power / weight | 4.4 kW / t (6.0 HP / t) |
| Range | 75 km |
The Fiat 2000 was a heavy Italian tank from the First World War .
history
Due to the first use of British tanks in the Battle of the Somme (September 15, 1916), officials in Italy began to be cautiously interested in this new military equipment. Doubts about its usability on the mountain front, unclear ideas about the general operational principles as well as logistical and financial problems caused various projects in this context to come to nothing.
At the beginning of 1917 the artillery captain Alfredo Bennicelli received the order to go to Flanders and observe the operations of British and French tanks there. Bennicelli later led the establishment of the Italian armored force and is now considered its founder. Shortly after Bennicelli's visit to Flanders, France provided Italy with a Schneider CA1 tank for testing purposes. Since the tests in northern Italy showed good results, further armored vehicles were to be procured in 1917, but this was initially rejected by the French because of the critical military situation on the western front. In 1918, a second Schneider CA1 and three Renault FT were put into service, with which a test and training unit was set up in Verona on September 1, 1918 .
Since 1915 there were some private projects for the construction of armored vehicles in Italy. Fiat began its first studies in 1916, which led to the construction of the first prototype of the Fiat 2000 (Mod. 17) in 1917 , to which a second prototype (Mod. 18) was added in early 1918. These two 40-ton tanks, built by Fiat in-house, were taken over by the Italian army and, together with the existing French tanks, formed the basis of the first Italian tank unit in Verona . In 1919, four more were added to the two Fiat 2000s. In the same year, among other things, two Fiat 2000s were used in Libya against insurgent Senussi . In the years that followed, the focus was on building the much lighter Fiat 3000 , which was the Italian version of the Renault FT . The last Fiat 2000 was decommissioned in Bologna in 1934 .
The Fiat 2000 was the first Italian armored fighting vehicle and the heaviest tank of its time.
Web links
- Tanks in Italian service until 1943 (English)
- Overview of the Italian armored forces until 1943 (English)